Our last little adventure before departing for Lima and the airport was a little motor boat cruise a couple miles off the coast to the Islas Ballestas near Paracas, Peru. On a few jagged rocks sticking out of the ocean we saw literally millions of sea birds, a few sea lions — or sea wolves as they’re known in Spanish — and yes, a couple penguins. The water is that cold. In fact there are penguins several hundred miles further north in the Galapagos Islands.
The islands are very valuable for their quantity of guano or bird poo. It makes a great fertilizer with lots of phosphorus and nitrogen. Every few years a company goes out and collects the guano. Other than that, no-one walks on the islands except for a lonely vigilante who makes sure no-one steals his poo.
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- Starfish at water level.
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- The enigmatic Candleabra. It seems to me that digging a figure out in the sand to a heavier sub-layer would only last about a week, but I guess I’d be wrong. Due to the lack of rain and wind on this spot, it has lasted at least 150 years and maybe thousands of years. The best guess of what it represents is the San Pedro Cactus, which produces a hallucinogenic juice.
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- That black mat over the island is solid birds.
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- A sea lion (wolf) taking a snooze.
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- A Humboldt penguin walking through a group of sea gulls and boobies.
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- Sea lion (wolf).
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- Two adult sea lions and a baby.
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- A couple dolphins near the mainland coast.
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- A baby sea lion.
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- Approaching the islands.
So, that’s it, our little nine-month adventure in Peru is over.
