Paracas is a small coastal town south of Pisco, used mainly as a jumping-off point for two of Peru's best natural attractions: the Islas Ballestas and the Paracas National Reserve.
Most visitors come on a day trip or stay one night. Boats leave in the morning for the Ballestas Islands, passing the Paracas Candelabra — a giant figure etched into a coastal hillside, reminiscent of the Nazca Lines and equally unexplained. The islands themselves are home to huge colonies of sea lions, Humboldt penguins, and seabirds. The sea lions seem as curious about the tourists as the tourists are about them.
After the boat trip, tours continue into the Paracas Reserve — a vast desert peninsula stretching along the Pacific, with rust-red cliffs, wind-sculpted sand formations, and flamingos wading in the shallows. The Julio C. Tello Site Museum inside the reserve tells the story of the Paracas culture, the pre-Columbian people whose extraordinary textiles were excavated here in the 1920s. The combination of desert landscape, coastal wildlife, and deep archaeological history makes Paracas one of the more unusual stops on the southern Peru circuit.