Our last port before departure was Paracas. It is a small fishing village that has turned into beach resort town known as Peru’s best wild-life watching destination. It is the gateway to Isla Ballestas, ‘the poor man’s Galapagos Island.’ We took a tour in a large speedboat to see hundreds, make that thousands of Humboldt penguins, seals, sea lions, and birds.
We saw hundreds of groups of guano birds. Guano is the accumulated excrement of these birds. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer. It is harvested from these islands every six years. Not a job I would EVER want to do.
There are also hundreds of very noisy sea lions.
During our Paracas sea tour, we got to see one of Peru’s Nazca-like Lines called the Candelabra. This geoglyphs is similar to those at Nazca, it’s shaped like a cool cactus
After the boat tour, we spent a little time walking the waterfront boardwalk. It was lined with little shops. These kids played while mom and dad ran the shop. Every day is going to work with your parent day.
Precious stones and shells are sold all over South America and yes I did bring home a few.
After a quick shopping stop we drove to The Paracas National Reserve it is spread over 827,450 acres.
This place was striking! Playa Roja had gorgeous blue waters and contrasting red beaches. Overall this port was more interesting than I expected.
