2013/07/13

The Ballestas islands

Again an early rise. We leave for the Islands (national Park).  It is a foggy morning.... Our leader is afraid the coast guard might refuse permission to sail because of the fog. Everything has to be done quickly. When we are at sea they cannot call us back.... (they cannot see us anymore anyway).

At first we sail quietly along the "candlestick". The pictures show that the light is low. At least the "candlestick" is visible.




Then full speed ahead to the islands. It takes about 30 minutes to get there. Rugged islands with a lot of birds.




Under the "gates" are gravel banks. The islands are very inhospitable (just rocks).


Peru is the largest guano export country in the world. Here, once in a period of 4 years the "guano"is harvested. They look newly scraped.....



The only habitation on the Islands is a station of the Ministry of the Environment.



The islands house strange structures to load ships. Ik makes me think of the computer game "Myst". The atmosphere is a little unreal, also because of the "mist".






The boats sail very close to the rocks. Scary! The water is icy (the Humbold stream). We must think the captains did this many times before..... This is the way to get closer to the pinguins, birds and sea lions.






Then back to the continent.


When we are back on the land there is a siren going off => it is an earthquake exercise. Somebody has trouble standing...

Two fishermen earn some side money with a trained pelican. It loves fishes....





In the meantime the fog has gone en the weather is nice and warm. We have lunch while "the condor passes" in the background....
















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