Fattigsmands Galapagos

Tourists arrive in Paracas with one purpose - Isla Bellestas. At 8 in the morning, everyone heads in the same direction down to the harbor. Regardless of which company you buy your ticket from, it's the same type of boats and the same tour. Remember to dress warmly as Paracas is cold in the morning and the wind out at sea is also cold. The first stop on the tour is Paracas' own mini version of a sign similar to the ones you can see at Nazcar. The big attraction of the trip is of course Isla Bellestas' many sea lions, penguins and birds. You can smell the island long before you arrive. The abundance of animal droppings makes the island stink. The many birds in the air also means that some tourists were unfortunately hit by bird poop. The sea lions were incredibly cute and lazy to watch. They were completely dark when they came out of the water. Many were perched high up on the rocks, which is incredibly well done considering their little "legs/flaps". Their roars echoed off the rocks. They were sunbathing, fighting or swimming among the boats. It is forbidden to go ashore on Isla Bellestas. Only allowed if you are a sea lion, penguin or bird. After this tour, many tourists immediately move on. However, the city has one more quite good attraction - Reserva National de Paracas. This peninsula is one of the driest places in the world, although it also borders the Pacific Ocean. There isn't much of a beach to mark the transition between land and water. Only steep cliffs that the water hits hard against. Reserva National de Paracas offers many viewpoints. In some places the desert sand is completely yellow, the beach sand is red and the water is green. Super nice contrasts. A lot of salt is mined here and exported to other countries. The road in the national park is actually made of salt. It looks exactly like asphalt. The area around Paracas was once fertile and richly populated. Due to pollution, the natural disaster El Nino now occurs every 15 years. Once upon a time, El Nino only occurred every 600 years. This has had a major impact on the city and its development. We bought both activities at our Hotel Santa Maria, which gave us the best price. 55 S per person. Our driver from the national park offered to drive us to Huacachina. Otherwise, we should have taken a taxi up to the Panamerican Highway, waited on the side of the road until a bus came by, which was heading towards Pisco, after which we had to take a taxi or new bus to Huacachina. We were very happy with the offer, so we avoided the risk of taking a local bus and changing buses in the dangerous city of Pisco, which even the locals try to avoid. The trip cost 20 S per person and took 1.5 hours.