A trip to Huacachina and Balestos island should be in your itinerary if you are visiting Lima. Both of these places can be visited as a day trip from Lima. I booked my tour from https://www.peruhop.com. I strongly recommend to book your trips from Peruhop because they are very reliable travel agency. All the tours are reasonably priced and they offer various tours in different parts of Peru. The cost of my day trip to Balestos island and Hucachina was USD 119.
If you are spending more days in Lima then you can also add a trip to Paracas National reserve, Pisco Vineyard and Tambo Colorado in your Itinerary. Peru Hop also organizes 2D/1N and 3D/2N trips to these locations. I had only one spare day for my day trip that’s why I decided to visit Ballestas Islands and Huacachina. Ballestas island is also nick named as Poor man’s Gallapagos island. The nick name is very obvious because you see a lot of diversity on the island like Gallapagos island but the island is much less expensive to reach compared to Gallapagos island. Ballestas island is situated about 10 miles from Paracas.
The tour cost includes pick up and drop off from your accommodation. My pick up was organized at 6 am in the morning. It was freezing cold in the morning and our guide picked me from our hostel. I was staying at a hostel in the Miraflores area. The bus was waiting for me in front of the hostel. We picked up other passengers from different area in the next 30 minutes. The weather was cold and foggy. The visibility was very low. Our guide explained to us about the itinerary for the day and gave us lot of guide books. We traveled along the pacific coast in the first 30 minutes of the tour and the view was absolutely stunning. The roads were pretty nice and the bus was very comfortable. Our first stop for the day was Paracas. Paracas is about 3.5 hours bus ride from Lima. I got good opportunity to catch up with my sleep because I was playing cards with my hostel mate and I slept very late. In the meanwhile we left the beautiful pacific coast and we entered the mountain region. I saw lot of mining trucks around the area. It was pin drop silence inside the bus for the most part of the trip because everyone was catching up with some sleep. Our guide made the announcement that we will be reaching Paracas in 5 minutes and we will take the boat tour at 10 am. The weather was foggy and cold. The visibility was better than morning but still not great.
BALLESTAS ISLANDS
The trip doesn’t include cost of the meal. I went to a street shop and grabbed a sandwich for my breakfast. Ballestas Island is a group of small islands located in Pacific Ocean near Paracas. Ballestas Island consists of different rock formations and it is a very small island. Our tour group divided into different boat. Each speed boat can carry around 40 passengers. There was a guide on board of every speedboat. I will strongly recommend to wear your rain jacket during this part of the trip.
The water was little choppy and the person sitting behind will be wet completely. We started our trip at around 10 am. The boat was traveling at decent speed. The landscape was beautiful and we saw beautiful cliffs during our trip. There were huge cliffs on one side of the boat and the other side it was just vast Pacific Ocean. Ballestas Island is a protected place and it is home to different types of wild birds, sea lions, fur seals and penguins. We could see beautiful geoglyph similar to Nazca lines along the cliffs. The symbols were carved in the face of the cliff around 1000 years ago.
The symbol is also called Candelabra and the source of it is still in speculation. It is highly likely that the lines are created by the tribe living near the Paracas area. I was not expecting to see this during my trip. We stopped our boat multiple times for better viewing angle of the beautiful lines. Our guide told us that they lines were used as a guide for the Sailors. The lines were drawn above the cliff at an average height of about 150. The average width of the line was 50m.
We had the first sight of the Ballestas islands after crossing the beautiful cliff. We spotted different types of birds like Pelicans, Peruvian booby, Peruvian Cormorants, Guanay and many other birds. The bird droppings from different birds are collected and sold as fertilizer. The small islands are home to thousands of birds and vast quantities of fertilizer is collected from this small region. Government sell the fertilizer generated from the area and use part of the revenue for the conservation of animals around the islands. The fertilizer was no 1 export from Peru in the mid-19th century but now the export of the fertilizer is regulated by Peru Government.
We stayed on the boat for the entire duration of the trip. Ballestas island is actually a combination of rocks of different size. There is also a small station inside the island. Sometimes the water is very choppy around the island. We saw couple of sea lions from very close distance. The sea lions were huge in size. We see lot of birds concentrated at a very small location and some parts of the rock was full of bird droppings. There are more than 100 sea lions on the island. The rocks are usually covered with sea weeds, starfish, urchin & crab. We spotted a group of baby seals sitting on a small rock. The island is also home to endangered Humboldt penguin. We saw Humboldt penguins nesting together in small groups.
The place is also popular for whale and dolphin spotting but we couldn’t see any dolphins or whales. The boat trip took about 2 hours. I will strongly recommend to sit at the front of the boat. The sea is choppy and you will get wet if you sit behind. Don’t forget to carry raincoat for this tour. Waterproof camera like Go Pro is just perfect for the trip. We returned to the pier at around 12 pm. The weather was cold and the sky was completely covered with clouds. Our guide told us that the weather remains same throughout the year. Paracas is a very small town and you will not find many restaurants around the area. I will strongly advice to pack your lunch if you are doing this tour. I grabbed some locally made sandwich and snacks from the shops for my lunch.
DUNE BUGGY SAND BOARDING
Our next stop was Huacachina oasis. We all got into the bus at around 12.30pm. It took us about 2 hours to reach Huacachina from Paracas. After traveling for around 20 minutes near the coastal area we took a detour. We immediately entered a mountain region and we saw the first glimpse of the desert after crossing the region. The desert was not completely dark yellow in color. The desert was looking little brownish yellow in color. I couldn’t see any dunes from the bus but it was just sand everywhere without any trace of trees. Towards the last 30 minutes of the trip the huge dunes of Huacachina was clearly visible. Our bus stopped at a hostel where toilet facility was available. I purchased some snacks items for my lunch. Our guide told us that we have a free time for 1.5 hours. Our Dune buggy and Sandboarding tour was scheduled at 3.30 pm.
