Lima is basically in the desert too, but we didn't really notice it as much in such a big city. As soon as you leave, however, things start to look bleak (stark? might be a better word). Our first stop was Paracas, a little village just outside a national park of the same name. Paracas is just south of Pisco, purportedly the source of both pisco the liquor and the pisco sour. More on pisco later... We arrived not long before sunset, got our room, and ate dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the marina. Half the boats were fishing boats, the other half tour boats for taking folks to the islands just offshore. Dinner included several rounds of both pisco sours and maracuya sours (same thing but with the addition of maracuya juice--yellow passion fruit). The pisco sour is, of course, the national drink and we're all about getting to know the local food culture. Sacrifices.
The hotel was rather noisy at night, being the location of one of the town's all-night bars. The party eventually stopped at 6am. Ugh. Not long after, we were headed to the boats. Our sardine-packed boat took us past "The Candelabra" geoglyph carved into the rocks some 2300 years ago. They told us it was probably a cactus and not a candelabra, but apparently the name stuck. After that we headed to the Islas Ballestas, which are part of the Paracas park. Here were thousands of birds of several species, including some very cool Inca terns, Peruvian boobies (no blue feet unfortunately), Humboldt penguins, and a few kinds of cormorants we hadn't seen before. Also on the islands were lots and lots of guano. And the smell. Some poor souls were tasked with harvesting the guano for use as fertilizer. The guide said an area of the island is harvested every 8 years and in that time 70 cm of guano is deposited. Holy crap! On the way back to shore, our boat had some mechanical difficulties. Much engine fiddling ensued, and whatever it was was resolved.
After arriving back on shore, late, we had a few minutes to get ready before heading to the land portion of Paracas park. We got stuffed into a van and drove the 15 minutes to the park (we're not very used to organized tours in our travels). After some time at the brand new visitor center, we visited various spots in the park. The landscape was stark and beautiful, with the desert going right up to the ocean. We stopped at a tiny fishing village located in the park for a late lunch of ceviche and soup. Mmmm, fresh fish. They brought out a platter of the "fish of the day" covered with 6 kinds of fin fish, shrimp, and scallops. Very fresh.
Not too long after getting back, we caught our bus to Ica, the next large-ish town moving south down the coast. Ica had a pretty big earthquake a few weeks ago, but we didn't see much in the way of damage. We didn't actually stay in Ica, but in Huacachina--the oasis town 5 km away. The hotel we were slated to stay in was hosting a disco that night, so we moved to their sister hotel down the road. Still loud, but a lot quieter. Huacachina is surrounded by huge dunes (HUGE.... like 20 stories tall huge) and centered on a rather green lake. Again, stark and beautiful landscape but distinctly desert.
In the morning we headed out to visit some local wineries. The first one was a big producer with a ton of land and buildings and equipment going back to the late 1500s. The wine was not bad, but the pisco was pretty harsh. We got a bottle of Brut (sparkler) for the reasonable price of S/.21. (That's about $8.) Our next stop was a smaller producer specializing in Peruvian-style wine. [We were told that the larger producers made wine to fit international tastes, while Peruvians like the sweeter wines produced in the local style.] The Peruvian desert is hot, as you might imagine, so the wines are naturally strong (16%) and wind up being a bit cooked in the heat. This is remedied by blending with juice, if we understood correctly, to bring the alcohol down a bit and the sweetness up. Local grapes are also a bit sour, so the sweetness covers that too. The wines had a little nutty character, which some of the guide books say is like sherry but really it's totally different. Not bad at all, though not really our style. The pisco at the second place was significantly better as well.
The most striking part of the tours was how much agriculture was in the desert. And remember, this is the driest desert in the world. It doesn't rain. Some pretty crazy irrigation was in place, however: wells, diverting the river when it runs once a year to flood the fields, and continued use of aqueducts bringing water from the mountains. The aqueducts were built at least 1000 years ago. Crazy. In addition to grapes, we passed fields of corn and cotton.
After the short trip back to Ica from Huacachina, we took yet another bus to Nazca (aka Nasca). We wound up with a very nice hotel not far from the very busy and beautiful central square. In the morning we took a ride to the local airport for our trip to see the Nazca lines. We had to wait for about 3 hours, however, before a plane was available to take us. That was not in the brochure. Ah well, we got in our tiny plane with just the pilots and two other tourists. We flew over the lines for about half an hour. The pictorial lines were fairly small in size, but the geometric ones sometimes extended further than we could see. Quite impressive. You could also see tire tracks in the desert and significant damage of the lines all along the Panamericana highway. That was a little sad to see. (In the pictures you can see some triangles & straight lines, a monkey, and a hummingbird.)
After getting back to Nazca, we hid from the sun for a few hours (the desert is really hot) and then walked to the outskirts of town to see the museum. What a cool museum! Inside were details about the various excavations in the area and tons of artifacts. Pottery, statuary, woven bowls, etc. Most impressive were the textiles, both for the beautiful designs and the fact that they had survived ~1500-2000 years in such good condition. Also included in the exhibits were some trophy heads that were apparently used as ritual offerings. There were replicas of the tombs found in the area, and perhaps the coolest part of all was the actual Nazca aqueduct they had out back, still flowing with water (too bad we forgot our camera...).
We hung out at our hotel until 9pm, then headed to the terminal for our overnight bus to Arequipa. As usual, it was late (it originated in Lima). The bus was dark and quiet, but unfortunately the winding mountain roads and the general craziness of Peruvian bus drivers (more insane than their Ecuadorian counterparts, we think) made it impossible to sleep. Our first stop in Arequipa was our hotel, and a nap.
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