Islas Ballestas

Over breakfast we watched a lady from the restaurant next door filleting fish on the beach. We wandered over to watch the waiting pelicans and she very kindly gave us the scraps which we fed to the eager masses.

We went to the pier at 10am for our tour (25S plus 13S taxes)...it took a further hour and a quarter of faffing until we got on the boat as they wanted to fill the empty seats. We were kept amused watching the sea lions hunting and the birds dive bombing for fish. Eventually our 500 HP boat sped out to sea.

First stop was to see the Candelabra - another geoglyph like the Nasca lines - nobody is sure of who or why.

Then we headed to the Islas Ballestas, also called the Guano Islands due to the huge amount of bird poo that covers them. They are also known as the poor people's Galapagos as they have lots of wildlife but cost a fraction of the price.

They reminded me of the Pembrokeshire coastline - very rugged with lots of rock arches and tunnels. There were absolutely tons of birds everywhere - gulls, boobies, pelicans, Humboldt penguins, plus a fair few sea lions lazing on the rocks. All too soon we sped back to shore. Great trip but wish it had lasted a bit longer.

The afternoon was spent lazing on the balcony and hiding inside from the sun when it got too hot.

We went next door for dinner and had mojitos, and ice cream for me - liquid diets aren't so bad after all, though Anna's pork and sweet potato sandwich was very tempting (44S).Read more