¡Hola familia y amigos!
After sandboarding in Huacachina, we bolted further south to Peru's second largest city, Arequipa.
However, before we could leave the area we were in we made a quick stop in Ica to go to a pisco distillery. Pisco is Peru's national drink and it is essentially fermented grape skins. The area of Ica is renowned for their Pisco, and since tours are free we went to check out the process and sample some pisco.
The distillery was pretty standard. They had a stomping station (think wine stomping) that lead to several steps before finally being placed into a large concrete cube for fermentation. Since the pisco and wine making processes are similar, we also got a glimpse into that as well!
The best part of the tour was the sampling station. We tried four different types of pisco (distinguished by the grapes used) and they even had a pisco cream similar to Bailey's. Next came the wine, which were tasty but very, very sweet. We ended up springing for a bottle of wine, but unfortunately, have been unable to open due to our lack of a corkscrew...
Feeling slightly tipsy we hopped on a bus to our next stop, Nazca.
If you have been following, you know that we have had peculiar bus issues on this trip. While the trip to Nazca was blessedly uneventful, it was very cramped. With our knees digging into the seats in front of us, and elbows jabbing one another in the stomach we rode three hours in a bus with literally no space inside for two, normal sized Americans. We always knew that Peruvians were a small people, but this was our first experience trying to physically compact ourselves to mimic them.
Brandt expertly spotted our stop outside of the town of Nazca where we could see the famous Nazca Lines! The Nazca Lines are a series of giant geometric and swirled shapes made in the sand. The precision of the lines, as well as the mystery behind their purpose, has spurred many alien theories. While we didn't find any aliens, we did see a few of the shapes on the viewing tower.
After we had our fill of the Lines, we caught a bus into Nazca proper and booked a night bus to Arequipa. We spent the next several hours before our departure touring some of the ruins surrounding Nazca. From adobe walls to Incan spiraled wells, we found Naza pleasantly interesting.
As the day ended we grabbed a quick dinner then hopped onto the bus headed for Arequipa!
Stay tuned for more adventures, and as always thank you for reading.
-Rob
