were kids running around all the time, one communal bathroom for all seven us and the other ten people on the floor and we weren't even in Paracas! The problem is that this area was severely damaged by a massive earthquake last summer. Pisco was the epicenter of the earthquake and was completely destroyed. We were initially annoyed, and argued with the owner that we had been deceived, but there was nothing we could do. That night was rather uneventful. We had the owner drive us to Paracas and we walked on the boardwalk and looked at a couple shops. We returned to Pisco for a surprisingly good dinner, and then found the one place open past 10, a karaoke bar, and shared a pitcher of pisco over cards. I mean, how can you stay in a place called Pisco and not drink a pisco, right?
The next morning we woke up and were en route to Paracas by 7:30am. I won't ever forget that drive because there and back we passed what I guess were fish factories. Man, the entire trip was full of horrible smells, but by this point we would have taken any smell, even sewage, over fish powder. Way too potent!
The first thing we did was take a boat tour to Las Islas Bellestas. On the way we saw the famous "La Calendebra", a huge figure in the sand next to the ocean that we still know nothing about. They have never found organic material near it, and have no idea from when or who it came from. 
For my dorky anthropologist self: SO COOL!Then we arrived at the islands itself. It was really pretty! It was amazing to see just thousands of birds everywhere- so many different species in great numbers, it almost felt like a scene out of "Birds"- that Hitchcock movie. I even saw a couple penguins, my favorite animal of course!!!! PENGUINS!!! A-mazing! We also saw tons of sea lions,
sun bathing, sleeping, fighting, playing, climbing rocks, swimming, everything. The funniest looking animals, just big blobs but yet with a regal manner from which you can understand why they are called sea lions. 
After this, we boarded a bus for our tour of the Paracas Nature Reserve. I should put nature in quotations because the only nature we saw were sand, rocks, water, and lots of dead animals. It was actually kind of depressing. Great views of the water, but really, no wildlife to speak of. Also, the one main attraction of the Reserve, "La Catedral", a natural rock formation in the shape of a cathedral, fell down last year with the earthquake! So sad... The highlight of the tour was probably our lunch- lots of fish and really good cebiche (raw fish that's very lemony
that they serve with camote (sweet potato) and is nothing like sushi but pretty good). After this, we went back to the hostal, past the horrible fishy smells, and boarded a bus back to Lima. All in all, Ica/Wacachina/Pisco/Paracas was a weekend, and trip, for the books.