Ballestas
Island, in the small town of Paracas is known as the cheap Galapagos
and we decided to go there Thursday on a day trip. Our tour began
with a 3:45 am (that's not a typo) bus from Lima. The reason for such
an early start is so that you can catch the boats at 8am for a tour
of the island. These islands are home to hundreds of thousands of
birds and this is not an exaggeration, as you will see by the
photograph. First, the boat stopped near the Candelabra landmark,
which is similar to the Nazca lines and was drawn over 200 years ago.
Nobody knows how it got there or why it is there but the first
recorded "sighting" of it was 200 years ago. Some say that
it was a marker for pirates in the olden days and others the usual
aliens theory. Paracas only gets about 20mm of rain a year and with
little wind on the side of the hill, the drawing will stay there
forever.
After
this stop, the boat continued on to the islands to see the wildlife.
The islands are homes to pelicans, Peruvian Bobby, cormorants,
Humboldt Penguins which are an endangered species, and many more
animals. We were told by the guide to keep our mouths closed when
looking up at the birds above and sure enough almost a minute after
he said it, a kid got shitted on. Luckily for him, he was wearing a
hoody and it landed on the it instead of his head. All the white
markings you see on the island are bird droppings and since it
doesn't rain much it last forever. Every few years, a few hundred
people go on the island and collect the droppings which is later used
as fertilizer. I wonder who gets picked to do that job! The entire
time we were near the islands, I was trying not to think about
getting shitted on!
After
the boat ride, we went on a tour to the Paracas Nature Reserve. The
area, once completely covered by water is now a desert with many
marine fossils. The landscape is beautiful though with the ocean
nearby. Afterwards we took the 4:20 pm bus back to Lima for an end to
a nice long day.
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