Never a dull moment in Ica!

(Nov 25, 2012)

We have been having such a wonderful time in Ica, along the southern coast of Peru! Until this trip I had always associated South America with the Amazon Rainforest for which it is famous. I never dreamed of all of the parched desert landscapes we would encounter! In fact, the entire Peruvian coast seems to be desert ranging from cracked desert plains to the rolling sandscapes that we find ourselves surrounded by here in Ica!

Upon arrival we were met at the bus station by Berly, our kind and gracious couchsurfing host. He brought us back to his apartment in one of the outlying suburbs of Ica and muddled through a moment of confusion until we realized that the room he had brought us to was not in fact his house, but our own suite. Berly, we learned, owns the entire apartment building and has the two front suites reserved for wayward travelers! Over the 4 days we have been in Ica our couchsurfing numbers have grown from 5 to 8, making Berly's apartment a friendly couchsurfing complex (two Canadians (us), two Argentinians, two Spaniards, one Japanese, and Berly)!

Our sunset climb - Day 1

On our first afternoon in Ica, all 5 of us piled into his car and drove out to the nearby desert village of Huacachina where we climbed a 200 meter sand dune to watch the sun set over the sandy sea that expanded into the distance. Behind us reached the city of Ica, complete with sandy peaks throughout, and below us lay the small oasis of Huacachina. In the last drops of sunlight we jumped rolled and flipped our way down the 75 degree slope to the village waiting below. What an introduction to Ica and our new couchsurfing host and friends!

Antique den 'tasting' room - Day 2

The following day we again piled in Berly's car, this time en route to several of the wineries in Ica's surrounding areas. Ica is famous for the production of Pisco products including light white and rose wines, heavy creamed liqueurs, and strong distilled 'Pisco Puro'. While none of the products really grabbed us, we had a great time learning about the growing, harvest, and distillery process and moved our way from tasting room to tasting room. Our last tasting destination turned out to be a dramatic back storage room of a countryside bar filled with dusty antique odds and ends and the thud of Peruvian dance music in the background. Here we picked our way through the ceramic wine and liquor vats, drawing out tasting samples in the ends of bamboo poles (you'll just have to look at the photos). It was quite a time!

A guano industry dock on Las Islas Ballestas - Day 3

On the morning of our 3rd full day, Peter and I rolled out of bed, hopped into a sketchily marked bus-taxi, and headed to Ica's central plaza, where we awaited our tour bus to Las Islas Ballestas. The Islands were once the centre of Peru's major guano (bird dropping) trade with France and Britain in the 19th Century. Guano, specifically that of seabirds off the Peruvian coast, is extremely high in Phosphorus and Nitrogen and thus provides an excellent fertilizer. This discovery came at a time when the garden movement was emerging in Europe, providing a healthy open-aired past time permissible for civilized ladies. And though the islands are now part of a protected park, around 400 tonnes of guano is still harvested here ever 8 years.

While we were cruising around the islands we certainly saw our fair share of guano (I was privileged enough to receive a souvenir) and delighted in seeing the avian and marine life that took up almost every inch of poo-covered rock. We watched (fearfully) as the massive Peruvian Pelicans soared above us in search of tasty schools of fish. We delighted in the waddling of the chubby Humbolt Penguins that hopped and slid along the rock faces above us. And we oohed and ahhed at the many sea lion families that lounged, barked, and suckled their babies on the many smaller islands that we passed. All in all a very eventful morning!

That evening, inspired by our tour 2 days before, we decided to have a Pisco Party to celebrate the birthdays of Romina, our couchsurfing friend from Argentina staying across the hall, and Peter's, which is fast approaching. We spent the day collecting the necessary ingredients to make Pisco Sours, a tourist favorite in Peru, consisting of lime, sugar syrup, Pisco Puro, ice, and egg whites. Blended (kind of like a margarita with Pisco instead of tequila). Not looking for anything luxurious, we found our Pisco Puro at the corner store next door, and it was passed to us in recycled water bottles with misfitting caps. I can only imagine that it came from the family's own private distillery in their back room. Our Pisco Sours were a delicious experiment that turned out quite well in the end!

The headfirst plunge! - Day 5

Yesterday Peter, Tomo (our couchsurfing flatmate from Japan), and I headed back to the sandy oasis of Huacachina to catch the tail end of a local sandboarding competition and give it a try ourselves. We locked and loaded ourselves into our dune buggy and rocketed our way over and around the dune playground in a rollercoaster-like fashion (without the security of a track nor safety regulations). I had truly not been ready for such a harrowing experience and Peter had a great time cataloging my many reactions as we zoomed up to the fragile peaks of the windswept sand dunes and plunged back down. Every once-in-a-while we would stop at a particularly steep slope, load ourselves onto our stiff wooden sandboards and careen headfirst down to the bottom. Each time we did this, Peter opted not to use his brakes (his feet), and slid at dizzying speeds, which I was almost able to keep up with. After watching another sandy sunset we headed back into town and had to violently shake ourselves to rid ourselves of the sand in which we were covered.

Tomorrow we'll be saying goodbye to our new friends and heading to Lima for a few days, en route to the city of Huancayo perched in the Andes.