|
The coastal desert area
around Paracas National Reserve is the home of the pre
Inca Paracas culture, famous for its exquisite textile
work. Further south, you will be able to fly over the
enigmatic Nazca lines - enormous animal geometric designs
carved on the ground covering 220 squares kilometres of
desert plains.
Practical Information
for the Paracas and Nazca Areas
When we take you to the
Southern Coast of Peru we not only take you to see the
main highlights that everyone visits: The Nazca Lines
and the Ballestas islands, but we make our best efforts
to provide you with a full understanding of this historically
most significant area. In order to do this, we include
a visit to two lovely 17th and 18th century haciendas
on the way, in the villages of Canete and Chincha. We
structure the visit to include more attractions than is
customary, such as the lovely Tambo Colorado Inca Ruins
and the Land Portion of the Paracas Reserve with its interesting
site museum. Everything accompanied with expert guiding
and first-class vehicles, of course.
This area is pure desert
and is very enigmatic. From the hotel
of your choice in the area Hotel, you can book a number
of extra activities including Sand Buggies, that are great
fun! If you stay at Hotel
Paracas from December to April, you can enjoy the
sunshine, the pool or the deserted beaches not far from
the hotel.
Access to the area is generally
by land from Lima to Paracas (3 ½ hours non stop
south on the Panamerican Highway) and a further hour if
you overnight in Ica. See a detailed map of the area here.
We usually recommend a 2-day/ 1-night itinerary spending
your overnight in Paracas. For those wanting to go to
Nazca and overland to Arequipa, that is also possible
but it adds 2 additional days to the itinerary and involves
a lot of driving. There is a great hotel in Nazca though,
the Hotel Cantayo.
Another additional option is to drive inland from Pisco
near Paracas for 6 hours on a good paved road until you
reach the lovely town of Ayacucho, nestled in the Andes.
There are a number of attractions in and near Ayacucho,
such as the colonial village of Quinua, the pre Inka capital
City of the Wari Empire, Wari, and the magnificient and
little-visited ruins of Vilcashuaman. There are flights
back to Lima from Ayacucho. Onward travel to Cuzco is
not recommended due to the poor state of the road.
|
Paracas National Reserve
"Candelabro"
Sea lions in Paracas
|
home
