Ballestas and Paracas Reserve Tour, Part II

2/25/14, 10:00 PM

After the Ballestas tour, we had a second tour scheduled. This tour was to take us to the Paracas National Reserve. I'll admit that I was expecting something foresty, but what we experienced was very different. The National Reserve is beach land and acres of sand.  Apparently, there is a large salt deposit mixed with the sand - the guide actually broke open a giant cluster of salt crystals. I, like most of the others, took a tiny hunk of salt.

Giant cluster of salt crystals.

Everyone was jumping, so I jumped too.

After stopping at a couple of places for photo opportunities, we headed to one of the beaches inside the park. We weren't aware that we would be going to the beach, but somehow everyone else was. Alli and I didn't have our bathing suits with us, but basically everyone else was wearing theirs. By this point in the day, I was hot, tired, and a bit sunburned. I spent the hour and a half the guide gave us sitting in the shade snacking, writing, and watching the people at the beach.

Playa Roja at Paracas National Reserve

The beach we spent an hour and a half of our tour at

After 3 PM, we were driven back to Paracas and dropped off at our hostel, Kokopelli. The hostel is impressive; there is a pool, bar, fussball table, pool table, and a little restaurant. It's also located right on the beach. The city the hostel is located in offers very little. We are only here because we had a couple of tours in town. However, as far as hostels go, Kokopelli is definitely one of the best I've stayed at.

Ballestas and Paracas Reserve Tour, Part I

2/25/14, 9:47 PM

Today, we took two tours, one of the Ballestas Island and the other of Paracas National Reserve. Overall, everything worked out, but it wasn't what we expected. We were told by the lady at the dune buggy place (all of our tours were scheduled through the same company) to be there a tthe office with our bags at 6:30 AM. She explained that even though were were scheduled to be picked up at our hostel, it was too difficult to drive a car there. Although we didn't want to, we agreed.

After all that, she apparently failed to let the driver know of the change in plans - he looked for us at our hostel first and because of that, we were late for the tour. We were actually quite fortunate he bothered to look for us at the office at all.

As I said, it all worked out okay, but the morning was frustrating. Beyond the confusion regarding our pick-up spot, there was also confusion when we arrived at the tour location, Paracas boat terminal. A tour company employee was there to talk us through paying the park fee and port tax, but when we passed through the gate to get to the boats, he stayed behind.

We followed the crowd in, but we weren't exactly sure which line we were supposed to be in. When we tried to follow the others from our group to a different line, a guy yelled at us to stay where we were. We boarded a boat but were yelled at again; apparently, that was the wrong boat. after more confusion because of the language barrier, we ended up on the same boat as the others in our group.

My view from my seat on the boat.

I should explain that when we passed through the control gate to the dock, there were at least a half dozen boats awaiting tourists to take us to Ballestas Island. Each of these boats could hold something like 40 or 50 tourists. Of course, with so many people, there was a lot of confusion.  Our boat, like all the others, was packed full. 

On the boat, at Ballestas Island

Rock formation at Ballestas Island, notice the birds in the center

With a bilingual guide, we were driven from the dock to Ballestas Island where we were able to view and photograph various bird species. To protect the birds, we were not allowed to step foot on the island; the whole tour was conducted from the boat. Because we were on the boat for a couple of hours, we were able to observe other tourists as well as birds. We encountered interesting characters, one man in particular. This man was Chinese and was escorted by a young woman acting as his translator.

We never caught his name, so I shall refer to him as Bob. Bob carried with him a large SLR camera that he didn't put down. He took pictures of everything, even other people and their children. Of course, he never bothered to ask permission - he just continuously made everyone uncomfortable.

The worst offense was when he had his guide take a picture of him with a Peruvian boy. The boy was uncomfortable and so was his mother, but neither said much of anything. My guess is that speaking up would have been against their culture. Bob didn't think any rules applied to him. He refused to wear a life jacket (finally, his guide was able to get him into one, for awhile anyway). He also thought it was okay for him to smoke next to the gas tank. Again, his guide was able to get him to put out the cigarette.

The Chinese man, "Bob," who thought no rules applied to him.

I was relieved when we were off the boat, and I no longer had to deal with this weirdo infringing upon my personal space and personal privacy. This guy was so distracting, it was actually difficult to focus on the reason we were there, to see birds. We saw Peruvian boobies, American turkey vultures, something I forgot the name of, and Humboldt penguins. Yes! Penguins exist in Peru, even in summer. Because of the warm weather, we only saw 10 or 12; most have migrated to cooler temperatures. Still, we saw penguins in the same country we saw parrots and monkeys in. Wild.

Humboldt penguins

Birds flying over Ballestas Island

Pelicans

After the Ballestas tour, we had a second tour scheduled.