Las Islas Ballestas & Ica

On Monday morning, we piled into one tour boat of many docking at Paracas to putt around the Ballestas Islands. These islands are most famous for the nutrient-rich guano. At one time this bird poop was exported, and often used in the making of the nitrogen bomb. But in recent years, Peru has kept the guano to itself, using it instead for fertilizer. The guano is harvested every seven years, and must have been so recently, because we didn’t see much of that at all.

Tourists

But the guano isn’t the reason that so many tourists don bright orange life jackets every morning. We want to sea wildlife! And wildlife we saw.

Peruvian Boobies (and some guano)

A cormorant

Humboldt Penguins

Red crab (almost certainly not it's species name)

Sunbathing lioness (She's a lady because she has a small, blond head.)

Another sea lion (in case you couldn't tell)

Napping. I liked these guys.

Friends, bein' friends

This is why there is so much poo on these islands.

Further demonstration of why there is so much poo on these islands. (Alan is very proud of this picture.)

We also saw this formation, carved into the land. Why is it there? That depends on whomever you ask. Maybe it was used by pirates as a landmark? It dates back to pre-Inca times.

We had booked the islands tour in conjunction with transportation to the neighboring town of Ica, but that caused a lot of confusion for the constantly-arranging Paracas guides. After working out the kinks, we were introduced to Edwin, who became our private driver for the day. It was an uncomfortable situation, but Edwin rocked our socks off.

Rear-view mirror decorations in Edwin's car. We have no picture of Edwin. This is what happens when I leave camera duties to Alan; we get a million pictures of birds pooping, but none of our new people friends.

Anyway, Edwin drove us about an hour north, to Ica. Ica has lots of mototaxis, which gave us great joy and terror (and gave Dad something to count).

Mototaxis for the win!

Edwin’s manager met us in Ica, and drilled us about what we were doing that afternoon. Of course, he had some pre-packaged ideas in mind. We agreed to spend a few more hours in Edwin’s company, and he drove us to a vineyard called El Catador. El Catador makes both wine and pisco, and a sweet girl walked us through the process of making both. They still use the process that has been in place for many years, including stomping grapes with feet, pressing them with a wooden press, and distilling the pisco in giant cement vats. All outdoors.

Standing in the area where grapes are foot-squished. 

That wooden press behind us? Still used.

Cement, fire-powered distillery. I am sure Alan would love to tell you all about it. It’s not really my thang.

The hole in the ground is the place where a little bit of each batch of pisco is sacrificed to Pacahamama (Mother Earth). Isn’t that nice?

Chocotejas: Pecans dipped in caramel and chocolate. Sorry, y’all, I didn’t buy you any. I don’t think they would have survived the rest of the trip.