Paracas town

Surreal mixture of fishing village, hipster bars and hostels, posh hotels and local housing. Surrounded by the beautiful national reserve and the access point to the ballestas islands "the poor man's gallapagus"

Weird mixture, quirky. I discovered it is possible to walk the lapping waves and  bird lined shore for 4 Kms to the reserve thanks purely to the fact that the instability of sand means hotels are pushed back, at least for the minute. A few more years and this will be Benidorm, for now it's fun and easy to chill out after the noise and bussle of Lima

Paracas national reserve

Glowing multi coloured sand dunes rich in minerals and salt in a protected area where the desert meets the sea.  Red beaches stunning against the waves, white salt topped dunes shimmer like snow and the undulating landscape seems lunar like in its bizarre patterns.

Paracas National Reserve - the desert meets the sea

Free tour included with Peru hop ticket, minibus nearly got stuck several times in the sand, so exciting trip on many levels.

Glowing Golden Desert sand

Desert rocks are salt under the sand

Aptly named Red Beach

Desert Landscapes

the Candelabra. Ancient line believed to be associated with the Nazcar line

Ballestas islands

Up at dawn today for a speedboat ride to the unique Ballestas isands, colloquially as the poor man's Gallapagus. Again, an exciting ride in more ways than one as it's very windy here and the waves were enormous!

Worth it to see so many birds, penguins and sea lions. I am no expert on birds, I can see cormorants, red footed boobies, pelicans, but there were more here than I can identify! Plus giant red spider crabs, basking sea lions and penguins waddling down the rockface.

basking Sea Lions

Sea Lion beach

Penguins

Birds! Red footed Peruvian boobies are in there somewhere

Incredible that two small rocky outcrops in the ocean can be home to so much life. Well worth getting up for! One afternoon left in Paracss to chill out, eat ice cream , sleep on the beach and relax.