Southern Coast

After visiting the clubhouse in Lima, Andre and I joined the South American Explorers Club http://www.saexplorers.org/club/home which offers many great advantages to members such as discounts and resources all over South America. It also offers free storage for your luggage for up to year, so we gladly ditched our two XXL REI duffels, and our two gigantic backpacks in the clubhouse garage and seized the opportunity to travel super light down the Southern Coast of Peru.

We took what a travel agent at our hostel called, “the cheapest and most dangerous bus company in Peru” down to Pisco. Pisco used to be a bustling city that drew tourists to its proximity to the beach and to where Pisco is made (Pisco Bodegas), but is now mostly a pile of rubble due to the earthquake of 2007 during which between 500 and 1,000 people died, including many tourists. Since then, the town has struggled to find funding to rebuild properly and the economy, which was mostly tourist-based, has suffered gravely. However Pisco’s neighbor, Paracas, has recently seen a small explosion of new construction, probably due to the fact that it can capitalize on being the closest port to get to the Ballestas Islands. We chose to stay in Pisco because it was more economical. Our small hostel was bright and sunny, mostly open air and owned by a bubbly young couple. 

The first night in Pisco Andre started shivering at dinner. I was in a tank top and shorts and was pleasantly warm we knew he needed to get into bed asap. He spent the entire next day in bed, while I explored the city of Pisco a little. There really wasn’t much to see other than piles of bricks and a dirty beach, and people kept reminding me of how dangerous it was to walk in the city alone, so I headed back to the hostel to bring Andre some sprite. After checking on him I hung out in the lobby and used the hostel’s computer, where I met the owner’s wife who was very concerned about Andre (her husband had informed her he was sick) and she convinced me that Andre needed sustenance in the form of homemade chicken soup. I tried to tell her that I am inept in the kitchen, but she seemed to think I was capable, and told me she would help. She walked with me to several small markets to help me buy the right ingredients, and then chatted with me in the kitchen the entire time we prepared it together. It was surprisingly simple and Andre ate the whole bowl! I had some as well, and it was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself! I couldn’t believe how friendly and kind it was of her to help me.

The next day Andre felt good enough to go on a tour of Las Islas Ballestas which Peruvians nicknamed “the poor man’s Galapagos”.  We fed pelicans while waiting in line and then piled on boats that held 20-30 people with our witty tour guide who could crack jokes in English and Spanish. First the boat passes what is named La Candelabra which is essentially a large imprint of a candlestick in the side of the sand-dune cliff. Theories abound about how it got there ranging from Pirates to Aliens, but our own theory was that perhaps it was made by the locals (or at least reproduced) for the tourist attraction.  Twenty minutes later we arrived at the Islands. As we moved around and through the large arches of rock  I was impressed by the variety and quantity of birds surrounding us. We saw Humbolt Penguins, cormorants, sea lions, and seals. One beach we came upon was chock full of seals screaming loudly and baby seals learning how to swim in the surf. There were so many and they were so so loud! I felt like I was inside a Planet Earth Episode.

Islas Ballestas

Sea Lions at Islas Ballestas

"Mysterious" Candelebra on the way to Islas Ballestas 

Back on land we hooked up with another American couple from Ohio and hired a taxi to take us through the Paracas National Park and out to a hopefully more private beach. Our driver was really excellent and not only found us a private white-sand beach with pristine water, but waited for 3 hours in the hot sun for us so that we didn’t get stranded out there.

Our private beach at Reserva Nacional de Paracas (thanks to our taxi driver)

We ate at an overpriced restaurant close to our private beach in the hopes that the seafood would be phenomenally fresh. It was pretty mediocre, but we did get free mini-Pisco Sours with them! (photos) We enjoyed drinks on the beach back in Paracas and made a friend with a scruffy old stray dog that honestly seemed about to die. Poor thing helped himself to our beach towel. 

The next day we sought out Bodegas in Ica. We wanted to see where and how Pisco was made so we took a taxi out to Bodega Catador. It was a sweltering hot day, but the restaurant was shaded by some sort of leafy awning and the food was some of the best we have had in Peru thus far. After lunch we had a private tour of the Bodega, and Luiz walked us through the whole process. First they collect the grapes, and crush them by walking on them. The workers stomp on the grapes at night so that the bugs don’t bite their feet from 8pm to 3am. Then the juice is pressed with a large wooden plate, and the juice is put in Piscos, or large clay pots to ferment for 5-15 days. After this it is poured into a huge vat where a wood-fired stove underneath boils it and the steam is transported into a large tube surrounded by water, and the condensation is collected in the form of Pisco. Distilled young wine, essentially. After the tour we got a free tasting of all the different kinds of Piscos made at this Bodega. We tried a mix of wine and Pisco which tasted like Port, we tried a acidic wine, we tried Pure Pisco, Pisco made from a few different kinds of grapes mixed together, Lemon essence Pisco, and Crème de Pisco  which was better than Bailey’s. We bought a bottle of Crème (to put in coffee later, yum!) and headed to a town we heard great things from everyone about, Huacachina.

Pit where grapes are pressed into juice

Piscos (old fermentation contraptions--now days they use plastic containers)

Giant wood oven used to heat and distill the alcohol from fermented juice

Bodega Catador

Huacachina is an Oasis surrounded by Sandunes. It was everything you dream an Oasis to be; a lagoon in the center of a cluster of palm trees and other greenery, only Huacachina had been built up with Colonial boardwalks all around the lagoon with hotels and restaurants rising up off of them. We heard the loud roar of dunebuggies in the distance as we arrived and saw them take off over the dunes. We were lured into one small hostel’s hammock filled garden, and then couldn’t resist the package deal of a rustic cabana’s night stay plus a two hour dune buggy ride and sandboarding for 50 soles each, which is about 17 dollars. Although the whole Oasis was kind of a tourist trap, I am glad we went for it, the buggy ride was a blast, and the Oasis was incredibly peaceful compared to the cities we had been in.

Oasis at Huacachina

Sand dunes at dusk