Islas Ballestas - the poor man's Galapagos

In Peru we were advised by some fellow travellers to visit Islas Ballestas nicknamed 'the poor man's Galapagos' because you see a ton of wildlife similar to what you see in the Galapagos but for a portion of the cost ($18) and without the flight.

Candelabra

The town of Pisco is where you are supposed to pick up the tour but it didn't sound very safe based on Lonely Planet.Thankfully our hostel in Huacachina offered a day trip there. It actually ended up being the same cost for us to take the tour from our hostel which included the one hour travel there and back versus if we had done it on our own.

The tour itself isn't very long with you spending 1.5-2 hours on a boat around the island but we were really glad we did it, even though we had visited the real Galapagos Islands. We saw dolphins jumping in the water beside our boat. We also saw the famous three-pronged Candelabra, a gaint figure etched into the sandy hill which no one really knows the meaning behind - kind of like the Nazca lines.

On the tour I saw more  birds then I have ever seen before. Just a warning to anyone taking this tour you might want to wear a hat, in case of bird droppings...I had a close call. We saw Cormorants, Humboldt penguins, boobies and pelicans. We also saw hundreds of sea lions. Apparently one of the beaches is called maternity beach because that is where all the sea lions go to have their babies, so we got to see lots of baby sea lions.