Day 3 - Seals, dolphins, penguins and a few million birds on the Ballestas Islands!
 
An early start saw us travelling for an hour back down the coast heading for a small fishing village where boats then whisk you round the Ballestas (meaning 'arches' in Spanish) Islands, a National Reserve famous for their dolphins, seals, penguins, sea lions and an array of over 4 million sea birds! The land again on route consisted of dry mountain sand dunes and the occasional shacks, bizarre in that small villages consisting of dotted shacks within an area on the dry desert had apparently been built here by the government for those poor people whose lives had been destroyed in the many earthquakes . The shacks which basically consisted of the thinnest weaving material you have ever seen could be almost blown away with a puff of wind, even the shacks of Laos and Cambodia seemed sturdier than these, and the poverty again was vast.
 
Arriving at out destination we were soon donning on our lifejackets then into our speed boat for the next 2 hours heading out towards the many sand/ rocky outcrop islands. On route we stopped first to see a pod of blue nosed dolphins in the water, then passed on the first island the 'Candelabra,' an ancient drawing etched into the hillside, our guide telling us that this was part of the Nazca lines. Its quite hard in many ways to take the drawings in, to many of us they look like someone recently got a stick and drew a picture they liked in the sand (bit like 'I woz ere... not!) and to think that this was actually an ancient drawing from BC which had so much meaning behind it was pretty weird, I couldn't get my head round it. On route we also saw sea lions diving in the sea which was cool, then on getting closer to one of the islands the spectacle ahead was pretty incredible to say the least! Millions of birds were making lines within the sky as they flew in rings to and from the islands, penguins were perching on the rocks ready to dive into the deep green sea below, lazy fat seals were laying in the most awkward of positions on the rocks, many on top of each other not really caring who they were squashing and amongst that a million birds of pelicans and boobie birds were perched just everywhere! Nobody except 2 security guards and the bird/sea life were allowed to exist here, but funnily enough our guide told is that every 4 months locals from the hills were allowed to come onto the island to scrape the tonnes of bird poo, eeek! off of the rocks as this was used for fertiliser . Now that's a job I would not best like, reminds me of my best mates wedding when I was given the job as bridesmaid of cleaning the bird poo off the foliage that had been collected for the centre tables.....nice!
 
On the boat was a good giggle too with many wise cracks (not to be repeated) coming from the Irish lads, our guide told us that the 5 females seals lounging on top of a big fat male seal in between them was a rare thing to see which as you can imagine sparked a few funny remarks.... We also found that this area has actually the highest concentration of marine birds in the world and we could see why, they were everywhere! Belinda managed to be the only person blessed with the usual bird poop and thankfully the rest of us escaped. After 2 hours, pretty cold, we were heading back, only to have our trusty speed boat breakdown which meant another boat had to tow us in, what is it with us and transport!
 
Needing a much needed coffee, we watched whilst a local guy made some noises whilst spinning on an old speaker box, it was actually pretty cool, then back in the bus it was to head back to our oasis and chill for the afternoon by the pool, bliss! After lunch by the lake surrounded by the huge sand dunes and oasis of palm trees, plus a few pedalos, we sat by the pool in the sun chilling, listening to the parrots whilst mum braved the freezing cold water for a swim!
 
Later on like idiots, we decided to follow in the footsteps of other idiots in the group and challenged ourselves to hike up the 100 metre high approx sand dune behind our hotel so that we could run back down! It seemed like a good idea at first but that soon changed as for every 2 steps forward you just sank another step back and with the gradient it was bl**dy hard to say the least to the extent that it made us both feel quite nauseous climbing up . Stopping several times then deciding to clamber up on all fours we finally made it to the top feeling a tad terrible! If the Inca trail is like that then I can definitely see us on the train!! The pain was definitely worth it, the views across the valley and the sand dunes was incredible and slowly again the sun started to set. Touching the pole at the top, we sat chilling taking it all in on the sand dune peak ridge at the top then like a couple of 5 year olds ran all the way back down! Even that was scary and we both almost wiped out several times, but it was lots of fun and good training for our hike to come!!
 
That eve, we all sampled the local 'Pisco Sour' drink which basically is a mix of brandy, lemon, sugar and egg white froth, not sure if I liked it but it went down well and was a nice sand dune climb celebration drink! Another night of food and laughter with the group at the local restaurant (where random huge tortoises walked around), we fell into bed shattered but loving the trip already having done so much already in just 3 days!