Poor man Galapagos - Ballestas islands

When I was traveling in South America with my two friends in may 2016, we really wanted to visit the galapagos islands. But since we are all poor men, visiting those Galapagos was no option for us at that moment.

In Lima we found out that the Ballestas islands, also known as the 'Poor man Galapagos', were nearby. 'Poor man' and 'galapagos', sounded perfect to us. So we decided to book a trip to Paracas, where a boat would take us to the Ballestas islands.

When we arrived at Paracas we had a briefing with our guide and we met a couple who were also joining the trip. The guide gave us a lot of information about the Ballestas islands. He showed us a map with all the animals we could see during the boat trip. For what I can remember there were over 50 animals listed. At the end we really did not see more than 10 species, but that was no problem because the boat trip was really great.

When we went on the boat, we saw beautiful Peruvian Pelicans chilling in the sun. They weren't afraid of us that was nice to know. That meant that we could have interaction with all the animals we would see during the boat trip. We knew that there were also sealions and pinguins on the Ballestas islands. And I was especially looking forward to interact with the sealions.

During the boat trip we saw a few local fishermen. When we came closer to the Ballestas islands we saw the first sealions in the distance, jumping out of the water. We also saw a lot of penguins. A few minutes later I had my first shot with the sealions. I will never forget what a loud noise they were making. When you watch the video at the end of this story, you can hear it yourself.

And then more and more sealions. They were coming from all directions to our boat. I think they really like boats, because they were following us for minutes. They looked so curious and excited. The excitement was mutual. Then the boat stopped and one of my friends and I were putting on a wetsuit, so we could swim with the sealions.

My other friend and the couple did not go into the water. When I jumped into the water I felt a little bit afraid, because they are wild animals with sharp teeth. And then I came really close to the sealions. They were jumping around me and one sealion even sucked my toe. It was incredible to have this moment of interaction with the sealions. I could look them in the eyes and I thought for a poor man I am really happy.