Wee took a bus south to Pisco, but during the ride from the Pan Americana to the town we learned that there is not much to see in Pisco itself and that it is much better to go to Paracas, which is much smaller but closer to the Islas Ballestas and the natural reserve Paracas. We sign up for two trips in one day. First very early in the morning we drove out to the islands with what seemed a half bred racing boats. On the way we got to see one of those mysterious line paintings in the desert sand that made Nazca famous, only here you don’t have to take an expensive flight. They call the islands the “Galapagos for the poor”. Well I don’t know about the Galapagos part but you certainly don’t need a huge budget for that trip. The islands are home to thousands of birds; on one island we saw a large dark field that turned out to be an immense group of birds. Beside the birds we got to see penguins and sea lions.
Shortly after we got back we started our second tour, I call it “with the taxi through the desert” and that was exactly what it was. It was strange because for the most part we didn’t drive on the road and the taxi kind of seemed out of its place in this terrain. But the trip was very well worth it. We got to se amazing coastal scenery and beautiful beaches with crystal clear water, even without trash littered all over the place which you unfortunately have to endure in so many beaches in South America. People here are really not taking a lot of care of their nature and prefer to lie down in their own trash rather than taking it home with them and disposing it there. The same goes for roads and public places like parks. Anyway these beaches were of the finest and at the end of the tour you can even spot some flamingos from far away.
First we wanted to go straight to Ica after the tour, but we got back later then we thought so we stayed another night in Hostal los Frayles.