Punta San Juan

Punta San Juan is a headland on the Ica coast enclosed by a wall built for guano extraction, and that wall is why it matters: it keeps predators and people out, and the result is one of the most important seabird and marine mammal sites on the Pacific coast of South America. It holds the largest breeding colony of Humboldt penguins in Peru - a species listed as vulnerable, whose numbers collapsed with guano harvesting, overfishing of anchoveta and El Niño events - along with tens of thousands of Guanay cormorants, Peruvian boobies and pelicans, and large colonies of South American fur seals and sea lions. Guano is still harvested periodically under state management. The Punta San Juan Program, run with Peruvian and international institutions, has monitored the site since the 1990s. It is not open to the public and viewing is from outside the wall or from the sea; the closure is the reason the colony exists.

The landscape

• The wall - the guano enclosure that keeps predators and people out.
• The penguin colony - the largest Humboldt breeding population in Peru.
• The seabirds - Guanay cormorants, boobies and pelicans in tens of thousands.
• The pinnipeds - fur seal and sea lion colonies on the shore.

When to go

There is no public access. The site is closed and managed for conservation and guano extraction; research access is arranged through the monitoring programme.

Good to know

Closed to visitors - this is the main thing to know. Viewing is only from outside the wall or from a boat offshore. The closure is why the colonies survive, and attempts to enter are not appropriate.

Nearby

San Juan de Marcona is the nearest town; the San Fernando reserve is north.

Key facts