A relatively short bus ride away from Lima (about 4 hours) is the town of Paracas, home to the Islas Ballestas, otherwise known as the poor mans Galapagos Islands, which to my mind is doing it a diservice as the Islands here are amazing.
Granted I have never been to the Galapagos and would love to one day, but the wildlife on display in Islas Ballestas is really amazing, our only gripe is that the tour is way too short, and we would have liked more time to just sit and watch the animals.
The town of Paracas itself is fine, nothing really to right home about and the food was a bit lacklustre (except for the cheap mountain of hot chips we found from a street vendor after dinner!). But the tour of the Islands is definitely worht doing when you are in this part of the world.
We both agreed we could quite happily have done the same tour twice, once for pictures and once just to marvel and all the birds, penguins, seals and sea lions that call the place home. Paracas and its wildlife was definitely a highlight for us!
