Paracas is a marine reservation in the southern Peruvian coast. Paracas is located in the Ica region in the Pisco province, about 261 Kilometers (163 miles) south of Lima. The name Paracas derives from Quechua language (the original language of Peru) and means “raining sand”.
The Paracas National Reserve and the nearby Ballestas Islands are a true haven for the sea life and the sea birds.
The Paracas Bay is in middle of one of the driest desert of the World; therefore, it has a climate very dry with an average temperature of 19ºC (66ºF), with sunshine almost the entire year and without rainfalls. These special weather conditions have allowed the existence of the great biodiversity of the zone.
Paracas covers an area of around 335 000 hectares (217 594 in the sea and 117 406 in mainland). The Reserve is one of the richest fishing grounds of the world. This fishing wealth exists in the Peruvian sea, thanks to the presence of the cold current of Humboldt, which cools waters of the sea by allowing the proliferation of plankton that is the base of the marine food chain.
The abundance of fish attracts immense colonies of sea birds and sea lions that live in the coast and the islands of the Paracas Reserve. These birds also known as “guano birds”, deposit their droppings on the islands generating one of the most powerful fertilizers of the world; which was the main source of incomes of Peru during the second half of the XIX century.
One of the most impressive parts that compose the Paracas Reserve are the Ballestas Islands, which are situated near the coast of Pisco. These islands are the home of many species of mammals and birds. If you want to see these islands; you must take a motor boat to navigate around the islands. Unlike the Galapagos Islands; it is forbidden to disembark in the Ballestas Islands.
Amongst the species that live in the Paracas reserve are fish such as the sole, white toyo (Mustelus whitney), bonito, dims, corvine, chitas, pampanito, mero, tramboyo, etc.
There are also mammals like dolphins, whales and sea lions as well as turtles and mollusk such as squids, octopus, clams, etc. Amongst the birds, it highlights zarcillos, penguins of Humboldt, flamingos, condors (which flight from the Andes), gulls, herons, cormorants, pikeman, red head turkeys buzzard, pelicans amongst others.
Within the Paracas Reserve, there also a great number of archeological sites belonged to ancient Peruvian civilizations such as Paracas culture and Nazca Culture.
Because of the cultural and natural wealth of this region, UNESCO decided to declare the Paracas Reserve as World Heritage Natural Site. Paracas is one of the most beautiful wonders of the Peruvian coast.
The zone of Paracas was inhabited since many centuries ago by different civilizations; one of them was the Paracas Culture, a civilization that inhabited this region between 800 BC and 600 DC. This culture was one of the most important pre-Inca civilizations of Peru; since, they created some of the most beautiful ceramics and textiles of the New World.
Besides, Paracas were pioneers of the skull’s surgery, many mummies with traces of surgeries in the head demonstrate this fact. There are many ancient Paracas tombs in all the reserve. In 1925 an archeology expedition found several hundreds of mummies buried in this Region.
This expedition was led by Julio C. Tello, a great Peruvian archeologist. The main museum of the region, “Julio Tello Museum”, was named in honor to the great Peruvian intellectual.
This place is also an important landmark in the Republican history of Peru; since, it was in this place that the General José de San Martín disembarked with his troops to fight for the Independence of Peru and América on September 8, 1820.
During the second half of the XIX century, the Peruvian government exploited the droppings deposited in the Paracas’ islands by the birds for thousands of years as fertilizer. Then, the extraction of this natural fertilizer became the main economic activity of the country. Nevertheless, the invention of the artificial fertilizer caused the declination of this activity in the XX century.
In 1951, the Peruvian State created the administrative district of Paracas and in 1960 was created the Pre-Historic National Park of Paracas to protect the cultural vestiges of the zone.
Unfortunately since 1970s, several fish-processing factories were established in Pisco near the reserve. These factories cause often spillages of fish oil, which is pollutes the Paracas Bay, endangering seriously the wild life of the Paracas Reserve.
In 1971 it was proposed the creation of a National Sanctuary to protect the populations of flamingos, sea lions, condors and Humboldt penguins.
The Paracas National Reserve was finally created by the Peruvian Government on September 25, 1975 in order to protect the biodiversity of the Pacific subtropical desert and the Pacific Warm Temperate desert.
In 1991 the reserve was declared Regional Reserve for migratory birds and one year later, it was incorporated to the RAMSAR convention.
Currently the Reserve is one of the main destinations of Peru and is visited every year by thousands of tourists, which usually arrive to Paracas using a tourist package that includes also the Lines of Nazca, which are very near of the Paracas National Reserve.