Paracas - The Pacific Coast
Peru has several wildlife preservation areas on the Pacific coast. I had hoped to visit the San Fernando reserve west of Nazca, and even thought about camping in the reserve for a couple of nights, but transportation was a problem. There are lots of tours that go to the reserve, but it’s a 3-hour trip each way, allowing for only a few hours at the reserve itself. I think maybe renting a car would have been a decent option, but… such a hassle.
But the Paracas reserve was easy to get to; it’s one of the stops on the way to Lima. The town of Paracas has a lot of hotels and resorts and is just a few short kilometers from the reserve. So that’s where I went next.
I spent way too much time looking at hotels online. So many of the resorts looked so tempting – beachfront, patio chairs, pools, bars and restaurants, blow-dryers… I was ready for a few days of rest and relaxation and hot water. But I couldn’t bring myself to book something for $250 a night just because of the nice-looking photos. I wasn’t in love with any of the cheap hostels that I found. But I knew there were other nice hotels in town with rates closer to $100 a night that had decent reviews. I couldn’t decide, but I didn’t need to – my bus to Paracas arrived in the early afternoon; plenty of time to go hunting for a hotel in person.
In terms of hotels, I ruled out anything that was out of town – I wanted to have lots of options for restaurants and groceries and tours and whatnot. I passed a bunch of hostels and hotels as I walked from the bus station, but most were locked up; nothing looked particularly inviting. The hotel that ended up at had excellent online reviews. It didn’t look like much from the street, but from the lobby I could see the courtyard which looked very nice, and there was actually someone at reception! They quoted me a price of $60 a night – half of the online rate at booking.com, so I took it.
The room was very nice, and it had the best shower I’ve had in months – very hot water 24/7 (without running the tap for 5 minutes), great water pressure, a big stall, and no annoying shower curtain trying to cling to me. I had a table and wardrobe and a big, comfy bed. I think I had Netflix and a variety of other channels too, but I never turned on the TV. The courtyard had a lot of tables and chairs and couches and loungers. The pool water was clear, though it’s hard to say how clean it was – the pigeons seemed to like it. I never saw a single mosquito. A fly now and then, but never in my room.
The only problem I had was that there were ants in my room. I noticed a couple in my room right after checking in. And a few hours after that, there were a LOT of ants. I suppose my luggage must have an interesting smell by this point. It was disappointing, especially since my room was on the third floor, but what are you gonna do? They weren’t getting into my luggage yet, but I figured it was only a matter of time. I never even mentioned it to hotel management because it was much easier to cross the street and buy a bottle of ant killer for $3 (not my first ant rodeo). I sprayed the perimeter of my floor and any holes in the tiles of the bathroom. I opened the windows, turned on my fan and left my room for a bit. When I came back there were a lot of dead ants on the floor, but nothing was moving. And that was it for the rest of my 4-day stay. Never saw any more ants. So not a big deal. If you think about it, the only reason you wouldn’t have ants at the Hilton is because they use more pesticides. Or because the resort is new. It’s not like ants avoid a resort because of its number of stars.
Paracas was very windy. VERY windy. I’m not sure if the beach resorts would be all that enjoyable with that kind of wind. My hotel’s courtyard was quite sheltered by the building and high walls and aside from the odd gust that sent some of my belongings into the pool, it was calm. I had to go swimming to fetch my sunglasses from the pool bottom a few times. I did quite a bit of lounging by the pool.
I neglected to take photos of the town or the hotel...
I took a tour to Islas Bellestas – a few small islands that make up a national reserve that is home to more than 150,000 birds including cormorants, seagulls, Peruvian boobies, tendrils, and Humboldt penguins. There are also seals, sea lions and crabs. It was a short tour, and we didn’t get off the boat, but it was quite enjoyable. But the smell… oh that smell… quite pungent, especially since we were smelling it from the boat on a windy day. It’s the bird poop. There is so much of it that the rocks are all white. The only people allowed on the islands go to gather the poop which is used for fertilizer. They call it white gold.
But the Paracas reserve was easy to get to; it’s one of the stops on the way to Lima. The town of Paracas has a lot of hotels and resorts and is just a few short kilometers from the reserve. So that’s where I went next.
I spent way too much time looking at hotels online. So many of the resorts looked so tempting – beachfront, patio chairs, pools, bars and restaurants, blow-dryers… I was ready for a few days of rest and relaxation and hot water. But I couldn’t bring myself to book something for $250 a night just because of the nice-looking photos. I wasn’t in love with any of the cheap hostels that I found. But I knew there were other nice hotels in town with rates closer to $100 a night that had decent reviews. I couldn’t decide, but I didn’t need to – my bus to Paracas arrived in the early afternoon; plenty of time to go hunting for a hotel in person.
In terms of hotels, I ruled out anything that was out of town – I wanted to have lots of options for restaurants and groceries and tours and whatnot. I passed a bunch of hostels and hotels as I walked from the bus station, but most were locked up; nothing looked particularly inviting. The hotel that ended up at had excellent online reviews. It didn’t look like much from the street, but from the lobby I could see the courtyard which looked very nice, and there was actually someone at reception! They quoted me a price of $60 a night – half of the online rate at booking.com, so I took it.
