Tag Archives: Islas Ballestas

Islas Ballestas: The Poor Man’s Galapagos

Islas Ballestas Pelican

Islas Ballestas is a nature reserve about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Lima. We had to be at the bus terminal in Lima for 3:30am for a 4:15am departure, which meant we left our hotel at 3am to get there on time. Ugh, getting up early sucks, but it was worth it. (I did an earlier post about part of the bus trip.) One thing I forgot was that before boarding bags are searched, and video footage is taken of each passenger’s face. We initially thought the video was for security reasons. When we got home someone told us it was to identify remains of passengers if the bus is smashed beyond recognition in an accident. That’s always reassuring!

We arrived safely at a bus station in Paracas. The bus station was more like a glorified grass hut, but with plumbing. Check out the security device on the toilet tank.

Our guide Luis met us on a tiny dock, we loaded up the boat and were out on the Ocean. We saw (and smelled) a bazillion birds. There were cormorants, gulls, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, and Humboldt Penguins! I heart PENGUINS! We also saw sea lions eating sardines right out of fishermen’s nets. The fishermen were none too happy, but the sea lions were living it up. Luis had never seen a sea lion “con pesca en bocca” in all the years he’s been a marine biologist, so he was super stoked about that.

Paracas CandellabraOn the way to the island, we passed the Paracas Candelabra. The huge geoglyph is hundreds and hundreds of years old. No one knows why it is there, or who put it there. (Pirates, Aliens, Sailors, are all theories.) Word is that the candelabra points to the Nazca Lines, but that doesn’t hold out if you google it. The geoglyph is several feet deep of dust. It hasn’t disappeared due to erosion because it is sheltered from the wind, and it never rains in the area. People are not permitted near the candelabra as the foot prints/tracks would remain imprinted on the crust.

The weather of the Paracas area creates also an anomaly for the Ballestas island. Due to the lack of wind/rain, and the island birds’ ability to produce so much guano an industry has been created. The guano is collected every 3 years to be used for fertilizer. It is illegal to set foot on the islands without special guano collecting permits. Not that that’s something I was interested in! Let’s just say you’re lucky there isn’t smell-o-vision to go along with the photos!

ps: I included a few of Jon’s photos. His zoom was better able to capture the birds.

 

30 More Days!

It almost doesn’t seem real yet because Jon’s been the one doing all the research and planning for this trip. I can’t even picture the complete itinerary, but he could tell you times and numbers for all the flights and busses we’ve got to take.

We’re pretty organized this time around as we’ve already got the bulk of our travel supplies. We’ve gone to get the appropriate vaccines and pills, and now just have to wait. (ps: my arm hurt like a mofo for more than 2 weeks after the travel shots!)So here’s the major attractions that I can remember from the plans we’ve got:

We fly from Vancouver to Lima and then to Arequipa. Then there is a tour of Colca Canyon, which thanks to Wikipedia I now know Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but not as vertical. This is where we hope to ease into the altitude while we see the Andean Condor. Nothing like jumping to 3300m right away. (FYI: We live at 377m, and people start feeling altitude sickness above 2400m)After Colca Canyon, we’re off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. At 3800m,

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It looks bloody cold, yet all warnings say wear loads of sun screen to prevent sun burn. Apparently high altitude = no sun protection from the atmosphere. I suppose I should add sunscreen to the list of stuff we still need.From Puno we’re flying to Cusco. Cusco looks amazing. I’m looking forward to just wandering around and taking tons of pictures and checking out all the beautiful buildings. Cusco is at 3310m altitude. Let’s just hope we’re acclimatized by now and not feeling like death.

The next obvious place to visit from Cusco is Machu Picchu. You can’t really go to Peru and not visit Machu Picchu. That’d be like going to Paris and skipping the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. After all the turmoil Peru has been going through from horrific mudslides this winter, I’m relieved that we’re able to get to Machu Picchu at all. We’re not doing the 4-day Inca Trail trek as we only have 16 days for the entire trip.  Once we’ve finished our tour of Machu Picchu and Cusco, we fly back to Lima for 2 more crazy days packed full of plans. They’re going to be insane, but we’re going to try to visit Islas Ballestas and the next day Chan Chan. (Bonus: Cusco, Machu Picchu and Chan Chan are 3 more UNESCO World Heritage Site to cross off my list!)

The tour of Islas Ballestas will take us along the coast on a boat. Hopefully we’ll see all sorts of birds (penguins, pelicans, flamingos) and dolphins, sea lions etc. Most of the travel books warn that it is stinky and that we’ll probably get pooped on.

From Islas Ballestas it is back to Lima for a flight to Trujillo which is adjacent to Chan Chan. I’ve read a bit about Chan Chan, and it seems like it’ll be worth the visit.We had a choice of flying the Nazca Lines or visiting Chan Chan. It was a tough decision, but ultimately, I didn’t really want to fly over Nazca and feel like vomiting for the entire flight. (Almost every review, blog, article about the flying the Nazca lines includes vomiting.)

So that’s a little recap of the Peruvian leg of the journey. We’ll have 2 days in Mexico City visiting Teotihuacan. And then home.