Nice sand dunes and beaches at Reserva Nacional de Paracas, Peru

Jan 22

Another good thing about scheduling the Islas Ballestas boat tour for 8 AM is that when you get back to the mainland at 10 AM, you still have plenty of time to go explore the surrounding area. This is exactly what we did when we set out towards the sprawling but desolate Reserva Nacional de Paracas. The Reserve starts just south of the small town of Paracas, you pay an entry fee of 5 soles per person and into the park you go. We stopped at the small visitor center to get ourselves oriented and ask where the best places to go would be during the 3 hours we had there. The visitor’s center staff were quite helpful, and soon we were on our way towards La Mina beach only 7 km away. After a few kilometers the paved road ended and we were driving on the hard-packed dirt and sand. There was not a tree visible anywhere in sight. The multihued tan, gold, and red sand seemed like we were on the surface of the moon or in some far-away movie.

We rounded the Laguinallas Bay where some fishing boats were moored, and soon we approached La Mina beach. We didn’t actually get all the way to the beach parking lot. Instead we parked a few hundred yards above the lot, as the gently sloping hill just seemed a bit too steep for dutiful little Mango to handle. She didn’t give up, we just decided to give her a break and not put her in a situation where she might roll over or spin her wheels endlessly trying to get out. Upon walking down to the beach, we discovered a crescent-shaped slice of paradise, complete with about 100 sun and fun-loving Peruvians. TB brought our snorkel gear, and he dived head first into the slightly cold water to explore the underwater world near the beach. Ana and I hung out topside and laid out in the sun for a while enjoying the sun and scenery.

Later, we hiked back up to Mango and decided the sand was just hard enough to go exploring a bit. There were some established roads in the park, but with no vegetation or rocks on the surface, you could pretty much drive off in whatever direction you wanted. We drove a bit further south from the La Mina beach, climbing some hills that overlooked the ocean and the nearby bay. It was a really desolate but visually stimulating landscape. The hills rolled up and down and with no plant life, rocks or anything but the ocean and horizon for reference, it was hard to determine exactly how steep an approaching hill was. We felt a bit like we were astronauts on the moon when they bumped across the barren landscape in their moon buggy. If we had a 4 x 4, a dune buggy, or an off-road motorcycle, the reserve would have been the equivalent of an adult Disneyland. As it was though, we wanted to make sure Mango survived, as she has many more miles to go and further adventures ahead of her. We picked our paths carefully and eventually returned to the established road. A few kilometers later we were back on pavement and heading out of the reserve, back through Paracas, and then further south towards Ica and Huacachina.