An exciting day in Paracas

From Iquitos, we flew back to Lima without any problems and then took a bus to Paracas, which is about 4 hours away on the coast south of Lima.

Paracas is a small tourist harbor town and the starting point for excursions to the nearby Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Park. Through the tour provider in our beautiful hostel Kokopelli, we booked 3 tours for the next day.

First, we took a speedboat to the Ballestas Islands. Not far from the harbor, one of the highlights of the tour appeared: dolphins! The islands themselves are home to millions of birds, so we put on our hoods for protection. It turns out some tourists on our boat actually got hit... We also saw many lazy sea lions lying on the rocks, posing for us. The islands are also home to Humboldt penguins and we were lucky to spot some of them. It was cute to see the penguins jump up the rocks from the water and occasionally stumble on their beaks.

After a short break, we continued the program with a quad bike tour through the Paracas National Reserve! We had our own guide and were provided with quad bikes and protective gear. Well, the elbow and knee pads were more suitable for inline skating, but still... We spent 2 hours racing through the beautiful desert-like environment, enjoying the view of the coast from various viewpoints, including the beautiful Red Beach.

In the afternoon, we were picked up from the hostel and taken back to the National Park to do the Golden Shadows Trek, a beautiful path along the cliffs with stunning views. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy for a beautiful sunset. Nevertheless, it was a nice short hike with a funny guide.

All in all, it was a really great day in Paracas with a little action, lots of animals, and beautiful landscapes.