Droppings in the Ocean!

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We drove to Pisco this morning and boarded a boat for a two hour tour of the Ballestas islands. We had to wait a while in Pisco for the boat, and were constantly hassled by street sellers, pan pipe musicians, small boys attracting pelicans, and array of dogs including an adorable puppy suffering from mange.

After leaving the shore we first sighted the three pronged Candlelabra, a giant figure etched in the sandy hills. We spent about an hour cruising the islands, and their guano covered archways and caves. We saw Humboldt penguins, thousands of cormorants, Peruvian Boobies, seals, and other guano producing birds. The smell of bird deposit was pungent! In the sea and surrounding rocks we saw sea lions and we even spotted a dolphin on the way out. The seals were very playful in the waters, and they were basking on the beach making strange loud noises! In the sky we saw mass of bird swarms, forming decorative patterns above the islands. The cheap mans' Galapagos - great wildlife!

The layers of sun baked nitrogen rich droppings from the seabirds have been deposited over thousands of years. This guano has a reputation as a first class fertiliser and during the mid 19th century, it became a lucrative trade. Nowadays the birds are left to their own devices, except for licensed extraction every seven years. Enough of that though!!!

In the afternoon we ate pizza for lunch, enjoyed the warm weather, had a few power cuts and spoke with the resident parrots. In the evening we all went out to the same restaurant, that we had visited yesterday and enjoyed chocolate brownies, worth the visit! We could get used to oasis life!

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Photos

Ballestas Penguins
Hanging Out Together!

Birds Everywhere
Don´t look up! We were all hoping that there were no direct guano hits.