Islas Ballestas, Paracas, Peru

(Written in 2012)

While I was visiting Peru in July this year I stayed in Pisco, in the South, for a few days – part of my reconnaissance to see where I might spend 6 months in 2013 – and decided to take the boat trip out to see the birds on the Ballestas Islands. The travel guides call them “The Little Galapagos”, but many reviewers ridicule this notion, and though I have not been there I have seen enough documentaries to realise that a few “rocks” poking out of the Pacific cannot be compared to the unique eco-system that is the Galapagos.

While in Pisco I had walked down to the seafront, despite warnings about how dangerous this was – I did not see a single soul during my walk down there, and was actually amazed at how quiet it was compared to any place I have been to in Brazil. I know that officially it was winter, but Peruvian coastal winters are hardly cold, so I was surprised not to see children playing in the streets, or on the beach, nor to see adults just hanging around outside. The seafront in Pisco is in fact just a beach – nothing else – no shops, no bars, no hotels, no people! All in a very poor state of repair – the area was devastated in 2007 by an earthquake, and is still undergoing repair and restoration, with the beach area not having been touched yet. This surprises me somewhat, as the town appears to be mostly back to normal and I would have thought that encouraging tourists back to enjoy the beach and sea would help the economic recovery.

Pisco Beach

Pisco seafront

Paracas, on the other hand, is very much geared up for tourism, helped by the fact that the Ballestas Islands are only a couple of miles offshore and are one of the areas main tourist attractions. Paracas has plenty of bars, hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops as well as many tour operators offering trips to local attractions, including the islands. My first visit there was just to look around, and it was then I noticed the boats that take tourists out to the islands, which that day were not running “due to bad weather”. The sea looked like a millpond, there was hardly any breeze, and the early morning mist had burnt away, so I was not sure what that meant, but I am no sailor so took their word for it. I have a sneaking suspicion that as there were not that many tourists about it was uneconomic to run the boats, so the weather made a fitting excuse! I had a very nice lunch there, and enjoyed a walk along the “promenade” before returning the 6 miles to Pisco.

I finally managed to find a day the boat trips were running so booked a trip from an agency in Pisco, followed later the same day by a trip to a local Inca ruin. A minibus was to pick me up from my hotel, but when I got on there was much discussion and finally I, and a tour guide, took a taxi to Paracas, where he handed me over to another guide, who took me across the road to where everyone was waiting to go on the boats. It was very chaotic – there were groups of people all over, and several queues forming ready to board the boats, and I was taken to join one group, who were mainly young Australians and Canadians, but then after signing in was taken to a second group, which appeared to be mainly Italians. Finally I was put in yet another group, which in part was an American choir group on tour, and we boarded our boat.

Paracas, boat to Islas Ballestas

Once on board we were all provided with a buoyancy aid (I choose my words carefully here – it was a buoyancy aid, and not a life jacket), which were all brand new and apparently unused, but given no safety briefing, nor instructions on how to put the aids on. The guide, who was fully bilingual, and the captain (piloto) of the boat, put theirs on, but left them untied for the duration of the trip! I tried to tighten mine, but realised that the clips were actually inserted the wrong way round, so the aid would not tighten – I am a qualified canoe and kayak instructor so know how to fit one correctly. I fixed my own, but noticed that everyone else had the same problem, and the guide was not interested when I tried to speak to him about it. There were around 40 people on board the boat, and we travelled some 2 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean, so I hate to think what would have happened had an accident occurred putting us all in the water.

Seabirds

Seabirds on Islas Ballestas

Islas Ballestas

This did spoil my enjoyment a little, but nevertheless it was a truly spectacular sight to see all the birds, including penguins and sea-lions, on the islands, and the guide was very informative. Despite the buoyancy aid concern, I really enjoyed the trip, but was relieved when we got back with no mishaps!

 

Back on dry land I was met by the tour guide who was waiting for me – she did not join us on the trip to the islands – and she hurried me to the main road and flagged down a taxi to take me back to Pisco. There are 3 types of taxi in Peru – small three-wheeled rickshaw types (called Tuk-Tuks), which run around the towns, “normal” taxis, and “coletivos”, the latter being one you flag down and he stops several times along the way to try and fill the empty seats. These work out much cheaper, but can be a bit of a squash! Needless to say I was put in a coletivo, but got back safely to Pisco, where I was handed over to another taxi driver for my trip to the Tambo Colorado ruins, which I will write about later.