Drawings in the Sand

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
June 9

Zachary, JimBob, and I got up early to take a boat ride.

Paracas is very close to a town called Naska. It is there that the lines are. You know the Naska lines…if you have ever watched In Search Of then you have seen them. They are giant drawings in the sand. There is a spider, a hummingbird, an alien looking dude, and several others. They are most easily seen from the air so there has been speculation that they were drawn by aliens. We didn’t actually get down to see them, but they are important to my story.

We lined up for the boat down at the pier. Fishing is big business in Paracas so there are a ton of boats moored there. There are also pelicans and other sea birds vying for food and attention. We waited patiently until we were loaded in our craft. Zman and I sat together for the journey to Isla Ballestas.
On the way out we passed the Candleabra; a giant sand drawing in the side of a hill. No one is quite sure where it came from or who put it there. There are many theories, including aliens, but nothing conclusive. It’s pretty interesting to see and causes one to conjecture about it. The Paracas area gets very little rain. There is a lot of humidity, but not much precipitation. The sand on the hill side is actually a thin layer that gives way to a hard rock underneath. The image itself is drawn into the leeward side of the hill which protects it from wind damage. All of these conditions add up to provide an excellent canvas for a lasting picture.

After thirty minutes more in the boat we arrived at the islands. They are mostly just rocks sticking up out of the water, but there were more birds there than I have ever seen in my life. There were thousands of them perched everywhere. There were gulls and boobies and even penguins. Interspersed with them were sea lions. At one time people came here to harvest the guano. Walls were built to capture it so that it could be scooped up and carried off to make cosmetics among other things.

We toodled around for another thirty minutes or so and then journeyed back to town. On the way we were treated to dolphins swimming and playing near the boat. We got back in time for breakfast with the ladies. We packed our things and climbed in with Ricardo for a guided tour of the nature preserve just outside of town.

One of our first stops was at Catedral; a rock formation just off the beach. To get there we wandered through the most amazing landscape. There was sand everywhere. At the end of one road were salt mines that supplied the substance to Europe and the U.S. There was a lagoon filled with flamingos and miles and miles of sand. I half expected Luke Skywalker to come zipping up in his landspeeder.

It was like being on the moon; very strange. We journeyed through the sand dunes to arrive at several beaches, one of which was covered with red sand. We stopped off at a little bay for lunch. The fresh seafood was amazing. Afterwards we reluctantly bade goodbye to Ricardo and climbed back into the rental car for the long ride back to Lima.

MJR