Lima to Paracas

We left Lima on the 8.45am bus for the 4 hour trip to Paracas, driving through the Lima suburbs until hitting the open road.  Much of the coast along here is extremely arid, with the odd green oasis popping up.  Many of the villages have large ´´Christ the Redeemer´¨ style statues on nearby hills, and the earthquake damage from a few months ago is quite obvious.  There are many collapsed or damaged buildings, and still a lot of USAID tents about.  Our hotel here is right on the beach, and we had a room with a lovely sea-view.

Straight after arriving, we took a bus trip out to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas, which consists mostly of huge expanses of desert, but some interesting coastal scenery with cliffs and rock formations.

  There appears to be several archaeological sites as well, but these were not explained to us - we assume they´re probably evidence of early settlements.  Had lunch at Lagunillas and then sat on the beach for an hour or so.  This place was also earthquake damaged and is very basic.  The food was good, but the toilet consisted of a 20litre paint bucket in a corner with a curtain around it.  Simple, but functional!  We then drove around to the cliff area known as La Catedral which unfortunately had partly collapsed in the quake, so now consists of an outcrop of rock on its own just off the cliff itself.

We walked into town for dinner and found a nice little local cafe run by a friendly little elderly lady.  The food was absolutely delicious, mostly seafood based, and the portion sizes were enormous.  The beer was also very cheap, so prime backpacker territory!