BALLESTAS ISLAS

A two-hour excursion, which leaves in the morning from the port of El Chaco. The boats leave in the morning at 8am, before the fog sets in, and offer fairly standard tours with between 10 and 35 passengers on board and a guide who speaks Spanish and English. Second departure at 10am, only in summer season. You leave for the Ballestas, these islands which are funny ochre rock formations and shelter a diversified marine fauna: there are many colonies of birds such as the "zarzillo" (a kind of seagull), the "chuita" (red-legged cormorant), the pelican and the famous "piquero peruano" the one that produces guano - a fertilizer of capital importance for Peru which markets it -, but also many seals, sea lions and dolphins, and only a few specimens of Peruvian penguins, known as Humboldt's penguins, which are on the way to extinction. On the way, we come across a strange figure engraved on a hill, visible only from the sea: el Candelabro. This imposing geoglyph, 128 m long and 78 m wide, engraved in a sand dune, revives, as for the Nazca lines, the speculations on its meaning. Is it a drawing of a cactus, a venerated plant, or a sign to guide navigators? This remains a mystery.

It is not possible to go down to the islands (only people who collect guano are allowed), but we get very close to the beaches and rocks where the sea lions laze and bask, it is the highlight of the show.