Day 1 Monday- We got the bus to Paracas today; a mere 4 hours so really nothing in comparison to our previous monster journeys. When we arrived in Paracas the bus stop was nothing but a hut so not your typical station. We realised soon that Paracas is a very small town where everything was in walking distance and being by the sea there was sand everywhere, it was nice. We walked 600m down the road to our hostel 'The Backpackers Hostel', although every other hostel was similarily named, so could have been confusing had we not received previous instruction from the owner, Alberto. Alberto was a older gentlemen, fluent in English and very friendly. After we had settled into our very very basic room (but it was cheap) Alberto showed us where the best places are to go eat in Paracas. We then booked with him our excursions to the Ballestas Islas and National Reserve for the following day.
We made our dinner that night, pasta n' sauce, and then made our rolls for the following days lunch. Early night as early start.
Day 2 Tuesday - Up nice and early today to visit the Ballestas Islands (Spanish for Crossbow Islands). We went by speed boat which was fun but pretty darn chilly due to the wind. On the way we stopped briefly to see the Candlebra. These are lines in a sand dune thought to be made by the Nazca people and have remianed in tact as the wind only blows on the opposite side of the dune and it never rains in that place either. Some say it looks more like a cactus which personally I would agree with, and apprently they used to eat cactus or drink it too at that time and so it really makes more sense. After this we carried on to the islands which inhabited thousands of species of birds including pelicans, peruvian boobys and penguins! We also saw many sea lions which were lazing about in the sun. The only down side to the island was the smell, with that many animals I guess it can be expected there be a lot of excrement.
We returned to shore at 10 and had a quick rest as at 11 we were off to our second booked excursion to the National Reserve of Paracas. This is a vast desert area home to 8 different habitats and many beaches. We first visited a museum which told us about the Paracas Boom in 19th century where the excrement of guano birds created 80% of the countrys income as it was craved by England and France for its use as fertilizer. We then visited many beaches including the Playa Roja, a beach with red sand! We also saw the Cathedral; a rock formation off the coast, however only half remains as half fell down in the 2007 earthquake.
We ate out in the evening enjoying a seafood rice dish and mussels with a yummy salsa on top.
We got the bus back to Lima this afternoon, however we had two annoying French women in front of us so the journey was not as pleasent as the first one.
Day 4 Thursday - We went for Lunch today with some of Johns family friends or relatives....we are still unsure. It was very tasty!!
We spent the afternoon organising our trip to Mancora next week. Mancora is known for its fantastic beaches being right next to Equador!
Day 5 Friday - This morning we visited the Museo de la Nacion in Lima. It was free entry surprisingly, as it was such a grand place. We saw a lot of artistic artifacts from Peru ranging from the Pre-Colonial period (where pots and clay statues of figures were used to honour the Pre-Colonial gods) through to the Post-Colonial period where you saw the influence of the Spanish, Flemish and Italians in their artworks (where religious paintings were the main focal point). Personaly my favourite was Post Colonial where many artists stepped away from traditional religous art and begun to paint anonymous images on the famous backdrops of peru e.g Amazonian fauna and the Andeas mountain range.
In the afternoon we made pancakes or panqueques for Johns grandparents, although they preferred to smother them with manjar blanco (very sweet condensed milk) rather than the traditional lemon and sugar John and I are used to.
In the evening we went with Jose, Sebastian and Luciana to a pub in Barranco. We drank beer and played games and even got our photo on the wall (we were the only ones in there). We then went to try apparently the worlds best french fries, however nothing can compare to English fish and chips in my opinion.
Day 6 Saturday - As we returned late the previous night we had a little sleep in in the morning. We then headed to the supermarket to buy our packed lunch for the following day as we were going to AAVAP dog charity all day and would need food to take with us.
In the evening we went to Johns cousins 13th birthday party at his house on the outskirts of the city. They have a beatuful fluffy Samoyed Husky dog. She was called Luna and so friendly. We did spend a lot of the evening however trying to work out whom was related to whom.
Day 7 Sunday- Today we were up nice and early to go visit the dog shelter with AAVAP; a charity organistion run by Univeristy del Pacifico. We all met at the university and then hopped onto a bus and headed out of Lima to Callao where the shelter is held. We got off and immediately herd the barking of many dogs. We got given some rope to create a collar and lead from, and chose our dog from a selection they had out for us. It was difficult to catch some and some really did not want there collar on them! Once we had our dogs we went out for a walk down the beach in the sand dunes. It was a lot more nakering than we thought although my dog powered through, Johns kept taking breaks to roll over for a tickle. Being untrained, occasionally a dog would get loose and you would see its walker run past after it. We never lost one however because we were there pack so I doubt they would have run very far. We each carried water bottles and containers as well so we could give the dogs water at each rest point.
When we got back we were given a tour of the shelter where we met more animals like Alan the Ostrich who ate corn out of our hands. Soon we learnt all the animals brought in were badly treated in the past. We also learnt often when the dogs are not found for the shelter the government takes them away and kills them. Very sad. The government also does not help with these such charitys and there are no laws against animal cruelty in Peru and so they have very little money and the dogs live off rice most of the time. We decided that when we return to England with the information of AAVAP we would try do some fundraising for the charity, as most of the shelters' money comes out of the owners own pocket so they still lack the basics like enough food and care for the animals.
We returned home to shower as we were filthy and rest for the evening as we were exhausted!
Miss you guys
Vicky and John
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