IV. SA Peru/W3b, 3d: Nazca, Ica, Parac E

Fr, 07.04. Nasca & Ica/Huacachina
This country surprised me even more from Nazca onwards: for me, Peru was always about high mountains, high altitude from 3,000m and more, thus cold, rainy and unpredictable weather incl hail and snow as well as the potential danger of altitude sickness; Inka temples and Andinian people.
Arequipa was despite almost winter time already quite hot but at least still mountaineous. Nazca was now only at an altitude of 200m and with 30-38* only the beginning of roughly one hot summer feeling week at sea level.
After around 10h I arrived in Nazca at 6am. There is not too much to see in the town itself and most people including me only shortly pass by to see the UNESCO World Heritage Nazca lines. These are gigantic lines in the desert from a Pre-Inkan culture that can only be clearly and all seen from the air. However, as I did not want to spend $90 to see 23 lines I decided to visit the 11m high tower for 2S and 3S bus ride located on Panamericana Sur that was created by the German Maria Reiche. The tower is indeed directly located on this highway 25km north of Nazca somewhere in the middle of nowhere and you can easily see the 3 figures 'Manos' (hands, 45m), 'Arbol' (tree, 84m) and 'Lagarto' (lizard, 110m). As already mentioned, there are 23 in total on a surface of 50km2, with the smallest being 39 and the biggest 290m. I arrived there quite early around 07:30am as first and only one, spent around 45m there including breakfast and dixi toilet and then took the next 2,5h bus to Ica.
The lines were kind of interesting to see but I really don't understand the hype about it and was glad that the Mirador was on the way and hardly cost me anything ;)

Ica or the oasis Huacachina are the place with the biggest sand dunes and only desert oasis in South America. It is the perfect for action 4WD races in dune buggys up and down dunes the size of mountains and my 1h trip was absolutely amazing, better than some rollercoasters and we had a speed of up to 90km/h along the up to 100m high dunes ;) Similar to Namibia and Australia you can also do sandboarding here.
My hostel was also superb: super small family run by a mother and her daughter incl scrambled eggs for breakfast, hammocks, Spanish music etc for my nice budget of max 20S/roughly 5,50€ - plus, as I am travelling in low season it was almost empty apart from 2 Belgian guys so that I was upgraded from a 4 to a 2-bed dorm which I finally used on my own :)
Before I went to the a.m. sand dunes we also visited some other places in this tour such as the town itself. Ica is also known as 'Tierra del sol enterno' as the sun is shining all year round and it is always warm. That is the reason for all buildings at Plaza de Armas being yellow, the two obelisks representing the 2 pre-Inkan cultures Nazca and Paracas. There is also a popular church and temple which have both been destroyed by a strong earthquake in 2007, a fact you can still see today.
After that we were informed about the Pisco production, Peru's typical national drink and tasted the original as well as 7 other flavours (2 red, 2 white ones, Pisco Sour, 2 cream ones). The typical Pisco is btw only cultivated in the 5 regions Arequipa, Ica, Lima, Quitos and Trujillo. Ui, tasting 45% alcohol in the heat of 38* around 2:30pm was maybe not the best idea for me being such a small tiny, not really alcohol consuming person but strangely enough my stomach felt better afterwards, it must have killed everything :P
We then went to a Panaderia to taste local sweets and pastries before visiting the 'Parque de las Brujas' (witches park) in the only 15-20 people village Cachiche listening to interesting witches stories and seeing palm trees shaped as animals. There you will also find the 400y old 'Palma de 7 cabezas' (7 headed palm tree) which can otherwise only be seen in North Africa.
And then we were already in the oasis and a.m. adventure - it was really good, the only thing to complain about is all the plastic garbage - Peru is already trying to improve that with waste separation, bins and signs but is still at the beginning.

Sa, 08.04. Ica & Paracas/Islas Ballestas
After a delicious egg breakfast I continued to Paracas in the morning, now being like Lima at sea level. Paracas is a super sweet small village directly located at the sea, its main income is fishing + tourism and it is especially known for the 'Islas Ballestas' - an island group often also called 'The Poor Man's Galapagos'.
It is an island group roughly 20m by boat from Paracas in the Pacific Ocean and home to thousands of birds such as pelicans and Inka terns as well as mammals such as penguins, sea lions, dolphins. Fortunately, the islands are protected, you are not supposed to walk or swim there.
This being said I had a lot of luck on my morning tour: after 5m already there were 10-12 dolphins swimming right next to us, we then saw a lot of sea lions jumping out of the water, dozens of pelicans and passed the peninsula with the 300m big cacteen drawn into the desert sand, similar to the Nazca lines and Paracas' landmark. The islands and rock formations were incredible, I have seldomly seen such an awesome natural spectacle with so unbelievably many birds and sea life - there were so many of them you could hardly see the rocks and we even saw a lot of baby sea lions, such an incredible experience :)))
After that we continued from the harbour to the national park 'Reserva Nacional' through incredibly big and high stone dunes. There we first saw the 'Playa Roja' (Red Beach), then 'Playa Lagunilla' as well as 'Playa La Mina' - super beautiful beaches and landscapes and at the last one we could also finally say 'Vamos - a la playa' and spent almost 1,5h swimming and relaxing there ;)

So, 09.04. Paracas & Lima
As Paracas is such a small village or rather a bay there are unfortunately not many bus companies. However, the usually really expensive but biggest, most known and quite popular amongst both tourists and backpackers company 'Cruz del Sur' had a super good offer for only 36S which was even the same price than the local Peru Bus so I decided to take the luxus variant this time for the 4h bus ride to Peru's capital Lima. Well, the seats are a bit wider and more comfortable, the blanket is thicker (but also needed with these fridge temperatures) and there is even a TV on every seat incl headphones - which doesn't help a lot when the person in front of you is in a 180* position and they also weren't punctual - so I could not really understand the hype and dearer prices of this company, especially as the buses in Peru are in general very good. Concerning the landscape there were yellow sand mountains on the East and dunes with sea view on the West.
In Lima itself I stayed 4-5h at the bus terminal before heading further north into the trekking heaven and thus high mountain area Huaraz; I am anyway not that interested in the capital and might be able to still meet Benjamin on the way back (the upper north is unfortunately still blocked and I might have to fly from Lima). Moreover, 'Semana Santa', the Holy Easter Week would start which would certainly unfortunately result in higher prices everywhere plus I was hopefully not yet declimatised ;)Read more