I wake up around 7:30, time to wash and dress and I am already on my way. I go to breakfast at Kate’s, a waitress I met the night before in a tiny little restaurant on the seafront.
I show up at the tourist agency office for the excursion more than half an hour early, and of course I am the only one. I am escorted to the port, still waiting……..nessuno. I sit on the launch hoping I am not the only one, and finally the others arrive.
Next to me is a German girl, quite ugly (I hope she never reads the blog :D) and red as a bell pepper, all burned (we will cross paths many times during the trip). We converse a bit as the launch whizzes through the waves and the sea spray gives me my second shower of the day. The first attraction is called “the candelabra.” We skirt a ‘little island with a hill, on which a huge candelabra is carved into the rock. Very scenic, the guide says it is not known how it was made and its function–perhaps to signal something to sailors.
After about an hour of sailing we approach the Ballestas Islands. Immediately we see the first penguins, about 50cm tall sporting their tails on top of the rocks of the island.
Numerous are the birds, which are busy full time flooding the islands with guano ( yes, poop!) very useful and valuable fertilizer used in agriculture.
Lots of sea lions, complete with cubs, are scuttled on the islands’ beaches. Beautiful is the scene we are presented with as the lance takes the way back, a mother Sea Lion teaching her cub to swim. Of course I had just put the camera in my backpack….
The return trip is monotonous, 1½ hours of sailing under the midday sun, I try not to fall asleep, I don’t want to end up like the girl by my side…I just have to talk to her for a while……