We took a night bus from Arequipa to Paracus. Being in Peru for close to a month, this was our first night bus experience. I had read various reviews about the night bus and decided we had to give it a try. We chose Cruz Del Sur as our bus line. Since we were to be on the bus more than 12 hours, we opted for the VIP seats. Got to the bus station in Arequipa, the lounge area for Cruz Del Sur is nice; comfortable seating, bathrooms and tv’s. Entered our section of the bus and were greeted with party style lights on the ceiling and extra wide, plush, leather seats. The seats recline back about 180 degrees. Everyone had their own tv with a selection of movies, music and books to choose from. USB charging stations and your own blanket and pillow. If only airline travel was so good.
After being seated an employee came on and was shooting a video of each person while calling out their corresponding seat number. This was a little unsettling; I was thinking is this what they’ll use to help identify me when the bus is evolved in some horrorific crash? All I know is, it wasn’t for any advertising campaign.
Aside from that, the bus was great. We were fed a decent meal for dinner and fed breakfast as well. Just an FYI, if you are sitting on the side where there are 2 seats together, take the aisle if you need to use the bathroom frequently. Otherwise you will have to wake that person up or get very friendly while you are trying to climb over their fully reclined seat.
Paracus is a sea side town a few hours south of Lima. We had a boat tour planned to Islas Ballestas or the “Poor Man’s Galapogos'” Islands. It’s a 2 hour boat tour out to the islands where there are many seabirds, crabs, penguins, and sea lions. You are not allowed on the islands themselves as they are protected. You probably wouldn’t want to step foot on the islands anyway as the are covered in bird guano. The guano is removed every 5-8 years and is sold as fertilizer.
Also in view on this tour, is the Candelabra. This prehistoric geoglyph was carved in the hillside around 300BC and is said to be similar to the Nazac lines. It seems not much is known about why the candelabra was created or what it signifies.
We had the afternoon to kill before our next bus left for Lima, so, Will decided to rent sand buggies. Had a good time on those. The rental came with a guide that took us to the Reserva Nacional de Paracus. This is a reserve area of sand dunes that were at the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago. We had beautiful views of the coastline and one of the few red sand beaches in the world, Playa Roja.
