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Published: August 6th 2007
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It was an early start for the route out of Lima. Our bus was scheduled to depart at 8:30 and we were told to be at the terminal for 8. We’d pre-booked a cab to take us the station so we didn’t have to worry about flagging one down with all out gear, so off we went. There’s no central bus station in Lima, all the different companies each have they’re own terminal scattered throughout the city, and when we were dropped off we noticed that this terminal looked ‘different’ to the one we’d bought our tickets at. We just figured that we were looking at it from behind. Wrong! This particular company had two terminals! We dashed back outside, but our taxi had already left, luckily there was another one waiting so after a short explanation to the driver in terrible Spanish, he understood and whisked us to the other terminal just in time for 8 o’clock. We really needn’t of worried about being so punctual however because 8:30 in this continent actually means 9:45. We just went with the flow figuring must be something to do with the time difference.
The journey south took about six hours. As
Candelabra.
This is etched on the side of a cliff on the way to the islands. the bus didn’t terminate at our destination (Pisco), for last two hours we both had our noses pressed against the windows wondering if the town we’d just stopped at was Pisco or not. Luckily for us the ticket inspector is wise to this and told us when to get off. We found ourselves a cheap hostel for the night and dumped our gear.
Pisco is a port south of Lima and is used as a base to explore the Peninsula de Paracas and Islas Ballestas which form the most important bird and marine sanctuary on the Peruvian coast. We booked a tour to explore the Ballestas Islands early the next morning, skipping the afternoon peninsula tour as the way it was described seemed like we’d see much of the same. As we had some time to kill we wandered round the town noticing there really wasn’t much to see then headed towards the beach area 2km west of town. This part of Pisco was really run down and looked like it had seen better days. We started to wander down a large pier that jutted out into the ocean but was quickly chased down by a coastguard who explained
in great sign language that we may as well kiss goodbye to our back packs if we go down there. One quick U-turn later we headed back into the centre of town, which at least seemed a little safer. Just outside of town there is a large collection of fishmeal factories and in the evening the wind must have changed direction as when we went to bed the entire town absolutely stunk of fish!
Early next morning we were piled onto a minibus with a load of other tourists and set off to a little town further south of Pisco which is where our speedboat tour of the islands would depart from. It took about half an hour to reach the islands and we then cruised all around the islands watching Peruvian Boobys (they’re birds, I’m not talking about a topless beach which locals use), Cormorants, Humboldt Penguins and large colonies of Sea Lions which were just lazing around soaking up the sun. Over the many years, layers and layers of guano (droppings) have been deposited on the islands which have a reputation as an excellent nitrogen rich fertiliser. Although replaced now by synthetic fertilisers in previous times the
Humboldt Penguin.
Jeez... wish I could fly! trade of this stuff was so lucrative that the Spanish fought wars over possession of nearby guano rich islands. Wars over bird shit? That’s even more ridiculous than wars over religion! Luckily on the way back we caught sight of a lone dolphin too which was an added bonus to a pretty excellent tour.
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steph
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aww cute sealions
i love reading these stories, you'll get used to not leaving/arriving in places at the estimated time! trip sounds fab so far, so jealous not to be there with u! keep smiling :)