Peru: Paracas

The bus from Lima to Paracas was very comfortable. We got a small meal of chicken and rice, and a movie in Spanish, which I ignored. We arrived in Paracas about 5.30, and we waited around to watch the sunset, before going to a beachfront restaurant.

I tried cervice (raw fish marinated in lemon juice and pepper), and Cusquena (a Peruvian beer), and both were very nice, then went back to the hotel for an early night, since we were getting up at 6.

We *did* get up at 6, and had a basic breakfast of bread and fruit juice (and I tried some of Katie's Vegemite, which was pretty good) then went to the harbour to get on a boat to the Ballestas islands, or "Little Galapagos".

In the bay were lots of jellyfish, little fish leaping out of the water, pelicans, and some dolphins! The boat arrived, and took us very close to the dolphins so we could take pictures (but I failed at taking pictures, the dolphins were just too sneaky!), the we set off at speed.

We slowed down as we passed a candelabra (or trident, or cactus, or something) carved into the sandstone of a hill. Nobody knows it's purpose, or even how old it is, though it was discovered in 18 something.

When we got to the islands there were seagulls of many varieties everywhere, literally tens of thousands, with a few penguins, and quite a lot of seals. There were also lots of nice rock formations. We got incredibly close to some of the animals, and some of the seals even seemed to be posing, though despite my encouragement, none of the penguins would jump into the water.

All in all it was a fantastic trip, though I did get majorly sunburnt. It was so hazy in Lima, and we got up early enough that you couldn't really tell how the weather would go, so the sun stole a march on me.

Once again I took photos with my camera mainly, so nothing to put on here :(

The only photo I got on my phone was some jellyfish