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Pisco, Peru
13° 41' S 76° 13' W
May 19, 2006 14:29
Distance 186km

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Other entries in Pisco

Pre-Lima-nary Round

Text written in: English

My viewing of Spiderman 2 on the bus from Nasca was cut short by an announcement from the stewardess that, due to the 2hrs delay, those heading to Lima would arrive very late, unless those going to Pisco (including yours truly) got off at the turn-off to the town and took a specially laid on minibus instead. I had to fight to get my bag onboard before the bus drove off with it to Lima, as I was unconvinced by the porters' assurances that all bags marked 'Pisco' would be removed from the luggage hold. Mine wasn't. In the end, we arrived on the main square and I was immediately greeted by young men offering tours and hostels. I was in no fit state to put up much resistance and accepted the offer of a private room with bathroom at the hotel only a few metres away.

It turned out my hotel was a 'casino hotel'. This meant the downstairs was loud and had a bar with several slot machines, but my room was upstairs, at the back, away from most of the noise and very cheap. Caesar's Palace this was not. 

I was up early the next morning for a tour to the Islas Ballestas, a group of small islands off the coast that are full of wildlife. A short minibus ride took us to Paracas, where the boat was waiting for us, with local entrepreneurs on hand with buckets of fish to entice pelicans over for tourists' photos. I took my shots from a distance.

The group of 20 boarded the speedboat and we were off. Within a couple of minutes, the driver slowed the boat to show us some dolphins that were swimming nearby. After checking to see that we had all taken our photos, he speeded up again and this time there would be no stopping until we reached the islands. At times the boat seemed to fly off the waves.

The Islas Ballestas were good value for their tag as the "poor man's Galapagos Islands". The rocks were covered with different species of birds and hundreds of sea lions. Early on, we were lucky enough to see some Humboldt penguins, comically walking in single file. As they dived into the water, we saw some sea lions doing the same, and with almost as little splash. It was a really special place, despite the smell of guano and the threat of bird droppings from the thousands of birds that passed over the boat. At the end, the boat rounded a huge rock and we came upon a beach full of sea lions. The 'maternal beach' is apparently used by female sea lions when they teach their young to swim. Seeing so many of the brown bodies stretched out on the sand, it could almost have been mistaken for a Mediterranean beach in high summer from a distance.

Having left so early, we were back in Pisco by 11am, giving me time for a little exploration and some lunch, which included a pisco sour, of course, before I caught an afternoon bus to Lima.