Paracas
Getting In
After one of my many stops in Lima (this one being with Matt), I took the 4 hour bus from Lima to Paracas. It was a short and easy bus ride. The second I left the Cruz del Sur bus station, people are already trying to sell me their boat tours to the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” which is the city’s claim to fame.
The City
Paracas is a coastal town in central Peru just south of Lima with the beach and Pacific Ocean on one side and the desert on the other. It is incredibly dry and known to only rain about 30 minutes every year. The city doesn’t have the nicest infrastructure or boardwalk, but it was good to be back on the water in a beach town. And the sunsets here were absolutely incredible.
You can tell that Paracas has started to grow as a city as it has started to become more of a tourist destination recently. I hadn’t really been by the water since Park Tayrona in the north of Colombia (not counting Lima but that felt different) so it was good to feel the sand between my feet again. When walking along the boardwalk, every person tries to you to come to their restaurant; the competition begins the second you walk by. Overall I had a nice experience chilling out here for 3 days but the town could easily be seen in 1 day or even skipped entirely if on a tighter schedule. After being on the go so much, it was nice to spend a few afternoons just relaxing and sunbathing by the pool at the hostel.
The Food
Since I was right by the coast, naturally I was going to eat a lot of seafood. The restaurants on the boardwalk were all super overpriced but had decent food. On the second day, we went up this dirt road by the hostel and found a street lined with locally priced restaurants with good menú del día prices. Now we’re talking! I ate the rest of my meals on this street. The ceviche could be ordered as the appetizer on the menu del dia for a few extra soles and was always incredibly fresh and tasty. I also had some delicious avocado salads where they would give a generous portion of avocado. And of course the fried fish entree was always a good go to.
The People
I got into the hostel at the same time as a Swiss girl, Sandra, and we ended up spending the next few days doing activities together. She had just started her South American adventure and was eager to hop into the lifestyle. The first night we also made friends with these 5 Canadian guys who were just doing a short travel trip and highly entertaining to be around. The first night at the hostel was Karoake night which started out tame with 1 person going up at a time but after free shots from the bar and more time of drinking eventually led to rowdiness on stage. People started going up together in groups to sing and the crowd drunkenly sang along and danced on table. I went up to sing a couple times with the group of Canadians so everything thought I was from Canada. The MC was trying to end karaoke night but then kept saying okay one more song. I’m not normally a karaoke guy but it turned out to be a really fun, drunken good time.
The Experience
Paracas Natural Reserve
Sandra and I rented bikes one day to go around the Paracas Natural Reserve. It’s recommended to start earlier in the morning because it can get incredibly windy in the afternoon. It was only about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the park and then we spent another 3.5-4 hours biking around the reserve and making stops along the way. I had no real expectations for this activity, but it turned out to be incredibly beautiful and my favorite thing I did during my stay here.
The bike ride inside the park started out with a steady uphill incline and insane headwind. It didn’t feel like we were moving with the wind pushing so hard against us, but we slowly made our way up the road. The landscape was a sandy desert and it felt like I was in Utah or Arizona. We passed by a French girl whose tire had flown off so we stopped to help her out. None of us had service to call her bike rental company. There wasn’t much traffic on the road so we waited with her to try and flag down someone to help. The first car just flew right by us but then the next car stopped and it was the perfect people to help. They spoke good English and had tools in their trunk to help fix the tire. The guy fixed the issue in a matter of minutes and had the bike working better than ever. It was quite a fortunate turn of events and she ended up joining Sandra and I for the rest of the ride. There was multiple viewpoints to stop at along the reserve with beautiful coastal views and giant rock formations.
The ride was way better than expected and the 3 of us were all thoroughly impressed. We made a few stops along the way to enjoy the views and eat some snacks before finishing with Playa Roja, which is advertised as one of the highlights of the Reserve. It was certainly pretty but it’s funny because the tour agencies in town definitely photoshop the colors to make it look more red than it really is.
Now that it was early afternoon, the wind was really ripping on the way home. Luckily it was mostly a tailwind so it was pushing us forward to the point where we didn’t even have to peddle. But there was one long winding turn our bikes were at a 90 degree angle fighting against the crazy wind. It was a really solid bike ride with a mixture of desert-like sand dunes and rocky coastlines.
