Sea lions, and penguins and booby birds, oh my!

Thursday, January 18

Lima, Peru

Excursion day, this is our last day in South America before we begin to sail across the Pacific to the west. We’ve found it fascinating in the huge, bustling and noisy port where gigantic tankers are disgorging grains and cargo next to ours and one other cruise ship.

We chose to go on a nature cruise to the Palomino Islands, a national protected marine park, shared with the Peruvian Navy which is headquartered there and utilizes the area for training. Four islands comprise the area known for the colonies of many varieties of coastal birds, including endangered Humboldt penguins, and thousands of sea lions. It was said that this is like a condensed version of the Galapagos for the variety of species. Speed boats took us past a former US submarine, now a museum. We were not allowed to climb onto the rocky islands, but the excursion allowed a stop to swim in the cold water with the sea lions, if we wanted. We did not, but enjoyed watching some of our shipmates bob around with the animals. The smell of the putrid water bird and animal poop which covers the islands, called guano, is unforgettable for its terrible odor and is toxic.

Peru’s Navy seal on the rocky surface of one of the Palomino Islands.

Humboldt penguins on guano coated rocks

Noisy sea lions

An alpha male tries to throw his weigh around!

Nigel Marvin, above swimming with the sea lions and other human guests, is a humorous British wildlife TV personality, naturalist, author and television producer. He is our enthusiastic onboard subject matter expert on all animals and wildlife and is quite a character too. Fun to have him to identify various species and lecture on everything from sharks to hummingbirds.