Isla Ballestas

After Nazca we visited Paracas where we went on a small boat tour of the Isla Ballestas, a group of small islands famous for their guano. The islands are covered in ~600,000 birds like the blue-footed booby, humboldt penguins, terns, pelicans etc. We arrived at the docks super early in the morning along with tons of other tourists and were then herded onto our respective boats. We raced off to see El Candelabro a geoglyph famous for looking like a candlestick. The boats then raced off to the guano islands. (I use the word raced again because the boats literally raced eachother.) Before the tour, we were warned to wear hats because of all the birds flying above us but I definitely did not think about how badly the islands were going to smell. It was really cool seeing all the different animals. There were thousands and thousands of birds on the cliffs. Within the swarms of birds there were a few penguins hidden. On top of this, there were hundreds of seals and sea lions on the beaches. While it was cool seeing all the different animals, I couldn't help but feel guilty for bothering the animals. All of the boat tours got really close to the islands and the seals/sea lions sounded like they were screaming as they ran away from the shore. Our boat was pretty good about not getting too close except when we were at the maternity beach (which was pretty much the worst area our boat could get close.) While the tour left me feeling a little sad, we met the sweetest abuelita (grandmother) during the tour. She wanted to know all about what we were doing here and invited us to dinner in Lima! This ended up being another trip highlight.

El Candelabro

How they move the guano

Some sleepy seals and sea lions

The beautiful islands

I really love this photo even though the colors turned out weird

some interesting little caves

Penguins!

This seal is kissing this rock!!

Really cool looking bird

Even cuter penguin

Some fighting birds

I LOVE this photo

Adorable sea lion

Penguins

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Sea lions just hanging out

Pretty adorable sea lion

Gives you an idea of how many seals/sea lions there are

Some adorable babies

adorable pose

 

Catching a snooze

Us and the abuelita!