Ballestas Islands
Ballestas Islands, also known as the Poor Man’s Galapagos was exactly what’d you expect for paying less than $10 versus the hundreds, (if not thousands) of dollars for Galapagos. The boat ride is about 2 hours and leaves early in the morning to avoid being on the water during the heavy afternoon winds. It was incredibly touristy and the dock was packed with different companies taking out crowds of people.
The island had some really cool rock formations but overall the experience was pretty underwhelming. Although it was really nice to be on the water in a boat for a few hours. We did see a few sea lions, a couple penguins, and lots of birds. The best part was all the birds in the sky and the flocks of seagulls flying in unison.
Huacachina
The City
Sandra and I took the 1 hour bus together going inland from Paracas to Ica and then we took a 10 minute taxi into Huacachina. The town is known for being a desert oasis and is popular among backpackers for doing the dune buggy and sand boarding tours as well as partying. While it is incredibly touristy, it did turn out to be a great one day stop for both these things.
This desert oasis has also been a popular tourist destination for locals for 70+ years. The town population is just over 100 yet thousands flock here to ride in the dune buggies and experience the desert vibes. The whole town is basically just tour agencies and people trying to sell you their dune buggy trip. It’s also another great spot to catch a fire-y red sunset.
Dune Buggy and Sand Skiing
The main attraction of Huacachina is the dune buggy tours where they drive you around super fast up and down the giant sand dunes. All the tours leave around 4pm when it’s not quite so hot, and at that time it’s a chaotic mass of people walking to the buggies. This is definitely a very touristic destination, but hey I am a tourist.
The buggy tour also includes a few hills to body board down, but Sandra and I decided to spend a little extra money to rent skis. I mean how often do you get to hop on skis in the sand? We did a practice run before the tour and couldn’t even move at all; it was impossible to get speed and traction. We were really questioning this decision. But once we got on the actual sand dunes it turned out to be really fun and we were able to get a few turns in. There was 3 different slopes that we skied down culminating with the largest one. The first two rides were only 5-10 seconds but the last one was a solid 30 or 40 seconds.
I never expected to hop on skis in the sand but I’m so glad that I did. It was a fun, unique experience. It’s a much different feeling than being on the snow and way harder to turn.
The dune buggy ride itself was incredibly fun; it was like being on a roller coaster. The driver would accelerate up the hill then we’d fly over the other side. He would also take these angled turns around the dunes like a NASCAR driver. The Bolivian mother and daughter sitting next to me were screaming the entire time. It was highly entertaining.
The experience was quite thrilling and it was a nice combo between the dune buggy ride and the sand skiing. We also made several stops along the way so everyone could have their classic desert photo shoot. The ride ended with us watching the sun go down from the top of one of the sand dunes.
The Nightlife
Once again my stay at Wild Rover (the hostel chain I stayed at in Cusco for my birthday) was a big party night. They charge ridiculous prices for drinks so me and this British couple I met in Paracas decided to buy personal sized bottles of rum so that all we had to do was buy coke. It was definitely the move. The 3 of us and this Australian couple all hung out drinking and chatting. The party was starting to pick up throughout the evening as people danced around the pool to a mixture of Reggaetón and pop music. Then around 1am, the Wild Rover party shut down and everyone took “the secret entrance” from the hostel directly to the club next door. The club was full of Peruvians and backpackers and the energy was through the roof. It was a whole lot of fun and I was quite popular with the Peruvians that night. I ended up stumbling back to Wild Rover just after 4 in the morning. My 9am bus ride from Ica back to Lima the next morning was rough. I nearly ate the cost just to sleep in more but I pulled through. I ended up sleeping most of the bus ride.
Mancora
Getting In
I spent a few final days in Lima after Huacachina meeting up with Maria again before heading north up the coast on my way to Ecuador. The bus ride from Lima to Mancora was a whopping 20 hours all the way up the coast of Peru. But it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Unlike my unexpected 32 hour bus ride earlier in Peru, this one I anticipated to be an incredibly long ride. I left Lima at 12pm and was in Mancora by 8 the next morning. I stocked up before the bus ride with snacks and a sandwich, but they also gave us a brown paper bag with some food and bottled water. I spent the ride catching up on my blog, practicing Spanish, listening to music, and sleeping at night time. There was 2 stops along the way at coastal towns where we could get out for 10-15 minutes and stretch our legs. Overall it went by pretty quickly all things considered. When I arrived, there were moto taxis everywhere and I had one drop me off at my hostel.
