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3 hours
Daily Tour
Unlimited
English, Spanish
The Ballestas Islands are the natural habitat of sea lions and shorebirds that you can see on this boat tour. When you arrive at the islands you will be able to observe the fauna that lives on those islands and take beautiful photos, unfortunately being a protected area it is not allowed to get off the boat to swim with the sea lions, but anyway you will enjoy seeing and knowing a little more about the wildlife of this place.
Some people compare the Ballestas Islands with the Galapagos, however the Ballestas have their own appeal, nothing to envy to another island complex. It has been detected that besides to the sea lions, in the Ballestas Islands there are approximately 160 species of seabirds among birds native to these islands such as the Humblodt penguin and other birds that arrive there by migration.
The Ballestas Islands are part of the protected area of the Paracas National Reserve that preserves 35% of the mainland and islands and 65% of the marine waters, this includes the natural habitat of sea lions, other species and the guano islands.
For the excursion to the Ballestas Islands you must board a boat that will bring you closer to the islands to see the fauna that lives there, you cannot go down to swim with the sea lions, only take photos, in fact the boat should get there as silence as possible so that the visitors do not disturb the animals.
Seabirds leave their guano on the islands of Paracas, guano is a precious compound that had a peak of exploitation in the 19th and 20th centuries and is still in great demand in the world today for being a natural fertilizer with higher nutrients than the cow dung.
While you go on the boat to the Ballestas Islands you will see the famous “Candelabro de Paracas” (candelabra), a huge geoglyph made on a sand dune that could also be said to be in the shape of a cactus, in fact there are many theories about its appearance but still no definitive conclusion is reached about its creation, it is still a mystery.
