Islas Ballestas (Ballestas Islands)

So we have already left the city of Lima and now we'll see the deep and real Perú. The landscape does't change so much, just desert and sometimes, suddenly, a little town apperars from nothing...the trip from Lima to Pisco was not boring at all, many people were getting on and off the bus in every bus stop trying to sell anything: chocolate, chips, drinks...After four hours in the bus we got Pisco, a smaller city (100.00 inhabitants), quite poor and dangerous actually but with a very busy and lifely center. We found a cheap and nice hostal so we had some pollo a la brasa (grilled chicken) and went to bed. The day after we took an excursion to the Ballestas Islands, near Paracas (20 min. from Pisco). On the way there, we thougth Stefano was going to suffer a lot, cause the fish smell was really strong and he hates fish!! But luckly when we were at the harbour the smell had dissapeared.
So here we are on the boat, with a good coat to don't get wet and our life vests on, ready to admire the wildlife of this peruvians islands. The guide took us first to have a look at an extrange symbol that was drawn on a little sand's mountain; It was called El Candelabro and it was a kind of candel lamp. The origin of this huge drawing is still nowadays unknown (like the famous ones in Nazca) and somebody even says that it was done by creatures from other planets..uuuhhh!!

El Candelabro, from the boat. Islas Ballestas

Anyway, later on we spent one hour arround this little islands watching penguins, sea lions, and different kind of birds typical from this area...it was like being inside this documentries that we use to watch at home, seing how this enormous sea lions were fighting and shouting, or the funny penguins standing on the rocks enjoying the sun, or the weird and curious shapes that the cliffs and rocks created by the water erosions such as a chinese face, a monkey, a mamut...(Sergio's papa will be very proud of his son when he saw the documentry that Sergio filmed for him) and everything trying to avoid bird's shit (excuse my words) that were falling like bombs next to the boat (luckly we were not reached!!)
After the excursion by boat, time to go back to Pisco, get everything ready for our next journey to Arequipa (south of Perú) and it was then when we realised that we had to use some sun protection on the boat: all of us were with a horrible red (burned) face because of the sun...uff! this is gonna burn tomorrow!!

Héctor


Pelicans near the harbour, Paracas