The dunes are super huge in size . I was traveling to a desert for the first time in my life. The weather was completely different from Paracas. It was very hot and you definitely need to put sunscreen. I wanted to take some nice shots of the Oasis that’s why I decided to climb the biggest sand dune. Every step was challenging and I felt like I was hardly moving. The dune was very steep and it was almost 70 degree ascent at some part. I was sweating profusely because of the scorching heat and climb. I finally reached a spot high enough for some great panorama shot. There was hardly anyone at the top of the dune. The view was gorgeous and the weather was perfect and I took plenty of shot of the gorgeous oasis. The desert occupies a significant area in this region. The desert region starts from the pacific coast and extends upto the Andes mountain range. The visibility was amazing and I could easily see the andes mountain region from the top of the dune. The average height of the dunes in the region is 50-100m. I checked my watch and I had around 35 minutes more till the buggy tour starts. I decided to come down and explore the small town. Coming down from the dune was a cake walk. I almost started running and reached the base in minutes.
Huacachina is very small town located in between huge sand dunes. There is also a small lake at the center of the town. There are around 50-100 permanent resident living in town. You can easily walk from one side of the town to the other side in 10 minutes. The town is full of tourism agencies, bars, restaurants, hostels, homestays and hotels. All the roads around the town is covered with thick sand. There is an old colonial building near the lake. The lake is surrounded by palm trees. Huacachina oasis is also featured in 50 sol Peru note. You will see number of small vendors selling snacks items. The town was not that crowded and there was one more tourist bus apart from us. We assembled near our bus at 3.30pm. Our tour guide assigned us our buggy. Each buggy carries about 5 people.
We started the ride slowly and stopped at the first point for some great views of the Oasis. We had around 5 minutes to take some photos. It was chaotic because everyone was trying to take pictures. I was happy that I took some better photos by climbing the dune alone. We got into our buggy and off we go. Our driver pressed the accelerator hard and we climbed our first big sand dune. The feeling was similar to a roller coaster ride. The downhill part if the ride was much more scary compared to the uphill path. Apart from the driver everyone was screaming during the entire part of the trip. I would strongly recommend to sit in the front sit if you are planning to experience maximum thrill. Don’t keep any loose items with you during the trip. At some part of the buggy riding the buggy was almost doing 80 degree downhill. The buggy doesn’t have any glass window covering its front part. It is recommended to wear glasses during the entire tour in order to avoid sand grain entering your eyes. The buggy was very agile and everyone had lot of fun during the trip. I will strongly recommend to take your Go Pro during this trip. After around 15 minutes of initial dune bashing we stopped for sandboarding.
We stopped our buggy at the highest point of a Sand Dune. The views were absolutely incredible from the top. The entire region was much bigger than what I initially thought. The desert is surrounded by mountains at one side. Most buggies were choosing different spot for sandboarding so the place was not crowded even if there were so many buggies. I decided not to do sandboarding because the dune was just too steep. Our driver suggested us to just lie down on our belly and just glide through the sand. I went down and I tried this with less height. I really loved it and did the entire trail couple of times. It was painful to come back and do it again because the dunes were very steep.
I saw some guys try the regular boarding but it was just too tough. Following the great sandboarding break, we all went inside our buggy and started dune bashing around different types of dunes. This time the dunes were small and we were going very fast. Be prepared for an extremely bumpy ride because sometimes I felt that the buggy might break apart at any point. After 15 minutes dune bashing we stopped at another dune for sandboarding. I put my belongings inside a small day pack and went for snowboarding.
Please don’t carry any valuable items while doing sandboarding. One person in our group dropped is phone while doing sandboarding and he couldn’t find his phone. Please avoid wearing shorts because if you fall while doing sandboarding it might get really messy. I did just one run on this dune and the dune was too high. Our driver told us to wait there because it could have taken us hours to climb the dune. Our driver picked us up and we did some dune bashing for another 15 minutes. We stopped at 2 more locations for sand boarding.
Final 30 minutes of our trip was reserved for sunset viewing. We stopped at a dune very close to the town and just waited there for sunset. The sunset was looking incredible on the background of vast desert. There was no trace of cloud in the sky. The sky turned orange from blue in matter of minutes. The sunlight was making the desert look very unique because one side of the desert was bright and the other side of the desert was dark. Some parts of the desert was extremely bright because of the direct sunlight.
We got back to our buggy and started our trip back to Huacachina town. We reached the town at around 6pm. The duration of the tour was 2.5 hours and It was incredible. I picked up water and snacks item from the local store. We started our return trip at around 6.30pm. It took us about 3.5 hours to reach Lima from Huacachina. The bus was little bit less crowded because some people opted to spend a night at Huacachina. If you are planning to take it slow then you can always extend your trip by a day or two. You can also add famous tourist places like Pisco wineyard and Paracas National Reserve area to your Itinerary. The bus ride was very comfortable and you will not feel very hectic. It was very long day tour which lasted about 16 hours. If you are visiting Lima then I strongly recommend to do this tour.
Tour Summary
Included
- Pick up & Drop off at your accommodation
- Guide
- Ballestas Island tour
- Dune Buggy & Sand Boarding in Huacachina
Not Included
- Food
Things to carry with the trip
- Waterproof camera
- Rain Coat
- Sunscreen
- Sunglasses
- Packed lunch or Snacks items
- Binocular
- Day Pack Bag
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