Perú/Bolivia - Part Uno (Pisco/Ballestas)

First of all... I usually do some damn good research when it comes to travel... I like to know what I'm getting into. Never would I have expected to see some of the things I did... including wild flamingos, condors, hawks, eagles, falcons, parakeets, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, vultures, lizards, humming birds, Andean geese (that only travel in couples), Peruvian booby's (get your mind out of the gutter), seals, penguins, (even saw some of those diving birds that chill above the ocean then dive headfirst into the water), volcanoes (active, dormant, and extinct), enormous sand dunes (2nd biggest in the world), vast deserts to lush jungles, etc... Perú/Bolivia had it all.

Leaving Lima at 06:30 towards Pisco (meaning 'little bird' in Quechua -the ancient Inca language- which is still spoken in certain areas), we took a Peruvian bus service... we got to enjoy Johnny Depp & Co. -full volume- dressed as pirates in 2 movies straight, the whole entire trip. Oh, did I mention it was in Spanish. Full volume.
Scared for life.

PISCO
Upon arrival in Pisco (a small dirty little town -the poorest we would come across during our trek through Perú), we went straight to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas. Set up in 1975, it is a 335,000ha area including the famed Ballestas Islands- a.k.a. "the Galapagos for the poor."

The area around Pisco is known for its production of a liquor made from grapes, known oddly enough as pisco. There are several types of pisco, ranging from just a couple percent alcohol, up to 40% depending of course on it's fermentation (some of their 'kegs' are in the image below). The national drink of Peru is the Pisco Sour, a concoction of pisco, lemon (or lime) juice, egg white, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Sounds pretty nasty, but it's a sweeter cousin to the margarita in my opinion, only with some foam on it. Strange, but good.

Pisko/Pisco - (there are many spelling variations throughout the former Inca empire, and considering they had no written language, it's anyone's guess to which one is correct).

Back to Paracas... where the hue of the sand went from a dirty whites to deep reds, thanks to it's iron content.
We had lunch at one of two restaurants (called "La Mina") in a "village" (I think there was a total of 4 structures, 2 of which were restaurants, and one a toilet) of Lagunilla in the reserve, located at the end of a little peninsula... I had the most amazing shrimp I'll probably ever have. As well as a new cerveza to strike of the list for me (I was determined to try every one that came my way), although this time I immediately fell in love (and created a long-standing relationship that would last for the next couple weeks): Cusqueña. Which also had one of the most original bottles I've ever seen, incorporating an Inca wall into its design [I tried finding a pic online, will work on that one for you guys]. Many of the Peruvian beers were named after the town they originate from, ie- Cusqueña from Cusco, Arequipeña from Arequipa, etc...

Once again, back to Paracas...



Did I mention pelican's...? Who knew?!?

Where absolute dry, meets absolute wet.

Watching a vulture who's probably watching them (and their red shirts).

"The Cathedral"

Mom & Pacific

The rest of the evening was spent watching wild flamingos from a special watch tower, from such a distance I didn't take any photografias. It is one of the very few remaining natural places flamingos chill at, therefore us humans must be kept a safe distance away.

We had dinner in the center of Pisco, which was cut short when we were given a police escort back to our hotel. An older couple had just been sprayed with pepper-spray and robbed at gun-point (2min away from our/their hotel).... "welcome to Perú."

Pisco cabbie

THE BALLESTAS ISLANDS

Waiting for our boat to those poor man's Galapagos...

Our first glimpse of an ancient civilization... An ancient civilization called "Paracas", that existed during the pre Colombian era, with its most famous remnant, "El Candelabro" ( The Candlestick) geoglyph, carved on a hillside on the way to Ballestas islands. Although I agree it looks more like a cactus, especially when you consider the fact that candle holders haven't been around that long. With an impressive height of 128 m (420 ft), we still would have probably floated right by it had the guide not said anything. It makes you wonder whom their target audience was.

Notice the white frosting on the rocks in the foreground? No, not snow, ice, or salt (more on that, in a bit).
Also worth noting, is the weather... apparently it is always like this, overcast during the morning, then around lunch time it gets sunny, hot, and beautiful for the rest of the afternoon... with the exception of Lima, which is overcast for half the year straight. Depressing? I'll get back to that with my final post.

The islands...

They warned us to bring a hat. I think you can see why...

The Ballestas islands are made up of 3 major islands, all of which have a dock, like the one above. They are used roughly once every 5 years, when some extremely lucky people get the job of collecting all that guano... nope, not snow... not salt either... just a more appealing term for bird shit.

...and I thought pigeons were bad...

Due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, makes not only an excellent gun powder, but some sort of super fertilizer which is exported across the globe. It is also generally odorless... which was good news for us!

Also seen in the image above are starfish... when the water receded a bit, the rocks were littered with massive starfish.

I know right!!! (click to see a larger version!)

All those black dots are penguins. All the white ones, are the infamous Peruvian Booby.