The little pocket of Peru in the bottom left hand corner of the country is apparently a must do for people visiting Peru and so it’s pretty full of tourists, even in the shoulder season. I was going to squeeze in the four locations in that area in one blog as I think a couple of them are overrated and then throw in an extra bit that I thought was great but now it’s become a long blog cut in half. Haha.

First up for me was a short little drive down the coast 25kms to a town called Paracas. I feel some cynicism coming of which is probably unwarranted. Paracas is only a small town of about 3000 people, 99% of them must work in tourism. From here you can catch a sardine boat, well, be packed in tourist boat like a sardine to visit the nearby Ballestas Islands which are the poor man’s version of the Galapagos Islands. Or you can visit the nearby Paracas National Reserve, which according to the brochures features dramatic landscapes, including cliffs, beaches, and unique rock formations, or you can take a ride to the nearby airport and take a scenic flight over the famous Nazca Lines which is actually somewhere you may have heard of.

As I rode slowly into town I was swamped with people trying to stop me to sign me up on one of the excursions. Like a couple of other places I have been, people yell really loudly and I think I’m going the wrong direction down the street or something has fallen off my bike. I’m used to that now though. It took me about 2 minutes to cruise slowly down the main street and then I returned again to the start where I had seen a restaurant which offered American breakfasts. Busy tourist towns do have some advantages. I was able to park my bike and gear safely at the front of the restaurant and while I was waiting for breakfast to arrive, I had a quick wander along the docks to experience the pandemonium.

I spoke to a guy at a restaurant who had wanted to do a flight of the Nazca Lines and despite going to the huge airport with 25 gates there were no planes and no flights because the government didn’t have any spare aviation fuel to sell to the airport. His story, but I have heard similar stories. I have more to say about the Nazca Lines if you keep reading.

I then rode around to the National Park which had a nominal entrance fee and they gave you a map. Which I found pretty confusing. As a tourist in Paracas you can hire a guide or a mountain bike or a scooter or a quadbike or even a dune buggy and explore the area yourself. Despite the signage and the map I got lost a few times. It’s not a huge area and if you can follow the map I think it was a 30km circuit. It would have been an uncomfortable ride on a mountain bike or scooter.  It was very much a condensed version of the coastline I’d been riding for weeks except for the lack of rubbish. So as a tourist on a time schedule it was probably a nice place to visit.

I left Paracas and headed to Huacachina which is pronounced “wah-kah-CHEE-nah” and translates to “the place of the crying woman” in Quechua, the indigenous language of the people of that area’. Local legend says it was formed by beautiful woman who wept for her lost love, and her tears formed the lagoon. You may not have heard of it but it’s highly likely that you’ve seen it in photos before. It’s been a place for tourists to visit for over a hundred years, but as the nearby city of Ica expands it is almost encroaching on it. I’m sure it brings in too much money for it to be swallowed up by the city.

I booked a cheap hotel about a kilometre away and walked there in the afternoon. I often try and do this so I don’t have to worry about my bike and gear. It was nice, busy, touristy and full of the associated venders and touts. After I had wandered around and eaten an ice cream, I bought a bottle of water and headed up a dune to watch the sunset. Just me and about 1000 other people, I can’t imagine how busy it gets in tourist season. There were dune buggies roaring up and down the dunes which I guess is what dune buggies are supposed to do. And people sand boarding down. I even saw a couple of guys come down on snowboards. Despite all the people it was still nice to watch the sunset and the buildings light up. It was sort of like the darkness swallowed up all the people and the noise, and I was on my own.

The road back into town wasn’t designed for walkers so I needed to scurry back home with the dimming light. I wasn’t overly hungry but I passed a tamale shop near the hotel and for two bucks I thought I’d give one a go. They were square like a sandwich but wrapped up in a banana leaf. She asked if I wanted it hot so I said yes and she disappeared out the back and returned a few minutes later with the banana leaf gone and it was in a Styrofoam takeaway package. Despite my requests she then put it in a plastic bag and then put that in another plastic carry bag. No wonder the country is covered in the things. It was sort of compressed minced corn with a piece of meat in it. Edible but I won’t bother buying another one. Next morning it was another short ride to the town of Nasca and the second part of this long blog.