Peru. Paracas

We arrived at the Paracas Reserve by bus from Huacachina... Here we visited the Ballestas Islands, which are an important refuge for many species of marine fauna, including numerous bird species and some mammals... We also toured the peninsula, where we saw the Red Beach and swam in the waters of the Pacific Ocean...

After reaching the village of Paracas and buying tickets for the reserve and the Ballestas Islands, we headed to the pier, where the two-hour tour to the islands on a tourist boat began... There were many fishing vessels near the pier...

Shortly after departing from the shore, we saw dolphins...

From the boat, we could see the desert landscapes of the reserve's peninsula...

Soon after reaching the rocky Ballestas Islands, we immediately saw South American sea lions...

And also a large number of birds of different species, which seemed to cover the rocky islands...

Among them, Peruvian pelicans stood out vividly...

Here we also saw Humboldt penguins, which are found only on the western coast of South America, in the cold waters influenced by the Peruvian Current... Their population is at risk...

As we circled around the rocky islands, we observed the birds in their natural habitat...

Among the birds, the most beautiful were the Inca terns, a species found along the Pacific Ocean coast from northern Peru southward to central Chile...

Later, we sailed into one of the caves where birds, sea lions, and penguins lived. Thanks to the various sounds made by the cave's inhabitants, the atmosphere there was simply fantastic...

Huge crabs were crawling all over the rocks...

After the cave, we continued exploring the islands...

We also encountered a South American fur seal...

There were also many Peruvian cormorants here...

After completing our tour of the Ballestas Islands, we sailed back, and on the return journey, we enjoyed a splendid view of the Andean Candelabra. This geoglyph on sandy ground resembles a trident or a candelabra shape. It is carved into the coastal slope of compacted sand, with the walls of the trenches lined with stones, which has preserved the geoglyph well. The trenches are 60 cm deep, and the dimensions of the geoglyph are 128 meters in length and 74 meters in width. The lines are 1.5 to 4 meters wide, making the figure visible from 19 kilometers away from the shore.

Although the exact age of the Candelabra geoglyph is unknown, archaeologists have found ceramics around the area dated to around 200 BC. It is likely that this pottery belonged to the Paracas people.