Pelicans, penguins and parasols in Peru

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  Paracas Peninsula, Peru

  © Luxury Collection

Machu Picchu may be off limits in Peru for the time being, but there is much more to this vast country than the lost Inca city, as wonderful as that treasured site may be. 



During a recent Yachts of Seabourn cruise around Central and South America, one of the stops was Paracas Bay, not a place I have ever heard of before, nor I suspect will I ever visit again. However, as a port of call, it turned out to be an interesting day’s diversion. 



Whilst a few fellow passengers had in fact gotten off the ship a couple of ports earlier to fly to Machu Picchu and then join us again in Lima, this would be as close as I would get to seeing something of the real Peru. 



The ship dropped anchor in Paracas Bay in the morning and tenders shuttled us to shore – arriving at what turned out to be the jetty for the rather swanky new Hotel Paracas. 

Part of the Luxury Collection, the hotel was a surprise to many of us, who – having been on a ship for two weeks – were reminded how pleasant it can also be to spend days lying by the pool in a fabulous hotel for your holidays. 



The seaside hotel was destroyed by a tsunami resulting from the devastating earthquake in nearby Pisco in 2007. The quake wreaked havoc for miles around given its 8.0 Richter Scale severity and wiped out 80% of the city. Pisco is in fact the origin of the Peruvian national tipple of the same name and was once even once considered a contender for a capital city by the Spanish before they opted for Lima. 



Perched 170 miles south of Lima and opened only in November last year, Hotel Paracas already seemed busy with wealthy Peruvian types looking for a dose of luxury, with infinity pools, shady daybeds, butlers and a spa. The hotel has been rebuilt to much fancier standards and is now a low-lying collection of whitewashed villas around a central rotunda housing the restaurant and reception. 



Hotel Paracas wouldn’t look out of place on a Tunisian or Egyptian Riviera, given the shining white buildings, dotted palms, bougainvillea outcrops and dusty backdrop of the Reserva Nacional de Paracas, a place where the desert rolls down to meet the sea. 



And just a stones’ throw from the hotel lies a more simple little seaside village, where you can pick up a lovely fish lunch or shop for polished stones, such as pretty turquoise veined with wonderful jade colours, set in earrings and necklaces.

Of course the landscape was blighted somewhat by the nearby port – trawlers, chimneys and industrial scars dot a couple of miles of the horizon but are testament to the abundant agricultural trade that hubs through here. 

And once on a boat trip out into the bay however, the port is a mere blip as you speed towards the Ballestas Islands, a haven for vast colonies of bird and marine life.



On the way to the islands, the boat stops at what is thought to be a Nazca symbol, a remote and giant carving up on the rocks in the shape of what is variously described as a cactus or a candelabra, known locally as El Candelabro. 

Its survival is wondrous given the ability of the ‘paracas’ winds to whip up enough sand to have easily filled in the lines of the carving. Imagine seeing a crop-circle type figure etched on the white cliffs of Dover and you’re picturing this little beauty.



Paracas is also known as the spot where the great liberator Jose de San Martin disembarked with his forces to start the campaign of independence which would end Spanish rule in the country. Today, it’s where millions of seabirds end their journey from the north as they converge and perch in nooks and crannies of the Ballestas Islands alongside penguin and sealion colonies.

The only people who are allowed onto these islands (they are completely rocky so it would seem virtually impossible for anyone to attempt this anyway) are the poor souls here to collect the guano, or seabird droppings, used as a rich source of fertiliser and for many years was a key export from Peru.

I spotted a couple of lone chaps up on the rocks, but they were most definitely in the minority to the hundreds of barking sealions, tiny penguins and literally millions of pelicans, cormorants, Peruvian boobies and Inca terns – all seemingly living in some kind of crowded squawking harmony. 



The whole area is one of the richest feeding grounds in the Pacific given its place in the Humboldt Current, which cools the water and therefore makes for more abundant fish supplies.



Turtles, dolphins and whales can also sometimes be spotted here, and as the turbulent sea recedes from the incredible architecture it has helped form, you spot bright starfish and crabs clinging onto the rocks too. 

The whole Paracas peninsula is considered the most important coastal formation in Peru, with towering cliffs and deep sandy beaches.

Another activity here is to jump on a dune buggy and traverse the many slopes in the area; on the more expensive but unforgettable side of things is chartering a flight over the mysterious and alluring Pre-Incan Nazca Lines in the region.

And it seemed that for the locals and those on holiday in Paracas, kayaking, windsurfing or pleasure-boating out from the shore to take a closer look at the Seabourn Spirit was their activity, with friendly waves exchanged from both sides out in the bay.

Afterall, it’s not every day a 10,000-ton yacht appears on the horizon. And for the passengers on the Spirit, it’s certainly not every day they see hundreds of sealions one minute, and desert dunes the next.

Next stop Chile…..

www.seabourn.com
www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/index.html

Location: Peru