Paracas, Peru 🇵🇪

Our boat trip out today is to the Ballestas Islands, which are known as the ‘poor man’s Galápagos’.  As we journey out it is great to see flocks of Pelicans bobbing in the water.  On one of the hills there is a Nazca drawing of a Candelabra.  It is only a 30minute boat ride from the mainland but we do see a pod of dolphins in the distance.

The protected islands are huge limestone rocks.  We see lots of birds, I even spot a Humbolt penguin or two.  There are sea lions relaxing on the rocks that seem quite unbothered with us motoring by.

After coffee and a couple of cakes to keep Steve going we wandered along the shoreline watching Pelicans and found Flamingos at the far end.  For lunch I took Steve to the little shack restaurant I had tried previously as their ceviche is really good.  Steve opted for steak and chips, and proclaimed the chips as the best he had had in years! 

Our afternoon is spent in the national reserve, this time on quad bikes.  It is so much more fun than a bus although more dusty.  I am not the best driver, tend to take curves too wide which slows me down.  We visit a couple of viewpoints and see the Red beach from a higher point whilst dolphin spotting.  It is just a nice place to be roaring around on quads.