We wake up and pack up our gear to leave Huancachina. We know that there is a bus leaving Ica for
Paracas at 10am so we are hoping to catch that.
We settle our bill and taxi back to Ica.
Ica bus station is only about a ten minute drive away from Huacachina,
although it feels like we are in the middle of nowhere with the sand dunes all
over the place. This is why I have
really enjoyed Huacachina, small town in its own little world, perfect! We get
to the bus station and book tickets for the 10am bus for 20 soles each
(10). We are lucky as this bus is a
double decker and the front two seats on the top level haven’t been
booked. Unfortunately this bus ride is
only an hour, so we won’t get the pleasure of the prime seats for very long. We arrive in Paracas at about 11-1130. Paracas is another small town of about 2,500
people and it is located on the Pacific coastline. It is fantastic to see the ocean again, I
havnt seen it since about day 11 in La Serena, Chile. We walk to the hostel where we have made
reservations. The hostel is called
Paracas Backpackers House. The owner has
sent us an email warning us of the other backpacker operations naming their
hostels in a similar fashion. This is
because the hostel we are staying at has built up such a good reputation that
the other hostels are trying to trick the tourists that they have reached the
right hostel. Not us though, Ann and
Rico are more onto it than that (the email helped though, as there was a
picture of the hostel attached). The
owner of this hostel is called Alberto and he is very helpful. When we arrive he tells us about the town and
points out what restaurants are expensive, which ones and cheap and which ones
are cheap and very good. This hostel is
really good. We have simple rooms, but
it is clean and tidy and exactly what we need.
This hostel is full as well. All
the travellers have heard such good things about Alberto, that they have come
to stay at his hostel (and they havnt been tricked by other hostels). We book two tours with Alberto for the next
day which cost us 45 soles for both (22.50).
We then go for a walk around the town and look for somewhere for
lunch. We walk to the waterfront and see
the port. The waterfront has lots of
restaurants, but we know from Alberto that the better cheaper restaurants are
50 metres past these restaurants. We go
to the cheaper restaurants and pick one.
We both order the set menu which gets us a chicken noodle soup and a
chicken saltado for the main. This costs
us 10 soles (5). We are really enjoying
the saltado’s and we seem to be having them daily! Might as well make the most of it while we
can! It is a Peruvian dish after all. We
also get an Inca Kola to share as well.
Once again, just a Peruvian drink!
While we are having lunch we start talking to a Canadian guy and his
father who are in Peru on holiday together.
It turns out that they are staying at our hostel! We leave them and continue on our walk around
the town. We decide to buy a beer each
and sit on the beach to enjoy the vista’s (no liquor bans in Paracas!) We come
across a bunch of Pelicans, we havnt seen any before and they are pretty
big. So we just watch them while we have
our beers on the beach. Was a beautiful
day too. After the pelican watching we
go back to the hostel and we sit with Alberto for an hour to discuss Ecuador
and Columbia. He went for a holiday last
year with his family, so he tells us all the good places since we are heading
up north. He also gave us a list of all
the places he stayed at and their costs.
It was such a big help and gave us a good idea of our plan up
north. Then he spoke to the Canadians
about their trip down south of Peru and told them all the places to go. We all really like Alberto, he helped everyone
in that hostel. I guess this is why the
hostel has such a good reputation, the service and tour advice is second to
none! Alberto (who is Peruvian but
speaks good English) is a natural at this game, he knows what the customer
wants. This hostel also has a really
good feel to it. Everyone is chatting
and talking about where they have been and where they are going. It is really nice. We then head out for dinner as we are getting
hungry. We get another set menu for 20
soles this time (10). We get a salad, a
rice dish and a freshly made lemonade.
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