The night (mare) bus to Pisco

Penquins
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You have to believe us when we say we didn´t want to write another transport related story... but this one has to be mentioned. From Huancavelic to Pisco there is only one bus a day, a 14 hour night bus, across the Andes along some of the roughest roads. We were prepared for all that, but not for the 3 hours solid of Peruvian highland folk music on full volume. Neither were we expecting to share the journey with a frightened lamb which promptly expressed its concern over David´s feet. Upon arrival ( at 6am) we realised we were in the next town from Pisco but only when the taxi driver couldn´t find the hotel address we´d given him.

Michelle on the boat trip
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Once we did end up in Pisco we found a really nice hotel (see photo of garden) and booked a tour the next day of the bird and marine sanctuary, called Resevra National De Paracas and a boat trip to Islas Ballestas.

The tour was great, saw loads of sea lions, boobys, penguins and flamingos. We also saw some great coastline in the national park. The most intriguing thing was the bird droppings on the Island which are a first class fertliser and collected by the locals and were the source of massive trade in the 1800´s.

Sea lions
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We met some people who recommended a day in Huacachina, a sand dune oasis, so off we decided to go next.