After a morning trip to the Ballestas Islands (a must see) our tour group headed to the Paracas Nature Reserve. This large area where the desert meets the ocean was originally protected in 1975 and hosts an area of natural features and an incredible diversity of wildlife.
You need a car for this trip as the distances involved are great and the majority of sites to spend time at are spread apart. As you can see from the above pictures the majority of time was spent along cliffs above the sea. There were an amazing number of birds flying overhead throughout our trip and the breeze from the ocean made the desert heat quite tolerable.
Due to the high value of the Guano, and the abundance of it in the area deposited by seabirds, this area was heavily influenced by human activity from colonial days up until it became protected. Obviously, climate change and ongoing offshore development will continue to influence this area, however, during the late 1800's and early 1900's, when demand for Guano was its height, this area was pilfered for resources without regard and was forever changed.
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