Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [96]
An hour is spent cruising around the islands’ arches and caves and watching large herds of noisy sea lions sprawl on the rocks. The most common guano-producing birds in this area are the guanay cormorant, the Peruvian booby and the Peruvian pelican, seen in colonies several thousand strong. You’ll also see cormorants, Humboldt penguins and, if you’re lucky, dolphins. Although you can get close enough to the wildlife for a good look, some species, especially the penguins, are more visible with binoculars.
Back on shore, you can grab a bite to eat at one of the many waterfront restaurants near the dock in El Chaco, or you can continue on a tour of the Reserva Nacional de Paracas. The community of El Chaco is generally a more inviting place to enjoy being oceanside than Pisco; if sleeping in Pisco you can always catch a return colectivo later in the day.
RESERVA NACIONAL DE PARACAS
This vast desert reserve occupies most of the Península de Paracas. For tour operators, Click here. Alternatively, taxi drivers who function as guides often wait beyond the dock where passengers disembark in Paracas’ beach village of El Chaco, and can take groups into the reserve for around S50 for a three-hour tour. You can also walk from El Chaco – just make sure to allow lots of time, and bring food and plenty of water. To get there, start at the obelisk (Map) commemorating the landing of the liberator General José de San Martín that lies near the entrance to El Chaco village, and continue on foot along the tarmac road that heads to the south.
About 3km south is a park-entry point, where a S5 entrance fee is charged. Another 2km beyond the entrance is the park visitor center (7am-6pm), which has kid-friendly exhibits on conservation and ecology. The museum next door was closed at the time of research due to earthquake damage; most tours now substitute more time inside the park instead. The bay in front of the complex is the best spot to view Chilean flamingos, and there’s now a walkway down to a mirador (lookout; Map), from where these birds can best be spotted from June through August. Try not to step outside the designated route as this can interfere with the flamingos’ food supply.
A few hundred meters behind the visitor complex are the 5000-year-old remains of the Paracas Necropolis, a late site of the Paracasculture, which predated the Incas by more than a thousand years. A stash of more than 400 funerary bundles was found here, each wrapped in many layers of colorful woven shrouds for which the Paracas culture is famous. There’s little to see now though. Lima’s Museo Larco (Click here) and Ica’s Museo Regional de Ica (Click here) exhibit some of these exquisite textiles and other finds from the site.
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Droppings to Die For
Layers of sun-baked, nitrogen-rich guano (seabird droppings) have been diligently deposited over millennia on the Islas Ballestas and Península de Paracas by large resident bird colonies – in places, the guano is as much as 50m deep. Guano’s recognition as a first-class fertilizer dates back to pre-Inca times, but few would have predicted that these filthy riches were to become Peru’s principal export during the mid-19th century, when guano was shipped in vast quantities to Europe and America. In fact, the trade was so lucrative that Spain precipitated the so-called Guano War of 1865–66 over possession of the nearby Chincha Islands. Nowadays, overexploitation and synthetic fertilizers have taken their toll and the birds are largely left to their steady production process in peace, except for licensed extraction every three years – and boatloads of day-trippers, of course.
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Beyond the visitor complex, the tarmac road continues around the peninsula to Puerto General San Martín, which has a smelly fish-meal plant and a port on the northern tip of the peninsula. Forget this road and head out on the dirt road that branches off a few hundred meters beyond the museum. After about 6km it reaches the tiny village of Lagunillas,