Pisco

Pisco is famous for producing the national drink of Pisco, a grape brandy, but we didn't visit any of the local distilleries or bodegas as apparently they're all a bit outside the town. The town itself was actually hit by a huge earthquake 14 months ago in which 450 people died and the town was devastated. Much of that devastation was still very much in evidence with rubble strewn everywhere, although obviously there is a lot of rebuilding going on.

When we arrived in the main plaza there was a small local food festival taking place, so we had a very tasty lunch snacking from the various stalls. Then we got our hostel sorted with some help from a nice lady tout (the very nice and comfy Hostel Sorado that escaped any serious quake damage), before strolling down to the Pacific ocean (which we hadn't seen since way back in Chile 4 months ago), and catching the wonderfully clear sunset from the long pier.

But the main reason for stopping off in Pisco was to visit Isla Ballestas. This is a set of islands famous for their vast bird colonies, and it really was something else. The islands are really impressive in themselves, as they've been eroded into a huge number of sea arches that make for very impressive nesting sites. But it's really all about the birds, and I've never encountered anything like as many birds in one place - literally hundreds of thousands of cormorants, Peruvian boobies and various other species (many pointed out by the excellent guide), and hundreds of Humboldt penguins and sea lions. The whole time there was a vast number of birds flying around, many in small formations (which, sadly enough, reminded me of squadrons of Tie-fighters buzzing around the Death Star in Star Wars!).

The actual tour wasn't really that long - we buzzed out in about 30 minutes in a large speedboat with about 20 people aboard (along with 3 other similar speedboats), cruised about the islands for about an hour and then came straight back (stopping briefly on the way out to see the mad Candelabra etched into a hillside). That's always the problem with tours of course, but in this case there wasn't really much option.

I read somewhere that the islands are referred to as 'the poor man's Galapagos', and I can certainly see why, as it really was an amazing experience. It was just brilliant to see an example of a natural habitat that seems to be completely unaffected by humanity (although the guano (bird droppings used as fertilizer) was commercially exploited for many hundreds of years (since before the Inca in fact), that no longer happens (not much anyway), and the islands are now firmly protected and respected). From the incredible number of birds, penguins and sea lions there now it all seems to be working out very well.

Being a quick tour we were back in Pisco by around midday, so after buying a snacky lunch for the bus and a bit of internet we hopped into a collectivo taxi (waiting just 45 seconds for two locals to fill up the taxi), got to the Pan-Americana highway and literally within 3 minutes were on the next bus to Lima, just 4 hours up the road.