Lima to Paracas, Peru

Well.....it has been joyous, and we´ve only been here for about 4 days, but being transported into another world, using another language, and acclimating to another culture has distanced us beyond the limits of time. It is though we have been here ages already. On Thursday we decided to leave Lima and so we packed up, checked out of our hotel and hit the streets of Lima in search of the bus station. We walked along under partially overcast skies, dirt at our feet and people everywhere, horns were honking, taxi and bus hustlers were yelling and we walked, single file through it all with 40lb packs. When we got close to the bus station we asked a nearby policeman where the station was. He pointed down the street and told us it was around the corner. As it was we were in the very neighborhood where a fellow hosteller had been robbed the day before, so we looked a bit skeptically down the abandoned street. Seeing our doubt and a bit of fear, the police officer told us to follow him and patted his gun, explaining, "You´re safe with me." Sure enough, right around the corner, there was the bus station. Upon arrival the police officer offered a few measures of precaution for protecting ourselves, our money and our belongings and bid us farewell.

After purchasing the bus fare we found that we needed to go to the other bus station on the outskirts of town by the Pan-American Highway in order to catch the bus. We had 3 hours so we thought we would be economical and take a bus. As it was there was only one bus to take us where we needed to go and despite the aide of the bus stop workers running out in the street trying to get the bus for us, it was to no avail. We decided to just take the taxi for a bit higher fare, but more direct and sure. When we arrived at the bus station our bags were tagged and loaded and we were ushered to a posh waiting room with TV and sofas to lounge on. When the time came we loaded up on the bus and left Lima, never to return, but no great loss there.

As the city faded away we were greeted by the Peruvian coast, blue ocean leading up to desert shores. That´s right! I too was shocked to see great expanses of desert and dunes stretching out as far as your eye could see. Every so often you would dip into a valley were a river drained to the sea and suddenly the landscape would change before your eyes from desolate wasteland to lush green farmland with rows and rows of cotton, corn, sugarcane and chicken farms. Chickens are raised here much like the states. They are grown in houses that are hundreds of feet long and about twenty feet wide with small cages where the animals can barely move. The desert was also broken up by settlements of luxury homes on the water in the middle of wasteland. I wonder how fresh water is procured for such lavish gardening?

Moving on we stopped in Chinca (I think that was the name of the first town) which was a wine town similar to Napa or Sonoma, then proceeded on to Pisco. From Pisco we left and drove a few more kilometers to Paracas, a sleepy beach town nestled in the Bay of Paracas and just a few kilometers from the Paracas National Reserve Park entrance. After being in a bus for four hours it was refreshing to get out, strech my legs and breathe in deep breaths of sea-sweetened air. We began the trek down the center of town in an effort to find a clean cheap place to stay. Its the off-season now, so we knew if we played our cards right we would be able to strike a deal. After touring the hostals the Lonely Planet book suggested we were given a generous offer by a friendly guy who owned two hostels and a travel agency. We checked out the rooms, bargained, and flipped rocks in an effort to choose in our sleep and food deprived state. We finally decided on a room with two beds(Jordan prefers the floor), a private bath with hot water and a nice patio outside our room with a glorious view of the beach and bay. After washing up and settling a bit we set out to find something to eat. The town sports a glamorous tile boardwalk that is about 50 meters long, lined with restaurants on one side and a view of the beach and bay on the other. As we walked by, various hustlers ( I need to find a better word for them) tried to entice us to eat their cuisine, which was terribly overpriced. We finally settled for a small restaurant on the outskirts that was a bit less lavish.

Friday dawned quietly with plenty of sunshine and a fresh sea breeze. We relaxed and then went to the same restaurant for a desayuno(breakfast) of bread with butter, a fruit bowl of banana, papaya, apple and pineapple, and our choice of fresh juice, coffee(Nescafe) or tea (in this case Mate de Coca which is a mild helping of cocaine from the coca leaves and is legal in several South American countries and is said to help with altitude, or just give so much energy that you don´t notice the altitude). After breakfast we decided to head out to the Reserve on foot, despite the protest of our travel guide host who insisted we pay for a tour. Now when I think of "National Reserve" I think of green forests and such. This reserve consisted of thousands of acres of desert whose coastline happened to host penguins(the warm water variety), flamingos, dolphins and an Incan ruin in the shape of a candalabra. We decided to try our luck at walking, though our host warned us that it was 13-15 kilometers of desert!!!!!! We made it to the museum/bird-watching area, which wasn´t too impressive, then pressed on to the bay on the other side. Sophie decided to head back to the hotel so Jordan and I set out. About 1 kilometer up the road some locals stopped and gave us a ride to the bay, which was huge and absolutely beautiful. A little gathering of restaurants(probobly just for tourists) was on a small peninsula that extended into the middle of the bay. On the left side towering desert cliffs called the Cathedral obscured the horizon, while to the right the coastline curved sweetly toward the entry of the bay. Jordan took a swim then we hiked to the top of a small hill beside the restaurants to view the bay in its entirety.

After relaxing for a bit we ate a VERY expensive meal (on the expensive scale here), and then geared up for our return trip back across the desert along the road. No offers of rides this time and after 10-12 kilometers of desert we reached the outskirts of the town in late afternoon.We walked through luxury neighborhoods with walled yards and exquisite gardening, all with backyard pools and boats. We finally joined Sophie at the hotel and refreshed for dinner. We had seen some vendors on the boardwalk before who were selling necklaces, earrings and bracelets of semi-precious stones such as amazonianite, peruvian opal, amber and turquoise. We all made perchases and friends with these Peruvian/artist/hippie types as they taught us how to weave the materials and shared with us about their country and asked us of ours. It was a sweet time and it felt real, not just a bottled tourist experience, but hearing of real life from a local. These people travel all over the continent selling their wares at tourist spots, craft fairs and such. They have seen and experienced a lot. There was one woman and two men. Such friendly, helpful, loving people. We didn´t even bargain when we bought necklaces, they had all given us free gifts from their trade, what more could we ask for, than some new friends and excellent practice in our new language.