two days in Paracas

Oct 26, 13 7:30 AM

Here’s a waypoint for riders. S13 54.022 W076 17.281, if you want to be at this spot in Peru

Further east, about twenty miles inland, there’s a lake with black water. Between the two there’s not one sign of life at all. Not the smallest plant or animal. There are a couple of roads that are scrapes that follow rocky ground but the rest is sand in incredible colors but mostly gold. A fair percentage of 4×4’s and bikes haven’t bothered with the roads and you can see frequent tracks disappearing off to the horizon

But before that we went exploring Paracas and Pisco, where the drink ‘Pisco sour’ comes from. Here’s the main street in Paracas

And I’ve just realized I don’t have a picture of the beach. Oh well. But here’s a pier covered in gulls and pelicans

Further north is Pisco, which is much bigger, less attractive but busy. ‘Pisco sour’ is a kind of grape-brandy-and-lemon-juice the Spanish invented here in the 1600’s. In fact there’s a variety called the ‘chicha sour’ which has the corn juice thing added.

Off to Pisco we go, along the waterfront from Paracas. it’s an active working fishing town with zero tourist component

We pass a couple of women cleaning small fish. There’s a crowd of gulls, egrets and pelicans waiting for the guts

When the guts are thrown over the wall there’s an interesting pecking order (sorry) with the pelicans first, then the gulls and lastly the shy egrets. Fortunately there’s lots to go around

Across the street it looks like this guy’s about to throw something body-like into the trunk of his car. There are a ton of these early big 70’s cars in Peru

Further down some abandoned but beautiful buildings

And the main waterfront plaza isn’t in great shape either. But the people are friendly and it’s all strangely comfortable

A little further along

Downtown it’s happy chaos with a billion mototaxis

We turn around and head back down the coast looking for the famous Paracas sand that some riders have talked about. I’m in no rush since there are a couple of days to kill so go for a late afternoon explore. As you enter the Paracas reserve there are two choices, a road that follows the coast or a minor one that heads inland. Lucinda says inland, since we have tomorrow too

Another shot from this location

It’s completely silent

Occasionally, maybe 10 miles from the ocean and maybe 500 feet elevation there are mounds of shells exposed

A geologist could explain this

The track curves back to the ocean cliffs (the opening photo) and we work our way down to the ocean where we wait until an hour before sunset before riding home

The next day we head straight for the ocean again

Get the required Lucinda-looking-out-to-sea shot

Over the edge the sea looks like this

And the other way, this

And head off to ride in the sand. It’s wind-swept and shallow, no more than 6 inches deep and a mix of heavy red stuff and light yellow stuff. Another pose

A section of the GPS track shows us goofing around

We can see a bay of fish boats and some buildings in a cove a few miles away and head towards that. The only life anywhere out here and a surprise as there’s nothing on the map