We took a day bus to get from Lima to Paracas as it only takes a few hours. We travelled with Cruz del Sur, which are in my opinion the best bus company to travel with in Peru, although probably a little more expensive than other companies. We arrived in Paracas late afternoon, and we were greeted by a local boy. We thought he'd come to meet us from the bus to take us to the hostel, as he said he worked for Hostel Kokopeli, which is where we were staying. However I came to the conclusion that he just met us off the bus to try and sell us a tour, as he took us into his office while we were walking to the hostel. We politely said we'd come and see him if we wanted to book any tours and he showed us to the hostel. He was chatting to me in Spanish all the way from the bus to the hostel, so it was good practise for me I suppose!

The only reason for coming to Paracas is because i'd heard they have some off-shore islands called the Ballestas Islands, which are kind of like the Galápagos . Although we've been to the Galápagos, I like seeing wildlife, so it may be no comparison to those islands, but I was interested to come here all the same. We also were told that you can do sandboarding and dune buggying, so we thought we could do both of these things from here. As we'd stayed in the Kokopeli Hostel in Lima, they were promoting the new Kokopeli in Paracas, which has only been open less than 2 months. They were giving a 20% discount, so when we found out that the tours of the Ballestas Islands depart from Paracas, we decided to come and stay here. The hostel has a pool area and a big bar with hammocks and chill out areas, and fuse and pool tables, so it has a lot to offer. Our room was overlooking the pool and we had deck chairs right outside the room. Another good thing about the hostel is that it was right on the beach, so just beyond the bar and restaurant, you could walk out to the sea.

Paracas is a small little coastal place, whereby the desert sits just beyond the area. It's strange to think there can be a desert near a beach, but driving here by bus, once you get outside Lima, you head into the desert terrain. We booked 4 nights here, but now we're here, I think that might be too many days! So by the time we'd settled into our room and had a walk around it was getting dark, so we ate in the restaurant next door, which was run by an American guy, good burgers and pizza and one local Peruvian dish of the day . It was convenience food really, but good all the same. I had some dessert called happy cake which was basically a banana cake which had chocolate sauce in the shape of a smiley face!

The next morning we wanted to find out a bit more about the tour agencies and boats that run to the Ballestas Islands, prices and departure times etc. We walked around the whole of Paracas in about 20 minutes and got some quotes. I felt guilty, but we weren't going to book it with the guy who'd walked with us from the bus stop. We got hassled by all the locals a bit so once we had a few quotes, we went back to the hostel to get their price and they seemed to be cheaper than most, so we decided to book it with them. It was around $30 soles per person and that was for a 2 hour boat trip around the Islands. We booked that for tomorrow, so we can relax for the rest of the day. What we did also find out was that it's best not to do sand boarding from here, but to go directly to Huachino as it's cheaper and much more fun doing it from there. You could also do mountain biking around the desert, or take a tour bus, but we just opted for the Ballestas Islands boat trip. The desert here has been declared as part of a national reserve and has vast amounts of sand, but it's suppose to be nicer in Huachino, so we'll see the desert there.

Paracas is an up and coming destination, it's fairly small and it mainly caters for tourism . There are many restaurants, cafes and lots of artesanal shops, and a handful of hostels. There are also lots of tour companies selling boat trips to the Islands. It's a cool little place and I don't think it's too overrun by tourism yet, but give it about 10 years and I think it will be a lot more developed and full of tourists. There are quite a few plots of land on the beach, so I reckon more hostels and restaurants are bound to be built. We walked along the beach and there are local fisherman who coax the pelicans on to the beach by feeding them fish. It certainly works, as most of the time, there are quite a few pelicans on the beach. The locals play it well, as they give you the fish to feed to them, tell you to take pictures, and then want paying money for the pleasure of having smelly fingers for feeding them fish! I stupidly fed them and had to pay up afterwards! There are also other sea birds around Paracas but luckily, no seagulls in sight. We left and went back to relax at the hostel and had some dinner and drinks in the bar . We had pisco sour, but it was a new barman and his first time making it, so I don't think he made it quite right. Well I didn't like it this time, so perhaps he didn't get the quantities right. It was too strong for me, so John had the rest of mine. We have an early rise tomorrow, so we went back to the room to sort out our things.

The Boat Ride

We woke up early, had breakfast and we were to be picked up by our tour guide outside the hostel at 10am. There were another couple waiting in the lobby, who were also taking the tour. The guide came to pick us up just after 10am and walked with us to the port. We had to wait in a queue for a while and had to pay an entrance fee on to the pier which was $10 soles for us both. John only had a $50 note, but of course when we tried to pay with this, they had to go and find change from somewhere. The couple who were waiting to go on the boat from the hostel offered to lend us the right notes, which was kind, but luckily they managed to find some change for us . We started chatting to the couple who offered us to borrow the right change, they were from Birmingham and had just come back from hiking the inca trail. They booked it with Peru treks, who we've booked with, and said they could thoroughly recommend them. This was good news to hear as we're going on the same trek in a few weeks. They gave us some advice about the trek and told us what it's like on the 4 day hike. After about half an hour waiting, they called us up to the dock, so we all started to board the boat. It was a motorboat that we took and they told us to warp up warm as we'll be travelling quite fast and it was an open boat with no roof to protect us from the elements. We started sailing and they told us it was going to take around 40 minutes to get there. The boat took off and went quite quick, once we were in open water, the sea became really choppy and the waves were huge. We are in the open Pacific Ocean, so I guess it's to be expected. We were lucky to be sitting nearer the front of the boat, which was because people who were sat at the back, got drenched by the water coming aboard the boat!

