These islands are for the birds

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A 3am start to arrive for the Isla Ballestas trip at 8am! The staff in our hotel were kind enought to get breakfast for us, including fried eggs.

A lot of farming can be seen on the way down the coast...all irrigated. They raise chooks on the beach.
The towns are untidy and dusty and many of the buildings sprout long lengths of reo. (This was a very common sight in our travels)

A fast boat takes us out to Isla Ballestas, rocky islands with caves, birds, penguins and seals. On the way out we see some old carvings in the hard slopes about 180m long and 50cms deep...been there well over 150 yrs but no one knows what they are or who did them. Because it NEVER rains, marks last a long time.

Water comes from the rivers....must be flowing beneath the surface. (for the engineers, there are no drainage pits or pipes in the streets)

In the bay, some divers, wearing old snorkels and a fishing net sausage filled with rocks for weights, were preparing for work. They then swam out on floats. When we returned, they were bringing their catch of fan shells ashore.

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Photos

loading guano
Isla Ballestas

summer holiday houses
closed for the winter