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Ballestas Islands: Private Luxury Wildlife Boat Tour

Glide through the Pacific on a private speedboat to the 'Peruvian Galápagos' — the Ballestas Islands — where sea lions, Humboldt penguins, and tens of thousands of seabirds crowd dramatic rock arches. A bucket-list encounter with Peru's wildest coast.

What to expect

Your bilingual naturalist guide meets you dockside at San Martín Port and escorts you aboard a private vessel. En route, you pass the enormous Candelabro geoglyph etched into a cliffside hillside — mysterious, Nazca-adjacent, and rarely lingered over on group tours. At the islands, you circle sea-lion rookeries, penguin colonies, and sky-filling flocks of Peruvian boobies and cormorants. The 2-hour on-water experience is unhurried, with the guide contextualising the extraordinary biodiversity of the Humboldt Current ecosystem.

Book it
Paracas: Ballestas Islands Guided Boat Tour
$17 per person
Run by Islas ballestas paracas
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Good to know

Tour departs at 08:30 from San Martín Port — no shuttle needed. The full excursion runs 3–4 hours, well within a typical all-aboard window. Pre-book directly; private departures fill quickly on port days. Bring a light layer — the Pacific breeze is cool even in summer.

Sail there

Luxury cruises that call at Pisco (Puerto San Martin) — book through us, the fare is identical and your concierge stays on your side.

Azamara · Azamara Quest
10 nights · calls at Pisco (Puerto San Martin)
from $3,739
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Oceania · Oceania Sirena
14 nights · calls at Pisco (Puerto San Martin)
from $5,049
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Azamara · Azamara Journey
19 nights · calls at Pisco (Puerto San Martin)
from $6,069
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Oceania · Oceania Insignia
21 nights · calls at Pisco (Puerto San Martin)
from $7,349
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See all cruises to Pisco (Puerto San Martin) →

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