Paracas and Ica

Last weekend, I went on a day-trip to Peru’s coastal towns of Paracas and Ica. The bus left Lima at 5 am and would not return until midnight.

Upon arrival in Paracas, we boarded a boat and saw the world-famous ancient Candelabra lines. A newspaper explains their significance: “Thought to date back to 200 B.C., the Candelabra’s well-preserved state owes to its location: the nitrous atmosphere in the hill acts as a binder, compressing and hardening the sand surrounding the geoglyph. Likewise, Paracas’ strong winds regularly remove any excess sand from its canals, keeping lines well-defined.”

The boat continued to an series of small islands and rocks home to sea lions and penguins. The penguins are hard to see in these photos, but they’re there!

We continued to Ica, where there rests an oasis known as the Huacachina lagoon. We held on for our lives as our dune buggy sped up the sandy hill, and as we rode sand-boards part of the way down.