6th May 2005 Got up at 6am!!!! and were picked up by the tour guide at 7.15am, we headed out to a town called Paracas which took about 30minutes in the bus. We took a speed boat (Jue I did think of you when on this, Hee! Hee! Hee!) out to the Islas Ballestas, also known as the 'Poor Man's Galapogas'. Passing the famous (although I've never seen/heard of it before, Oops!) three pronged 'Candelabra'which is a giant geoglyph, approx. 150m H x 50m W on the side of the coast line, I have to say it was outstanding. No one knows who did this geoglyph, but some connect it to the Nazca Lines, whilst others think it was used for navigation based on the Southern Cross Constellation and some think its based on the local cactus? We then carried on to the Islas Ballestas, where we basically cruised around, trying to avoid being s*** on by the birds, watching the wildlife - I saw real life, wild, Penguins, Sea Lions, Pelicans (which are larger than I thought!), Peruvian Boobies and other birds, including alot of Sea Gulls.......Mine! Mine! Mine! We then got back on the bus and headed out to the Reserva National De Paracas, now being a National Park I imagined green forrests, Oh! How wrong I was.......just desert! Lots & lots of it! And our bus off roaded on it!!! Mad! We went to the local Museum and then had some lunch at what they call the local fishing village, I would say more of few resturants and lots of fishing boats. We tried the local Coca Cola, known as Inca Kola, its yellow and tastes of strawberry Hubba Bubba! Almost got side swiped by an incoming Pelican but the most bizzare sight was a bus load of Nuns!!! We got caught in a sand storm on the way back, bloodly stuff get everywhere!