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So yesterday we awoke early for us and went to have breakfast at 8:30am oh the life of the hardy traveller.... he he he so continental breakfast here consists of the following delicacies fried toast, a barely cooked egg (not Karls favourite) and butter with jam. After breakfast we went and looked at the parade that awoke us at 8:00 in the morning, it was mainly schools marching as well as Navy, and other Armed services, it was some sort of national day which meant that the streets were all closed and we could walk around without fear of being run over. Following our little excursion we headed back to the Hostel where we paid, packed up, asked for directions and let the adventure begin.
After getting off the public transport system on the correct street, we walked aimlessly until we arrive accross an 8 lane road wondering how on earth we were going to navigate across it only to realise that we were actually on the correct side right infront of the company we wanted to go to... Lucky or what! Our bus trip took just over 4 hours and the seats were meant to be comfortable but every one here is quite small, so the seating is sized accordingly, so Karl has sore knees every time he sits down.
We caught a taxis from the bus stop into the town of Pisco, here's some background about Pisco - it was hit by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in 2007 killing over 600 people in this town. Pisco has a small economy and with the amount of people is ill equiped to handle the recovery from this natural disaster. So it has taken quite some time for it to get back to any form of normalcy. We were adequately warned that it has a high amount of crime for Peru (because of the economic downturn around the earthquake, apparently it wasn't like that before). However everyone gets paid on the 15th of every month so we are lucky in the fact that we are here on a weekend around the 15th and so therefore people have other things on their mind. There are a few hotels around the place, there is 1 supermarket (which is good but to expensive for most locals) and 2 smaller corner type stores (where most stuff is almost past the due date). There are very few "cheap" food places like there were in Lima. However we found a good one that even presents the food like a restaurant would back home - it was Awesome! We negotiated our tour for the next day as well which took a lot of effort on Jane's behalf as we visited 3 stores heard the same speel and really couldnt differentiate between any of them. Jane made the executive decision to not go with the more experienced, lonely planet listed, expensive option. but to go with the newest kid on the block.
Jane's decision paid off as they really are pretty much all the same (and we saved ourselvs $15!). All have giant speed boats and all have an english speaking guide, much to Karl's delight and Jane's delight as well as she didnt need to explain as much! So the tour through the national reserve consited of a 2 hour boat tour in the morning and a bus tour to the Paracas Reserve in the afternoon. The boat tour first off was visiting the candelabra sculpture - which is a pre-spanish drawing on the side of a cliff face in the bay that looks roughly like a candelabra - the guide quoted it as being 50m tall and 30m wide!! We will see more of these lines next up in Nazca! After this we went to the Isla Ballests. The islas are touted as the 'poor man's galapagos' and it was pretty cool. They're islands that are off limits to people and for hundreads of years the indigenous people have been collecting the bird droppings to use as fertiliser! It's such good fertiliser that after their war with Chile the 'guano' (bird poop) paid off Peru's national debt! We think it's fair to say that we saw over 10 thousand birds today - at least 6 species, penguins, pelicans, boobies, seagulls, cormorants and sparrow type bird. There's also sea lions, turtles and dolphins too! But we just saw the sea lions - they were pretty happy with the attention and seemed to be enjoying being centre stage!
Then onwards to the Reserve to the sand dune bus tour which took us to a museum on the reserve which was actually very informative and new looking. There was also a short walk where we could see flamingos! Then on to see some of the sights of the reserve some the first of which was the Cathedral - a rock formation that is an arch out from the cliff face to a rock pillar in the ocean. Sandly the arch was destroyed by the earth quake. The Photo above was taken at the stop for the Cathedral.
Jane was super impressed by the expanse of the place - so much desert and not a thing growing! Apparently they have less than 2cms of rain in the Paracas region a year - their is some irrigation through an underground water. The cliffs are almost at right angles with the ocean - and the cliff faces go for kilometers. It is just stunning scenery!
After the cathedral we went to Playa Roja - meaning Red Beach in English. Playa Roja got its name because of the iron ore (?) that errodes from the cliff face into the ocean and gets washed up on shore. A very pretty beach which is also a mating ground for some of the birds.
Then they took us for a lunch break at a pretty little bay. We had been forewarned that the restaurants there were pricy (trapped tourists!) and so we brough our own. Jane relaxed for a while and people watched while Karl explored the area and got some great photos!
This evening we have had a nice night - we met two german sisters who're traveling Peru and Ecuador so went out for a local beer (for Karl) and pisco sour (for Jane). Pisco sour is a coctail they make around here with a grape liquor - as the name suggests it's quite sour, but pretty good. Apparenty the local beer that Karl tried was much better than he anticipated too!
Tomorrow we are of to Nazca where we will see massive drawings on the side of the hills drawn by the Inca. Looking foward to it!
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Amy Awesome! What an adventure.