Lima, Paracas, Ica and than again Lima

asiaquentin
18 janv. 2018
4 min de lecture

a.k.a Breton clan at the other end of the world,

or december with Quentin's family

For us Lima was just a very ugly city, polluted, unsafe and serving just as a pit-stop while travelling in Peru. But in fact the city center made a pretty good impression on us. There are really beautiful streets with many old buildings ( in Lima there are some really old buildings, dating back to the 16th century, which is quite rare for this continent).

Well, but still, the newer neighborhoods with their "improvised" architectural style and buildings "permanently in construction", all of that drowned in fumes... it's still far from being fantastic, but it's worth to stay a few days to visit the center.

This time, we’ve spent 3 days in the city, enjoying a really cool Airbnb:

3.5 € per night in a brand new building, breakfast and beer supply included !!!! That’s a good change after 8m2 cubicle for 20 € per night in Chile :)

The Police outside the presidential palace- "Christmas Madness" mode on.

Later, we’ve headed down south to the seaside village of Paracas, just next to the natural reserve of the same name.

We’ve left Lima on bus and just then we’ve realized that we were on a freaking desert! We haven’t noticed it on our arrival by plane due to the city’s pollution and our fatigue.

After 5hr bus ride with views of the desert and the ocean, we’ve arrived in Paracas, which is actually a tourist town constantly under construction.

The Peruvian concept of a natural reserve is a bit special, because in a protected area you can find freshly build huge buildings and resorts (Hilton included), just by the beach. It maybe wouldn’t be that surprising, if it wasn’t for the fact that just next to those constructions you can observe flamingos wading in plastic bags and bottles just few meters away from kite-surfers.

Well… that’s not exactly what we’ve imagined...

Let’s take a look at the tourist attractions you can find in the town:

boat tours in groups of 30 peoples, that go to a nearby island to nag sea lions and protected birds... I dunno...

buggy tours in groups of 10, that go on a trip through the reserve (the screams of co-passengers and rumbling sound of the engine included)...

Well, that’s not exactly our cup of tea... even less with the abdominal infection we both got on our arrival to Paracas (but, hey ... that’s the joy of travel, isn’t it?) ^^

In the end, we’ve rented bikes to visit the reserve and it turned out to be a good choice- never before we’ve had a chance to cycle in the desert. Even if during all the ride you ask yourself “BUT WHAT THE FUCK GOT INTO YOU TO DO BIKING IN A FUCKING DESERT !!!

Not far after the park entrance, by the desert road, there is a museum depicting the history and culture of the Paracas peoples from 2800 years ago (these are the guys who settled here before the Nasca culture). Their ability of adaptation and resource management in a very arid environment is very impressive. As well as their cults and rituals : momifications, artificial cranial deformation and trepanations (with an impressive survival rate).

The guys lived in a freaking desert and their little fun was to bind each other’s heads and then to punch quite large holes in them...

After them, it's the Nascas who arrive, the guys who drew gigantic geometric figures in the desert ... yes, apparently when you live in the middle of huge sand piles, you try to entertain yourself as you can…

Oh, and another small difference between here and Chile: in Peru anytime while buying something it's good to negotiate. For us, even the price of bottled water went down from 5 soles to 1.5 sol (that's the local currency). You can usually lower the prices by 25%, 50% or even more (depends how turistic the given place is). When someone has a gringo's face, the merchants raise the prices directly, so to pay "more or less" like Peruvian customers, it's necessary to negotiate a little. Even (or especially) to buy a tour or to rent an equipment.

After 5 days in Paracas, we've left for Ica, located more inland. 2.5 km west from this city there's an oasis called Huacachinca, where you can do sand boarding.

Arriving there we were a bit disappointed to see dozens of big buggey that thunded in the dunes.

The place is yet super beautiful and the sunset on the desert is magical :)

The first evening we've only watched how the dusk was covering the landscape, the next day we were practically ready to reenact « The Point Beak » movie, just with sand instead of waves. We were mentally ready to surf those 60 meters high dunes with our boards !!!! Well it turned out that this shit is not as stable as it may seem...

We had a good laugh, even though that the falls were pretty painful (average of 2 falls per 1 downhill slide). We've rented our boards for only 4 soles, so the quality wasn't the best. For the next time we would've pay a bit more to have better quality board-bindings… and our bottoms would thank us for that...

After a week in the desert, we've returned to Lima, where we've joined Quentin's mother, who came to Peru for the Christmas holidays ... Outraging, she even didn't had a jet lag after such a long travel!

That time in the capital, we've took the opportunity to visit a little more the city, museums and do a small wine tasting in a « bodega » near the Museo Nacional de Arqueología , Antropología and Historia del Perú in the Pueblo Libre district.

Another very nice visit you can do in Lima: the catacombs of the convent San Francisco. The whole complex is really well preserved (it's one of the Unesco's World Heritage Sites) and the wall paintings inside are very interesting. There you can find a beautiful library in Harry Potter style as well.