Paracas is a small town in Peru along the Pacific ocean located about 3.5 hours of drive from Lima. It would have been a small fishing town but for the two natural wonders – Paracas National Reserve and Ballestas Island (Also known as “poor man’s Galapagos”).
The word “Paracas” does not come from Spanish but from the local language Quechua which is an official language of Peru. It means sandstorm as the place experience severe sandstorm at some parts of the year. The area also has a lot of history with Andean society that thrived between 800 BC to 100 BC. That was before Jesus Christ!! This is interesting as people always associate Peru with Incas whereas the Paracas culture that thrived several centuries earlier is unknown.
My journey
Paracas was the first stop on my three day journey from Lima to Cusco. I used PeruHop, a hop on, hop off bus service in Peru. It took about about 3.5 hours to reach Paracas from my hotel in Lima. The distance was 260 km and the road was in a good condition.
Since I had only few hours in Paracus, I could only do either Paracas National Reserve or Ballestas Island. Paracas National Reserve was included as part of Peruhop offering while boat trip to Ballestas costed additional 50 soles. Ballestas is really good if you are looking for birds while Paracas National Reserve provides some nice view of landscapes. I decided to visit Paracas National Reserve.
Paracas National Reserve
The tour lasted for about 2 hours and the drive was through the beautiful desert landscapes. Paracas National Reserve spans an area of 3,350 square kilometers, 65% of which is marine ecosystem. We stopped at few view points during our visit.
Cattedrale viewpoint
The place where the desert meets the ocean. The scene brought back the memories of Great ocean road of Australia but in Peru it was all desert. The cliffs and the ocean waves hitting them provides some stunning views. This was also the area of birds.
Isthmus
Nice view of the Isthmus of Pacas National Reserve. It provided a bird eye view of the landstrip between Paracas National Reserve and the mainland.
Red beach
An amazing small strip of beach with red sand.
Ballestas
As I said earlier, I did not visit Ballestas Island due to lack of time. You need to stay a night in Paracas if you want to visit both places. With Ballestas tour you can also see Paracas Candelabra, a prehistoric geoglyph whcih is nearly 600 feet tall.
There is nothing much to do in Paracas town. It is mainly oriented towards tourism with some hotels and restaurants. The beach in Paracas town was also not impressive.
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