Nigel: With a fairly early start, we were out of bed and out on the water before we had chance to have our first cup of coffee (not that there was anywhere to get a cup!). The boat journey to the Ballestas Islands took around 45 minutes and this was going at some speed to get there. The islands are often described as the poor mans Galapagos and similar to the Galapagos Islands, the main attraction is the wildlife which lives there. This includes penguins, seals, and the hundreds and thousands of birds which migrate to the island. There are several small islands and one large one. It looked like the island was previously occupied with some sort of industry and based on the amount of birds perhaps it was to collect bird droppings for fuel. When we got closer to the island, we cut the engine and drifted around the water (almost colliding with the other boats). When the boat had stopped, some of the people on the boat started to get plastic bags out and place them on their heads. We had forgot ours and we only had our hoodies to protect us from the bird poo bombardment. There were several close calls but we were pleased to survive unscathed. Due to it being deep waters around the islands, we were able to get very close without any risk of damaging the boat. This was good for us but the seals on the other hand probably wished we weren't able to get so close as on one occasion we were approx 1 metre away from the sleeping seal when the boat started up and a plume of smoke went straight into its face. Another good spectacle was seeing a black cloud of birds migrating back to the island. There was a straight line of them flying towards the islands as far as the eye could see. Although it was good to see the wildlife, you did feel you were invading their natural habitat.