Pisco and the Ballestas Islands

We stopped off at a place called Huacachina in the middle of the desert with a big oasis. The oasis is surrounded by huge sand dunes.

We stayed overnight in Pisco which is home of the national drink of Peru - Pisco Sour. Although the alcholic drink itself is made with raw egg whites and the Pisco spirit it´s not bad.

We had an early start the next morning to go on a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands. These are often referred to as a smaller version of the Gallapagos Islands. Nothing could prepare me for the ammount of sea birds we were about to see - there are so many birds that there are actually farms on the rocks which collect the droppings and process them for fertiliser.



The seabirds we saw included - Inca Terns, Peruvian Boobies (snigger..)and Guanay Black Cormorants. Along with these we also saw some Humboldt Penguins and lots of sea lions.



The sea lions make some great noises and swin along by the boat. A lot of the females had just given birth so there were a lot of young learning to swim in the smaller pools.





We then headed back to shore before setting off for Lima.