PARACAS

Sunday 1 July
Plane from Arequipa to Lima left at 8:08, arriving at Lima bus station after at least an hour in heavy traffic.  The bus station was OK.  Our small party of 6 watched the soccer for a few hours until 1pm.  We were pleasantly surprised by the very comfortable bus which went smoothly past coastal sand dunes and some very green fields in this arid area.  Doubletree Hotel was on the beachfront, a Hilton Hotel and more luxurious than other hotels on this trip.  Below are views from our balcony.

West Peruvian dove

 

It's low season so there were few guests.  Karen and Brian had the jacuzzi to themselves while Peter and Ann walked the beach bird-watching, as we did also.  There were large flocks of cormorants, Peruvian boobies and Chilean flamingoes mostly beyond camera range in a protected area. 

An obliging Chilean flamingo, one of 6 outside the protected area

Jellyfish or stingray, Matt Shaw?

Love these Inca terns

Snowy egret

Jellyfish ? Over 30cm on top

Little blue heron

Belcher's gull enjoyed a shellfish meal after dropping the shell from a height

Kelp gull

American oystercatcher

Beachfront near our hotel -note raptor & man scarecrows on jetty, ignored by cormorants

Inca tern and Neotropic cormorant

Kite business operated by Aussies - had a chat with friendly owner

Black skimmers came in flocks of 7 or so birds seeking food in very shallow water.

Several whimbrels appeared in late afternoon

 Monday 2 July

Ordered a taxi to explore the town of Paracas where we had a very good fish lunch and visited a very small Museum of History.

 

Cross with tools used to make it

Elongated skulls, perhaps dating back 3000 years

Nazca pottery 100BC-800AD

Wari pottery 500-1000 AD

Inca hat and feather pieces 1200-1533 AD

 Tuesday 3 July

Left at 8am for our 2 hour trip to the Ballestas Islands.  The boat was very comfortable.

Unfortunately the overcast sky and increasing swell made photography a bit difficult but we enjoyed the trip and the scenery.

The Candelabra, probably pre-Inca and the site of sun worship

Nearby large carved lines ? significance

Start of the bird balconies - Peruvian pelicans and Peruvian boobies with a Guanay cormorant 2nd from right

A small section of the myriad birds here.  Guano has been a major income source for Peru.

A pyramid of Peruvian boobies

Abundance of krill here

Peruvian pelicans overseeing the penguins perhaps

Time to jump in?

Female sea lion

Humboldt penguins

We assume this was part of the loading apparatus for guano.

Back in Lima, leaving our hotel at 6pm for the plane to Sao Paulo.  We have had a great adventure in Peru and thank our English (and Scottish) fellow travellers for their unfailing good humour.  Also, our trip was seamlessly organised by Llama Travel and their Peru associate, Condor Travel.  Every journey went according to plan and we were always very well looked after.