02/10 - Paracas

At 7:30am, we took a boat tour to Islas Bellestas. Guano-miners once operated there, but, now, it is a reserve for countless birds and sea lions. The smell is overpowering, and they load the tourist boats so full that it is a pretty slow ride out, but it was still worth it. We took lots and lots of photos. Thankfully, a few of them were on Jim's camera, because it has a better zoom than mine.


Later, we took a bus tour through the Reserva Nacional de Paracas (the entire peninsula). Much of it is desert, but there are some beautiful beaches and rock formations. We had lunch there. There were several tourist restaurants at the place where we stopped, but the guy who drew us in [to "Restaurant Turistico: La Tia Pily"] did so by promising free pisco sours. Then he went outside to recruit more tourists, and, when he finally came back, we had already ordered our food, and he said they had "run out" of free pisco sours. Ha, ha, aaah.

It was a long and tiring day. Eventually, we got back (sunburned), walked to the bus station, and bought tickets for our next destination: Nazca. Then we watched TV and slept.