Wandergliding: Paracas National Reserve

November 1^st, 2021

After a little over a week, it was time to get out of Lima. During my stay in the capital, I worked on my itinerary for my first leg of my visit to Peru. It seemed to make sense to head south along the coast and hit a few of the common tourist spots. The first one would be Paracas. During the summer, there were a few pilots who had visited Peru before and Paracas was pretty much the only place they stayed…so it must be good. It’s located about 4 hours south from Lima, on the coast. I had planned on booking various buses to get around the country but due to Covid, many of the bus lines were either not functioning or had spotty service. In my research, I stumbled upon a company called Peru Hop. It was targeted towards foreigners and was a hop on, hop off service and you could decide on how long you stayed at each destination and could change it as you went. The primary destinations for the tour I was looking at were: Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno and finally Cusco.

The bus was scheduled to leave before 6 am and at first, I wondered why, but then the light went on, of course it was to avoid the Lima commuting traffic. It was a full-sized bus but there were only about 14 people on board. As we approached the edge of the city, the quality of housing definitely diminished. Being a desert, it was a bit surprising to see where some homes/shacks were located. There were some sandy looking hills that rose 2-300 feet high and it looked like erosion of the hills must be an ongoing battle. It wasn’t surprising to then see some hills that had small trees planted in a grid pattern in order to establish some stability of the slopes.

Crappier houses near the edge of the city:

Hard to make out, but there are some houses at the top of this hill:

The trees planted for some stability:

Arriving in Paracas, it was overcast yet teeming with tourists, primarily Peruvian tourists. Turns out it was a four day long weekend with one of the stat holidays called All Saints Day. I have to admit that my first impression of Paracas was not great. Sandra, the guide with Peru Hop, said that we had an hour to wander around before we would head out for a 2 hour tour of the Paracas National Reserve which was included with my ticket (which I was unaware of…so a bonus). The beach seemed uninspiring in the grey weather, restaurant after restaurant seemed to offer the exact same menus, primarily ceviche (diced uncooked fresh fish which sounded a bit dodgy). It reminded me a lot of India, although less variation in food choices than Goa. I had planned to stay here for 9 days as there is paragliding and kite surfing here…but I immediately questioned my decision. Okay, don’t worry Dave, let’s see what happens over the next few days. Plans can always be changed.

Hopping back on the bus, we first picked up a woman, Estrella, who must have been an expert about the park. As we drove into the reserve, about 15 minutes away, she would explain something in Spanish followed by the Peru Hop guide Evelyn, who would translate what was said into English. I pitied Evelyn at one point as Estrella must have gone on for 3 minutes…there was no way to remember everything that was conveyed. Just as we entered the park, I could understand a bit of Estrella’s Spanish that the water was shallow and it attracted migrating flamingos. One could just make out these little pink specks in the distance.

The Paracas National Reserve desert:

Driving another five minutes or so, we stopped in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere and the talk was about how this area used to be under the ocean. It was easy to see. There were seashells everywhere. As Estrella was explaining something about it, I was sure that I heard the word “Canada” as few times. Turns out that the salt that is present in this area, thanks to the ocean, is shipped up to Canada for our roads in the wintertime. Well, not the salt right here, as this is in a protected park, but in the surrounding area. There were a few other Canadians on the bus and none of us had a clue about this…did you know we got our winter salt from Peru?!?

It was a bit of a barren road:

The salt stop:

Our first proper stop was at La Cattedrale, the cathedral, which is a bit of a misnomer as it used to be a rock bridge by the ocean which thanks to an earthquake in 2007 no longer exists. It was still a lovely view with some birds hanging out on the rock outcropping and some vultures soaring around. I asked Estrella what type they were and she said red headed vultures but according to the Internet, they were turkey vultures (and looked like it to me).

Cliffs by the cathedral:

The remains of Le Cattedrale:

The occasional obligatory selfie:

Looking south from the cathedral:

Next, we visited the highest point that the little tour would visit with great vistas as well. The tour guides stressed that a reason that this park was special was due to the variety of colours in this desert. We saw a black beach, a white beach and finally a red beach. All were due to a variety of minerals, primarily iron, on cliffs that are slowly eroded by the waves and then wash back up on a nearby beach. According to the guides, there are only 7 “red” beaches in the world…I’ll have to look that up.

The view from the high point with the Playa Rosas:

Looking back from the other side of the red beach, that's the cliff I was on with the minerals:

Pretty sweet ride...these will always remind me of India, although the tuk-tuks here are in better condition and pimped out:

It was a nice little tour, especially since I didn’t realize that it was included in my bus travel. Afterwards, I asked Evelyn who I might talk to about getting an orientation about paragliding in Paracas. She told me to walk down the street to the Paracas Restaurant (seemed a bit generic) and Sandra, the Peru Hop guide, would be there. She could introduce me to the guy who would know what’s going on with regards to paragliding.

Paracas:

Well, she was right. I was introduced to Jose Rosas. He was a gentleman in his late 50s, I would guess, and let’s just politely say, rotund. He was very friendly and happy to hear that I was a paraglider pilot looking to fly. He seemed to have many stories and in fact was one of the founders of the Rat Race, a popular cross country competition in Washington state that I have heard of. Turns out that this guy has his fingers in many pies. He owns the restaurant I met him in, he has a paragliding company, a kite surfing company and many more endeavours. He gave me contact info for a tandem paragliding pilot as well as a kite surfing instructor. It definitely helps to have connections.

The busy beach and malecon with holiday goers: