Day 48 - Paracas to Lima, Peru (5 May 2012)

Day 48 – Paracas to Lima, Peru (5 May 2012)

Today we wake up early hoping to go on our Isla Ballestas tour.  We are lucky, it is heavily overcast today therefore, there is not much wind to make the sea rough.  We head to the dock and jump on our boat.  We then start to head out the island.  This boat is about the same speed as Federal Offence (so much faster than that hideously slow boat at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.  As we get further out to sea (and away from the protection from the wind of the peninsula) the boat is bouncing up and down more and more and hitting the water after a wave heavier and heavier.  The driver doesn’t mind though, it is actually quite an entertaining ride.  We do get to the island in quick time, about half an hour.  On the way we stop to look at the Candelabra.   This is just a big picture of a candle in the middle of a sandy cliff.  It is similar to what we missed with the Nasca lines (city between Arequipa and Ica, Peru).  We are happy we have seen this and we tell ourselves that this justifies our decision to skip Nasca.  We then head on to the island.  We do not go on the island, and even if we had the choice, I think I would pass.  This island is home to over 1,000,000 birds.  We can see that.  They are everywhere!  The island has so many birds that it is white from the bird shit.  We float slowly around this island and we see many different varieties of birds as well as penguins and sea lions.  This island is known as the “poor mans Galapagos Islands”.  The Galapagos Islands are off Ecuador and cost a fortune to visit, and if they were anything like this Island I wouldn’t pay too much to go.  After two hours we head back to the shore.  Ann and I then pack up our bags and leave Paracas.  We catch a collectivo to Pisco.  A collectivo is a taxi that will drive you to a certain point for a fixed price, but the only catch is it wont leave until it is full.  Our collectivo is full in five minutes and we are on our way.  We are heading to Pisco which is the town 15 minutes away so we can catch another collectivo to the Pan Americana Highway.  These two collectivo’s cost us 9 soles (4.5) for the both of us as opposed to the taxi that would have cost 20 soles (10).  In normal circumstances we would have just caught the taxi, however I wanted to experience what the Peruvians did in everyday life, and also it was a good challenge to see if our Spanish was up to finding the second Collectivo in Pisco. When on the Pan Americana Highway, we find a lady on the side of the highway who is selling bus tickets to Lima.  We buy a ticket each for 20 soles (10).    We don’t have to wait for a bus, we just jump on the next one that drives through the highway which is 2 minutes.  This bus doesn’t have any tourists on it.  It is full of locals.  This bus is also a little inferior to the touristic buses we have been using.  For starters, they don’t have working air conditioning, the seats don’t recline.  My seat is broken, there’s no food on this bus.  But they are playing braveheart the movie in Spanish.  The bus takes us four hours.  We know when we have arrived in Lima.  The city just goes on and on.  Lima has a population of 8 million, so effectively just about twice the size of NZ’s population.  It is the biggest city that we have been in.  We get off the bus and jump into a taxi.  We are staying in a suburb called Miraflores.  It is the safest suburb in Lima since central Lima is quiet dangerous.  We get to the suburb and the taxi driver tells us that south of our hostel is safe, but north isn’t.  So we thank him and walk into our hostel.  We reserved a room in this hostel the other day, but when we arrive they don’t have our reservation.  Therefore, they only have two beds left in a dorm.   We take them as it is already 5pm and we don’t want to be looking for a hostel at night time.  We put down our gear and quickly walk down the road to the closest supermarket to buy dinner.  From what I have seen of Lima Central and Miraflores so far, Lima looks like a nice modern city, just a pity about the crime that occurs.  When we get back to the supermarket we cook dinner and relax for the evening.