The City
Mancora is a small coastal town in the north of Peru that is well known in the backpacker community for surfing and partying. It’s the perfect stop off when either heading north to Ecuador (as I was) or heading south from Ecuador. It’s a beach town to the max with all the water sports: surfing, kite surfing, diving, jet skiing. The town isn’t super highly developed with most roads being a mixture of sand and dirt, and one main “highway” through the center. But it lives up to its reputation as a beach party town with chill vibes during the day hanging out on the beach and clubs open late at night. There are always moto taxis waiting outside Wild Rover to take you to the beach or to the club depending what time of day it is. I really enjoyed the energy of this town; but it’s also a lot of partying so a few nights is enough before it’s time to move on.
The People
I once again stayed at Wild Rover hitting the trifecta of all 3 locations in Peru. Just like the other 2 locations, this was a big party hostel with nightly drink specials and free shots. There was a pool in the middle and lots of places to relax and soak in the sun.
There are some hostels that just hit with socialization and Wild Rover Mancora was spot on. I made so many good friends here over the course of my 4 days and 3 nights. The group chemistry was strong. I was proud of myself because I spent most of my time hanging out with a group of people from South America only speaking Spanish. It was very challenging at times because the conversations with the group would go so fast that I would barely contribute, but it was still good just to be constantly surrounded by Spanish. Let’s just say I was much quieter than usual. It was much easier to communicate when I would have 1 on 1 conversations with the various people.
The core crew was me, Caro (Colombia), Veronica (Peru), Sole (Argentina), Connie (Chile), and Remi (France). I loved Caro’s energy and we had some really solid conversations together. Veronica was also very lively and she was the only Latina in this group that spoke English well. Sole was a sweetheart but I really struggled to understand her at times because I wasn’t used to the Argentinian accent. I liked Connie but she spoke her rapid Chilean Spanish with lots of slang so I really had a hard time understanding her. It was always really difficult for me to answer when she asked me a question. Remi was kind of cocky but a nice guy who had lived in Spain a few years so his Spanish was strong. I also ran into Yoav, who was at my Spanish school in Medellin, and he was part of the core crew for the first day and a half until he left to continue further south in Peru. It was really awesome spending a few days with this group immersing myself in Spanish with people from all across the continent but it was also exhausting, especially when you throw in all the drinking.
I also had my English speaking crew when I needed a reprieve from Spanish (and sometimes the two groups would mix). There was Nathaly from Lima who I spoke to in Spanish by the pool the first day, but she also spoke perfect English. I ultimately spoke more English with her and we had some really great conversations. I really like when I meet people my age from the country that I’m in that are traveling to other cities. The conversations we have are much different than the ones I have with European backpackers. There was also Alex (Germany), Daniel (New Zealand), Will (England), Tyson (Australia), and so many other familiar faces. Since every night was a party at the hostel it felt like I knew everyone.
I also met a guy from Ukraine which was interesting given the current state of his country. We talked a bit about how things have changed since the war but didn’t want to pry too much since it can be a sensitive issue; I would rather let him open up. He definitely had a different perspective on things which was cool to see.
The staff at Wild Rover Mancora was also incredibly fun and friendly. I enjoyed going up to the bar and chatting with them or hanging out together by the pool. They interacted heavily with the guests and really added to the experience. I got along incredibly well with Flor and Mine. They were both wild and energetic Peruvian beach babes who knew how to have a good time.
The Food
Just like Paracas, the food is pricey along the water but if you just do some searching for a good menú del día spot then you can get ceviche, fish of the day, and a juice drink for a reasonable price. Or the even cheaper option is to go to the mercado and eat their lunch specials. I went with my South American crew to do this one afternoon and then it became the go to for every other lunch.
