Blogs from Ballestas Islands, Ica, Peru, South America

10/04 to 11/04/13: Pisco and the Ballestas islands Pisco has been badly touched by the 2007 earthquake and the re-build just started. One can still witness broken homes, empty spaces, and left cathedral. The main cathedral on the main Plaza is still there but a new church has been build next to it. The town itself offers nothing to the tourist but travel agencies will sell you half-day tour to the islands Ballestas part of the Paracas Reserve Park. On a 2 hours boat ride, you will see the Paracas Candelabra, also called the Candelabra of the Andes, is a well-known prehistoric geoglyph - created on the sand by the Paracas people more than 2000 year ago. Like the Nasca Lines, there is a lot of theories about the meaning of the sign. On the rocks, ... read more

We left Lima in the Dragoman truck, drove down to Paracas, then sailed for a couple of hours around the Ballestas Islands, they are called the "poor mans Galapagos" - they're pretty good for wildlife though, hundreds of sealions, penguins, and more birds in one place than Ive seen anywhere before. The Islands are also mine for their guano every few years, its a great fertiliser - not a job I would fancy though. After lunch we headed into the sand dunes, most of the west coast of south america is desert, certainly in Peru. We went on dune buggies which was like a roller coaster ride, then laid on a snowboar type thing and slid down the sand dunes. I only did the first one, to say Id done it - a few people did ... read more

The Ballestas Islands are in Peru, so here is a poem just for you. Many strange birds this day were seen, don’t know all names but some were green. To go to islands you need a boat, the driver was human not a goat. Sorry about the previous line, but sometimes you need words that rhyme. For months the bird we had wanted to view, without resorting to going to a zoo, was the humble penguin small and fair, and on these islands we saw them there. Black and white and full of fun, Cavorting merrily in the sun. Not alone were our feathered friends. The rocks were packed from end to end. Cormorants, terns and pelicans too, only just to name a few. A condor or two would soar in the sky, Though the penguins ... read more

Today we made our journey to Paracas in luxury!! OMG we thought we were coming to Peru to slum it!! We booked the bus very quickly this morning (to get out of Lima as fast as we could) and headed of to the seemingly most dangerous bus station ever. Well it wasn´t. It was the nicest bus station we´ve ever seen, a bit like an airport. Plus Kevin got the nicest steak stir fry in the world. Much to his delight!!! As you can imagine! Our bus arrived and we stepped into what looked like something from the Orient Express! Never experienced comfort like it. And after what we saw in Lima, we were expecting a rusty old 8 seater VW with the exhaust hanging off. We put the recliners back and the foot rests up ... read more

Sunday 10 April – Pisco We had only 1 night in Pisco. It’s very much a tourist place as it has an amazing oasis in the middle of the desert. This morning we had to get up early as we were boarding a boat which took us to Islas Ballestas, about 30 minutes from the Port of Pisco. These islands were known by the locals as ‘The Galapagos of Peru’. We have never seen so much bird life in one spot. There were many islands just covered with boobies, gulls, pelicans, red-chested and ordinary cormorants and penguins. There was one island ½ covered by penguins. We also saw a stack of sea lions, including big bulls and babies. We saw a mother sea lion with a little baby swimming on her back. The boat circled many ... read more