Islas Ballestas

Islas Ballestas

Islas Ballestas - named by Spanish mariners who found that the caves present throughout the island reminded them of crossbows --> Ballestas = Crossbows.   The islands are also sometimes called "baby galapagos" for the abundant avian as well as marine wildlife surrounding the island and "Bird Guano Islands" for a variety of reasons that I will discuss a little later down the road. 

The Islands are part of a national preserve in Paracas in the Povince of Pisco.  It's a red desert martian landscape next to the sea.  Buses from Lima to Pisco leave about every 15 min for the 4+hour drive.  We decided to do it overnight/early in the morning to get there as early as possible and spend the day.  We took about a 1:45am bus and arrived in Pisco just before 6am.  We then took a taxi to Paracas and the port that is used to start the boat tours of the Islas Ballestas.  It's a 2-hour tour around the island and nobody is allowed on the island unless your part of the workforce that collects bird guano every 8 years.  It's one of the world's principal producers of bird guano and the last collection occured in 2007.  They had 400 workers spend 4 months on the island shoveling bird guano onto barges to a total of 25,000 tons and over $11 million dollars - according to the tour guide.  After seeing the islands, it may even be an underestimation ;)

My friend the Humbolt Penguin

La Candelabria

One of the unique attractions of the tour is the proximity you can get to the wildlife and unique animals such as the Humbolt Penguin that live on the islands.  Upon our arrival, I made fast friends with a penguin that was showing me the best routes to the island.  The Candelabria is a HUGE heiroglyph in the sand which has a ton of speculated uses, one of which that it was used to guide incan mariners along the coast. 

We arrived in Paracas about 6:30am and after haggling for a good tour price we purchased the tickets and found a little cafe where we had a light Peruvian breakfast of coffee, fresh mango/orange juice and some cookies.  The tour started at 8am and it was amazing! A little chilly out on the water but we saw bottle nosed dolphins about 15 - 20 feet from the boat on the way to the candelabria and it was also breeding season for the South American Sea Lion known in Peru as the Lobo Chusco.  Females could be seen lounging on the rocks, Humbolt penguins were partying on small outcroppings, and the birds....the birds....were everywhere. 

Sun bathing Lobos Chuscos

Partying penguins

As we maneuvered the boat through the rocky outcroppings of the island we were within feet of penguins, sea lions, sea lion pups, and local indigenous fisherman in their wooden boats but we were SURROUNDED by birds which, literally, covered the island.  I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  A picture would not do the scene justice.  SO much bird excrement, the islands are made of red voclanic rock but are stained pure white from all the bird guano.  There is a station where 4 caretakers watch over the birds permanently and a set of buldings to house the 400 workers who come every 8 years to shovel bird guano for 4 months.  Once you moved to the internal portions of the island the smell was pretty intense as well.  Birds make the island and it's an interesting economic as well as tourism asset for the national park.  

However,  the absolute highlight of the tour was when we floated past the rocky beaches within Isla Ballestas.  As I mentioned before, it's breeding season for the S.American Sea Lion and the beaches were COVERED with nursing pups, pups learning how to swim, and females.  We had the opportunity to see a couple of males on the beach and the males usually have harems of 35 or more females - these bad boys are HUGE.  They will also kill any male pups to reduce competition so the mother has to expend a lot of energy protecting male pups if they are going to survive.  The pups are slick black and were just getting beat up by the waves as they tried out their sea flippers and when they got tired they would run back to momma to nurse for a bit and chill out.  It was an incredible seen and it definitely helped make the long 8 hour bus ride worth the effort.  

South American Sea Lion pups learning to swim

After the tour, we went to a local restaurant on the beach and had fresh mariscos (sea food) consisting of ceviche, fried fish, avocado salad (known as Palta in Peru) and some grilled local Peruvian Sea Bass.  There were four of us (myself, the spaniard and two U.S. medical residents who are taking an infectious disease course at Cayetano) and we all shared the food along with some homemade lemonade.  Since it's election week no alcohol can be sold anywhere in Peru until after the elections are over, hence no cold cerveza to accompany the seafood :(

But the no alcohol sanction is yet another interesting aspect of Peruvian Election laws.  More to follow on the Elections which are taking place today....I had a great morning walking around and observing all the voting posts as well as people watching.  Initial results will be posted after the polls close at 4pm.  I'll post some more on the elections later tonight or tomorrow....so far, It's been a great weekend!

Check out more on the Islas Ballestas at the links below:
http://www.go2peru.com/gal_ballestas.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islas_Ballestas

Whoop!