The Nightlife
Every night the party kicked off at Wild Rover, and most days even before night time. We would usually start having drinks by the pool around 4 and this would continue for the rest of the night. It was 3 days of a lot of drinking, which was really fun because it was such a social hostel but I was absolutely dead afterwards. 31 year old me can party but man the hangovers are getting rough, especially when you start stacking the days. I felt pretty rough during the daytimes, but luckily my only obligation was to lie on the beach or by the pool at the hostel. Every night until 1am Wild Rover would have beer pong, a DJ bumping music with people dancing, and people hanging around chatting. This was the pregame before we would hit up the clubs. The first night we went to a place by Wild Rover which had a live band playing salsa music. Then we headed to some club which was supposed to be good but really wasn’t very crowded or fun. The second night was really fun, we went to a club which was playing Reggaetón and had people grooving on the dance floor. The third night I contained myself since I had the whale watching the next day and only partied during the pregame at Wild Rover.
The Beach
There was a beach next to Wild Rover called Playa del Amor which wasn’t that nice but it was a good place to watch the sunset. The main beach Las Pocitas had better sand and was a great spot to just soak in the sun. When I first arrived off the bus I west and lied by myself on the beach for a few hours just relaxing after what had been an amazing stretch in Peru. It gave me an opportunity to think back and reflect upon my experience in the country.
The second day I went to the beach with the South American crew and we had a good time listening to music and chatting away (well not me too much since I had really run out of things to say in Spanish at this point).
But later that day Caro and I had a solid conversation while watching the sunset. I really liked talking to her because she’s good at bringing out the Spanish in me. Also I found her Colombian Spanish east to understand as well. It’s always nice when I talk about something new that I never had before and am actually able to hold down a conversation, even if it’s less detailed than it could be. While she was talking more, it was definitely still a 2 way conversation about some deeper things than I was used to talking about.
Whale Watching Tour
My bus to Cuenca, Ecuador wasn’t until 11pm on my last day so I still had time for one more full day in Peru. Sole and I signed up for the whale watching tour which required a 6am pickup. It was a rough awakening after a tamer night than usual here but I was still m drinking. It was going to be an interesting day because she knew absolutely no English and I always had a tough time with her Argentinian Spanish. It was about a 45 min bus ride to Vichayito where we took off on the boat for our whale watching expedition. I was definitely the only non native Spanish speaker on the bus. Sole and I chatted here and there throughout the day but there was many moments of communication struggles. She would say something that I wouldn’t completely understand or wouldn’t be able to come up with a good answer. There was also times I wanted to chat with her but couldn’t find the right words. It’s all part of the process and we still had a fun day together.
The tour didn’t start out with much action and the guide was explaining various things about whales in Spanish. But finally after a little bit, we started to spot some whales. We were usually pretty far away but could still see them jumping off in the distance. It was highly entertaining to hear the sounds of the boat when we would see one. Mira! Mira! (Look! Look!). The energy of the boat was very high whenever we could see a whale. We ended up seeing 4 different whales. We also saw a group of dolphins traveling together all jumping out of the water in unison. Even if Sole and I had struggles with our verbal communication, we shared the joys of this experience together in an unspoken way.
It was a solid day on the water but it wasn’t done yet. The next stop was swimming with turtles! The water was absolutely freezing but still felt nice to hop in. Then the guides got out some fish and starting throwing it in the water to attract the turtles (a bit unnatural but I guess it’s a win win for both us and the turtles). All the sudden the boat was surrounded by these giant turtles and we were just swimming in the water right next to them. It was actually kind of startling/scary whenever you would accidentally bump into a turtle. One time I let out a girlie yelp thinking I bumped a turtle but it turned out to be this guy’s leg. Sole was dying laughing at me and loved telling everyone that story back at the hostel.
It was really cool to put on goggles and get an up close look at the turtles under the water. They were all around us. Then the guide used his GoPro and took a video capturing different angles of each person swimming next to the turtles. We were probably in the water for over 30 minutes next to the turtles.
It was a really awesome experience. Then we hopped back on the boat and rode back to the dock. This day excursion only cost a little over $20, I’m really going to miss the Peruvian prices. When we got back into town, Sole and I went to the market to grab lunch and reminisce (as best I could) on a great day. This was a great final activity in Peru. Now I just had like 9 hours to kill until my night bus. Luckily Wild Rover was a great place to lounge the day away.