We spent a long weekend in Ica and Paracas, which are 3-4 hours drive from Lima. We rented rooms at a hostel in Ica and rented a car to drive there. Derek engaged his "Peru Driving", which meant lots of honking and avoiding cars crossing multple lanes to make turns. The trip down was stressful as we got stopped at two separate checkpoints - one semi legit, the other bogus; neither warranting the type of fine proposed. We avoided both, but it was stressful and made us overly cautious.
Ica
In Ica, we visted Haucachina, which is a desert oasis with sand dunes, where we ate, hiked around the dunes, and rented sand boards. We also visited Ica's Plaza de Armes (central square) and enjoyed some delicious (and ridiculously inexpensive ice cream). Finally, we visited a pisco winery - pisco being the national drink of Peru.
Paracas
Paracas was a relatively quick stop en route back to Lima with the solo purpose of taking a boat to Isla Ballestes to observe sea lions, Humboldt penguins, and sea birds. We were told the weather conditions were not safe to visit Ballestes, but we were going to Isla Blanca instead. Turned out to be just as cool as we thought Ballestes would be. We got to see the Candleabra, which is a large 2,000+ year old carving on the side of a seaside hill, similar to the Nazca Lines, and a lot of seals, penguins, several different types of seabirds, and even a couple dolphins. It was a cool experience - worth the 6am wake up call to get there. The tour company even watched Gidget so we could take the boat ride.
We grabbed some breakfast, went for a quick walk around the town, and then headed back to Lima (without exceeding the speed limit!).
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