Ballestas Islands

---

Our tour guide Mel joked with us as we left the dock to look out for the boobies! Huh, nudist beach, no Peruvian booby birds, and thousands of them.

The Ballestas Islands are home to a great variety of wildlife. There are huge colonies of sea lions and unusual marine birds, such as - Humboldt’s Penguin, cormorants, Peruvian booby and Peruvian pelican. The islands surrounding seas are rich in creel, and associated upper food chain fish. They provide a safe breeding ground for sea lions, pelicans and a large variety of bird life.

The tour enabled the gang to get up close with much of the wildlife on the island. An astounding amount of birds and sea lions were seen all over the island.

The locals take advantage of the bird droppings by collecting these twice a year. On the island, foot high rock fences can be seen which collect the wind blown droppings until collection time. This is then exported proving incoming for the locals.

---