Paracas - Biking, kitesurfing and Ballestas Islands

Markus had heard that Paracas, where we are going to stay at first, should have good spots for kitesurfing! We landed late in the evening to Lima in Peru where we had to stay one night. At the airport, we tried to order an Uber but Markus’ Uber app got some error and we didn’t know if we had ordered a car. When the app was opened, it informed that we should go to exit door 3 and wait for the driver. We went there even if we weren’t sure if our car is coming. After a while a man asked:  Markus? And there our Uber was. It was only a 1,2km long ride, but apparently, Lima is not that safe during Friday nights. When we wanted to go out from the car to check where our B&B Cusing Wasi was but the driver prohibited and said “not safe”. After a short looking we found our place and had a nice sleep before we continued our journey to Paracas. It was a 3 hour bus ride to Pisco and then a 10 min taxi drive to Paracas.

We noticed that the bus stations were quite heavily guarded and in some stations they had fences around, maybe to reduce the luggage thefts? They also filmed everyone who got on the bus. We don’t exactly know why but probably some safety measure.

 A guard is checking that no extra people get in during loading of the bus

When we finally arrived to Paracas we found our hostel easily because Paracas is a small town with just few roads. The first day when we arrived we just rented bikes for few hours to look around the town. We biked to the beach and saw kites few km away. We decided to go and check the kite spot for the next day. It was a nice spot and helpful staff. In the evening, we went for dinner and Pisco sours. Food was ok but Pisco sours were delicious! ;)

Pisco sours close to Pisco :)

We had an early morning the next day. We had reserved a boat trip to Ballestas Islands and we had to be at 8am at the tour office. We changed the office in the last minute when we got a tip from the kite spot about a cheaper office. We saved 11€ each with the switch. It was a really nice trip.  We saw the Paracas Candelabra in the sand which is over 2000 years old, a lot of sea lions, pelicans, few penguins and other birds. The cliffs and caves were also amazing. We had got information that we should bring a wind stopper jacket with us. We had quite warm cloths but still we felt a bit cold and there were few people with just shorts and t-shirt :P It was a few hour trip so we had good time to have lunch before the wind picked up.

Paracas Candelabra

 A sea lion is showing off

 We saw also few penguins

 The sea lions were a bit lazy

 Just a few birds ;)

Hope you like birds! All the black dots on the island are birds!

Markus went for kitesurfing in the afternoon. Great kitesurfing and good wind even though he had to rent a wetsuit. He saw pink flamingos real close when they were flying in front of him. The 9m Core GTS4 was really good, but there is quite long way for the RRD fifty-fifty split board to be considered as a real kiteboard. It is ok for travelling but…well it’s a travelling board (ps. sorry for this review but that’s my opinion) :P Edda was writing stuff on the computer at the kite spot and she took also some pictures of Markus when he was kitesurfing. Paracas is not a hot place and when it’s windy and only around 20c Edda got quite cold when she was waiting. And we met another Finn! She was the first in two months :D She was also a kitesurfer ;)

We had rented bikes for the next day for our bike trip around the Paracas National Reserve. The route is around 35km. We were told to start early to avoid the wind against us when biking. Well, of course the wind picked up early that day. We had to trample 10km with a 10m/s wind against us. It was a real challenge! The views were really nice while we came to the viewpoints. We biked in our own pace, stopped to take pictures and sips of water. We stopped for lunch a bit after half way next on a small fishing port. When we finally got back home after a total of 7 hours of biking, we noticed that forgetting sunscreen was a bad thing. Both of us had burned the face and back of our hands… Ouch! :/ Our next destination is Huacachina, an oasis in the desert :)

 In the middle of nowhere ;)

Red sand beach