The Candelabra

While on route to the Ballestas Islands our guide pointed out the candelabra to us, which is a large candlestick etched into a sloping hill on the bay of Paracas, hence the name "The candelabra of the Andes" . The candelabra is 595 feet long and can be seen from as far as 12 miles out to sea. Local tradition states that the candelabra represents a lightening rod, or staff of the god Viracocha, who was worshipped throughout South America. Some myths have also arisen, one associates it with Jose de San Martin, the other suggests that sailors created it as a sign of landfall a few miles away from the shoreline. Apparently, there isn't any connection between the candelabra and the Nasca lines. The candelabra is believed to have been made by the Paracas people in around 200BC, however nobody knows the truth about how it got there.

Ballestas Islands

So after the 40 minutes of rocking in the boat was up, we had finally arrived at our destination, the national reserve of the Ballestas Islands. The so called islands are a group of Islands on the South coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean. The Islands have been eroded to form natural caves and arches and are pretty impressive rock formations if you ask me . I actually preferred some of these shaped rocks to those on the Galápagos Islands. The name of the Islands is so called due to the rock formations, the word 'Ballesta' means bow as in archery. As the Islands have been declared a wildlife reserve, you're not allowed to set foot on them, so you can only take a 2 hour boat ride around them. There is a solitary man who lives on the island to patrol them and protect the animal species that live here. The Islands are home to a great variety of wildlife, ones that reside here include; Humboldt Penguins, Blue Footed Boobies, Pelicans, Cormorants of the flying type, unlike ones we saw in the Galápagos, Flamingos, Guanos and of course the Sea Lions. As we've been lucky enough to visit the Galápagos Islands, I wasn't too bothered of we didn't get to see all of those species, but it would be good to see some Humboldt Penguins. The captain turned off the engine as we approached the Islands, so not to scare the wildlife away. Most of the Islands are all just rock formations with thousands of seabirds flocking around them. There seemed to be many more birds in one place than we had seen in the Galápagos. However we didn't visit the island of Genovosa, which is suppose to have around a million seabirds. We approached close to the islands so we we could take a look at the bird colonies that live here. I could see loads of penguins, pelicans and plenty of blue footed boobies, but no flamingos were in sight. We stopped at a few different rock formations for a few minutes at a time and next up saw some sea lions, but as we'd been spoilt on the Galápagos with seeing so many, they didn't interest me too much . It was actually quite annoying on the boat as everyone kept standing up and I couldn't actually see much over them or take many good photos, but I didn't mind as I'd seen so much in the Galápagos. The guide didn't really explain much about what species of birds we'd seen or much about the wildlife at all, I guess this just isn't like the Galápagos really! What he guide did tell us was that the locals collect the droppings from the birds a few times a year and they get exported as fertiliser, so it's a source of income for them. We carried on around some more rock formations and some of them are so jagged they looked really cool. We also passed through a tunnel which you have to make a wish whilst going through as it's suppose to be good luck. When we carried on around the corner, we saw some cormorant birds, which are the flying type and I was glad to be able to compare these to their Galápagos relatives, the flightless cormorant. The Islands and cliffs are a rocky paradise for the wildlife species that live here. I enjoyed our time on the islands, although short but sweet. We only spent an hour circling them when we had to return to Paracas. I think an hour is not enough to fully appreciate and take in your surroundings on these Islands, you should at least have a full day tour exploring them, but it's only 2 hours, and most of that is travelling time. We said our farewells to the islands, so the captain sped up the boat and hit the rough seas of the Pacific. On the return journey, I wasn't so lucky as I got drenched by the waves! It was so windy coming back, I just wanted to return back to dry land once more .

Once we'd returned back to dry land, we went back to the hostel to have some lunch. The Birmingham couple are also staying here, so we all sat together to have lunch and chatted for the afternoon. After lunch we had some researching to do about Huachino, so we went inside to do this for a few hours. Later that evening we went out to find somewhere for dinner. It was a pizza place that got rated well on trip advisor, so we went there. The couple we'd met said they would be up for drinks later, so we agreed. We had dinner and returned to the hostel and said for them to knock for us if they wanted to have drinks. They were staying in the room next door to us. We waited in for them and it got to about 10.30pm, so I guessed they wouldn't be knocking for us any time soon. We went to bed soon after as we were tired.

Today was our last full day, and to be honest we could have done with leaving today. I think 3 days is definitely more than enough time in this place! We decided to go in the pool today as we've not been in it yet . We sunbathed outside the room for a bit and when it got too hot, John went in the pool first and said it was freezing! I tempted it and took a while to adjust to the temperature, but once in, it's not too bad. We saw the couple who were on our tour and they were leaving today. They apologised for not coming out for drinks, but said they were too tired, but it suited me not going out anyway. We said goodbye to them and wished them safe journey home as they only took a holiday to Peru and had to get back to work. We took some lunch and decided to take a walk down to the other end of the beach we hadn't yet visited. On the way we came across a brand new block of plush rental apartments that had only just been built for tourism. It was like an exclusive 5 star resort, there were a couple of infinity pools, lounge beds and comfy sun loungers and it's own private beach. I reckon this will be really nice once open, but I'm wondering what kind of people they are trying to attract here in the small seaside place of Paracas. We carried on walking round until we reached as far as we could go and headed back to the hostel. We packed our stuff up as we're leaving to go to catch a bus to Ica tomorrow.