CHINCHA
© Nick BallónA solitary clan protects 30 remote Peruvian islands of seabird excrement. The world is slowly intruding.
THE CHINCHA ISLANDS – Augusto Martinez, 47, likes seabirds. Their anchovy-bearingcourtship rituals; the rubbery yellow whiskers of thezarcillo; the way their crater-like nests,built of their own manure, shine silver in the moonlight.
It’s just as well: some 50,000 of them – flocking, diving, screeching – are usually his onlycompany on this four-square-mile rock off the Peruvian coast, a two-hour ride away in afisherman’s skiff.
Peru’s guano islands have a dark history. The 33 coastal outcrops along the length of thecountry were prized by the Inca and the Spanish for their prodigious natural fertilizer. Theywere the epicentre of a global nineteenth-century guano boom, fought over by Europeanpowers, home to indigenous peons and Chinese “coolies” who slaved away and died in theirthousands.
But they are also home to a curious modern experiment in solitude. Around 80guardaislasare today employed by Peru’s government to watch over the islands. They live in pairs, andoften alone, passing their days among disused piers and warehouses, fishing for their food,counting the birds, staving off melancholy. Martinez brandishes a fake wooden rifle to scareaway poachers and guano thieves.
Some of these modern-day hermits have become institutionalized. Mauro Tomairo, 67, theoldestguardaislain service, dreads the thought of retirement and the noise of the mainlandafter 40 years on the islands. “The birds show more affection to each other than humans,”he says.
Others are moulding the time-worn outposts in their own image. Jhon Fernandez – at 28,the youngest guardian – talks excitedly about creating gardens, greenhouses, scientificexperiments. Some 300 legal guano harvesters descend on the islands every few years.Fernandez wants to market their food waste as another, artisanal, guano supply.
Solar panels, phone signal and internet connection are rapidly reaching the islands. Theywill soon be connected to the world once more – changing forever, perhaps, one of theworld’s last patches of solitude.
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