Yesterday late afternoon we rolled into Paracas on the double decker bus. It was a nice trip, the ocean on one side and sand on the other. The bus was really nice too, we sat on the top level in the first row which made it very easy to see everything.

Before leaving Lima we went downtown and watched the changing of the guard. It was quite extreme with a band and marching and whatnot. It was cool to see but I didn't really know what was going on. One our way to the bus station though things got a little sketchy. Some guy reached through the drivers open window into the backseat and stole Alyssa's phone right from her hands. She bolted out of the taxi and ran after him. I stayed in the taxi with all our bags and yelled at the driver to stay put! After what seemed like forever Alyssa came back with two police officers in tow. They said she could write a report but since we would never see the phone again anyways and we were almost late for our bus we declined. We were a little shaken up after that. Luckily no one was hurt and we will continue to share my phone until we can find something for her in the next big city.

Paracas is a small town and there isnt a whole lot to do. The hostel is quite nice and the owner is very helpful. This morning we went on a Ballestas Island Boat Tour. It was pretty cool actually. We saw lots of marine life and tons of birds. On the first part of the tour we saw Candelabra Geoglyph, which is a 150m high and 50m wide candle stick etched into the side of the mountain. It is rumored to be an ancient guide for sailors or a connection to the Nazca islands. It was a pretty cool thing to see, but the tour was in Spanish so we only understood bits and pieces. After that we continued on the boat to the Ballestas islands. Once there we saw sea lions, Peruvian Pelicans, Humbolt Penguins, lots if other types of birds and we even saw dolphins. It was so cool to see all the animals. The sea likns were very cool, most of them basking in the sun and every once and a while one would bark and scare another off.

Ballestas Islands are actually known for the guano, which is sea bird droppings, because in some places on the island its up to 50m think. (gross) At one point it was the number one export for Peru because it was such a large deposit of nitrogen rich fertalizer. Now however, they regulate the extraction on guano to every ten years. I have to say it was pretty interesting and cool to see all the sea lions and dolphins and other marine life but I was scared a bird was going to poop on me the whole time and it smelled so terrible, like a chicken coop but worse.Luckily we ended up up wind so I didnt have to smell it for too long.

After our tour Alyssa and I lounged around before making lunch. We then spent the afternoon laying on the beach in the sun and reading.

Sorry for such a long post, I just had lots to say I guess! Tomorrow we travel to Ica and we get to go sand boarding and sand buggying so I'm pretty excited to try that! I'm sure I'll have lots to say about it once its all done, so stay tuned!