Paracas Photographs

Our limousine! This dune buggy gave us the most fun transportation we´ve had in a long time – and the best hotel transfer ever. You sit really low in the vehicle, and so it feels really fast...

At the Pisco Sour festival in Paracas (the nearest functional place to Pisco town after the 2007 earthquake) the afternoon was celebrated with a number of curious songs and dances. This particular dance that we photographed seemed to involve a flamenco-like girl constantly circled by a man on a horse... strange! Nice drinks available though!

Feeding time for the pelicans near the jetty in El Chico. This man attracted quite a crowd, all clacking their beaks viciously at him as he wandered around the sand with his bag of fish.

The pelicans weren´t exactly phased by humans – they let you come right up to them as they beg for fish. But thern again, their beaks are nearly as long as my arm...

The wonderful arches of one of the Ballestas Islands – lots of birds in the air, sealions in the water, and of course the rocks were black with aminal life of one sort or another.

This bold sealion came all the way out to our boat to greet us (or to fight us off more likely). They make a very loud impressive barking noise – and with thousands of the creatures near the boat at times the din was amazing!

A cave full of sealions – Mums and pups. Not very many Dads were in this area – apparently they believe their job is over after conception, and that looking after little ones is a job for girls! Sounds a little like humans really, don´t you think?

This rock was typically heaving with birds – in this case some very hyperactive pelicans and slightly quieter penguins below. The whole series of islands was literally crawling with avian life just like this (meaning the rock was white with bird droppings of course – harvested every few years for a lucrative fertillser industary!)

Penguins! These lovely little birds were actually quite common here, although admittedly not as common as the gulls, pelicans or sealions. I never realised that penguins lived this far from the South Pole.

The beautiful Paracas peninsula seen from the water en route to the fascinating Ballastas islands. It a pretty bleak place!

Cycling into the middle of nowhere? Gary tackes the desert on his mountain bike (probably stalked by hopeful vultures in the clouds above). The cliffs and ocean behind set off the peninsula pretty well.

This dramatic red beach was only one of the many small coves lying on the south shore of the Paracas Peninsula, constantly battered by waves and the occasional sealion!

And finally, we couldn´t resist including this beautiful sunset scene from the beach at El Chico towards the Paracas Peninsula – wonderful colours as the sun goes down over the Pacific.