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.

Norway in a Nutshell

Norway in a Nutshell, for those of you who don't know, is not a tour in the traditional sense but more of a series of transportation connections that take you through the most beautiful parts of Norway. At over $200 one way, it's not cheap. But I'm glad I'm doing it and glad I have a couple of nights scheduled in Flåm as a stop over (the whole journey from Oslo to Bergen is about 12 hours).

There are various options available, but I started my Nutshell tour in Oslo. I took a train from Oslo to Myrdal. In Myrdal, I boarded a train for Flåm. The trip from Myrdal to Flåm is particularly steep. Much of the rail route between Myrdal and Flåm is on a 55% gradient; the railway is one of the steepest lines on normal gauge railroad tracks. The town of Myrdal is on a mountain and Flåm is located on the edge of the Aurlandfjord, a tributary of the Sognefjord. The route is only about 20 kilometers, but the journey takes most of an hour.

From Flåm, I will take a boat across the fjord to Gudvangen. From there, I will board a bus for Voss. In Voss, I will be transferred back to the train for the final leg of my journey. I will take the train to Bergen, my final destination on my European journey.

Copenhagen

Because of how tight our schedule was, G and I only had one day to tour Copenhagen. Although I feel like we could have used more time, perhaps a half day more, we had a great experience in this capitol city.

Our hotel was about a block from the central train station, so we were easily able to walk to all the sights. We started the day by walking to the Christianborg Palace.  We've seen so many castles and palaces on this trip; honestly, I am a little castled out. The part of the palace I liked best was actually the horse and buggies we watched out in the courtyard. I'm not sure if they were training the horses or exercising them, but it was interesting.

We walked through Christiana, an interesting, autonomous neighborhood in Copenhagen. 

The best thing we did all day was go on a sightseeing boat tour. We got a good overview of the city inside a warm boat. The woman leading the tour gave the information in several languages.  She pointed out the palace, the opera house, and a dozen other sights.  We saw much of the city on this tour.

After the boat ride, we walked to the National Museum to see the viking exhibit. The museum was quite exceptional, and the best part was that it was free.  Unfortunately, we didn't have too much time; the museum closed at 5 PM.We were able to take our time in the viking exhibit and wander through a couple of the people of the world rooms before the museum closed. We still had a couple of sights left to see, so we left the museum and continued toward Nyhavn.

Although we had gotten a glimpse of Nyhavn on the boat tour, we walked through again on our way to kastellet. G and I have a puzzle of this neighborhood; I've wanted to visit this area since the last piece of the puzzle went in. Nyhavn is a canal district dating back to the 17th century. The buildings lining the canal are brightly painted, and historical ships can be seen docked along the harbor.

Nyhavn

From Nyhavn, we walked to kastellet. Kastellet was a fortress built in the shape of a star. We entered kastellet and walked along the ring of ramparts and bastions. Although various military activities still take place on the grounds, kastellet is primarily a park today.

Aerial view of kastellet

Our final stop was to see the little mermaid statue. We walked through kastellet to the other side, exited, and walked to the statue. There happened to be a group of guys there that thought it was hilarious to crawl up into the mermaid's lap to pose for pictures. This was only funny for about five seconds until I became annoyed that these guys were ruining my little mermaid pictures. I absolutely was not interested in a picture of the little mermaid with a random guy hanging off of her. A guy had his picture taken then hopped down. I seized my opportunity and was able to take a couple of photographs of the mermaid without the guys.

Exhausted, we walked to the nearest S-bahn station and took the train back to the central station. Tomorrow is a big day. We will both be flying out of the Copenhagen airport. G will be flying back home on a marathon trip. I will be flying to Reykjavik, Iceland to continue my journey. I still have another two and a half weeks of traveling before I fly home on October 22nd.