The room was very nice, and it had the best shower I’ve had in months – very hot water 24/7 (without running the tap for 5 minutes), great water pressure, a big stall, and no annoying shower curtain trying to cling to me. I had a table and wardrobe and a big, comfy bed. I think I had Netflix and a variety of other channels too, but I never turned on the TV. The courtyard had a lot of tables and chairs and couches and loungers. The pool water was clear, though it’s hard to say how clean it was – the pigeons seemed to like it. I never saw a single mosquito. A fly now and then, but never in my room.
The only problem I had was that there were ants in my room. I noticed a couple in my room right after checking in. And a few hours after that, there were a LOT of ants. I suppose my luggage must have an interesting smell by this point. It was disappointing, especially since my room was on the third floor, but what are you gonna do? They weren’t getting into my luggage yet, but I figured it was only a matter of time. I never even mentioned it to hotel management because it was much easier to cross the street and buy a bottle of ant killer for $3 (not my first ant rodeo). I sprayed the perimeter of my floor and any holes in the tiles of the bathroom. I opened the windows, turned on my fan and left my room for a bit. When I came back there were a lot of dead ants on the floor, but nothing was moving. And that was it for the rest of my 4-day stay. Never saw any more ants. So not a big deal. If you think about it, the only reason you wouldn’t have ants at the Hilton is because they use more pesticides. Or because the resort is new. It’s not like ants avoid a resort because of its number of stars.
Paracas was very windy. VERY windy. I’m not sure if the beach resorts would be all that enjoyable with that kind of wind. My hotel’s courtyard was quite sheltered by the building and high walls and aside from the odd gust that sent some of my belongings into the pool, it was calm. I had to go swimming to fetch my sunglasses from the pool bottom a few times. I did quite a bit of lounging by the pool.
I neglected to take photos of the town or the hotel...
I took a tour to Islas Bellestas – a few small islands that make up a national reserve that is home to more than 150,000 birds including cormorants, seagulls, Peruvian boobies, tendrils, and Humboldt penguins. There are also seals, sea lions and crabs. It was a short tour, and we didn’t get off the boat, but it was quite enjoyable. But the smell… oh that smell… quite pungent, especially since we were smelling it from the boat on a windy day. It’s the bird poop. There is so much of it that the rocks are all white. The only people allowed on the islands go to gather the poop which is used for fertilizer. They call it white gold.
Three Humboldt penguins jumping into the ocean (right side of frame):
Halfway out to the island is the Candelabra geoglyph (shown in the header at the top of this page). They don’t know what the image is supposed to represent, possibly a cactus. It dates back about 2200 years to the Paracas culture. At first glance, I thought it was nonsense; it looks like a figure molded out of sand which couldn’t possibly survive 2200 years. But it’s not sand. It’s not quite rock, but it is a hard surface, and the geoglyph is original. The wind keeps it free of sediment and rainfall is minimal. Our guide says it hasn’t rained there since 1998.
We also passed a lot of really enormous jellyfish. They were terrifyingly huge and I could see them quite clearly in the water even though we were racing past them in our boat. They are Chrysaora plocamia and can apparently grow to 1 meter in diameter!? But these were only about half that size. I have seen a lot of posts about them online. The water is full of them this time of year and people don't like to swim with them. Sometimes there are a lot washed up on the beaches. This is the best photo I got, sadly:
I also spent a day in the reserve, checking out the sand dunes and beaches. I didn’t want to be stuck on a tour bus and was planning to rent a mountain bike, but for just $30 I was able to rent a motorbike for the whole day. The guy at the rental desk didn’t seem to think I knew how to ride it. He insisted on giving me a lesson, but it was automatic, so the lesson was quick. Just “forward” and “stop”. It was a good bike, lots of pep. I am guessing it did 80 km/h, though the speedometer stayed firmly locked on 0 km/h. It seemed to keep up to the trucks on the highway.
I was able to explore all of the roads in the park, visit all of the beaches and viewpoints, and also run a few errands around town. I used an entire tank of gas. And it was fun, though it was a very windy day. I think it would have been hard to pedal a mountain bike into the wind. The only time I didn’t feel like I was being blasted by wind and sand is when I was going nearly full speed with a tail wind.
There were places where I was completely surrounded by sand and rock. It looked like Mars.
I was able to explore all of the roads in the park, visit all of the beaches and viewpoints, and also run a few errands around town. I used an entire tank of gas. And it was fun, though it was a very windy day. I think it would have been hard to pedal a mountain bike into the wind. The only time I didn’t feel like I was being blasted by wind and sand is when I was going nearly full speed with a tail wind.
There were places where I was completely surrounded by sand and rock. It looked like Mars.
I stopped for lunch at a restaurant in a bay and had sea bass – fresh from the sea (or so I was told). The bay was full of fishing boats, so it could be true. Frightening looking fish. Scary teeth. It was nicely cooked and delicious.
But most of my time in Paracas was spent lounging around and relaxing. I enjoyed that quite a lot.