Pisco Day 1

On Thursday we got up reasonably early and headed off to the bus station to catch a bus to Pisco. Pisco is about an hour towards Lima and on the coast, named after the fortified distilled grape beverage. The drink came about due to Spanish rule where they banned the production of wines in their overseas territories. The Peruvians still made alcohol from it and it was definitely not wine. The bus stop is on the highway, and from there we went to our hostel, and walked the block to the Plaza del Armas. Pisco was devastated by an earthquake in 2007, destroying nearly all of the colonial buildings and leaving thousands still without permanent homes. Thus is was a much more run down and rougher city, which is sad, as it was bustling with some of the greatest architecture in Peru prior to the quake. We booked a tour to the Paracas National Reserve, about 15km to the south of Pisco, with our first stop on the ocean, seeing all the pelicans.

Our next stop was at the interpretative centre to learn about the animals and history in the area. It is a desert similar to Ica, yet with much different, coarser, red sand.

We continued along to the small seaside town of Lagunilla for lunch. It wasn’t just small, it was tiny, with 5 buildings, and some fishing boats moored in the natural harbour. We went to a small restaurant there, all had some form of seafood, and tried some civiche, a traditional dish of raw fish cured with lime and spicy peppers. It didn’t taste all that raw, and Dave, Rox, and I quite liked it.

We walked up the small hill behind town that overlooked the ocean which offered a great view.

However it was a cool, windy, and overcast afternoon, so that made the water not all that pleasant.

We then went to Playa Rosa, a beach with red sand, however the cool weather and high surf meant we only observed it from a distance.

The desert was quite devoid of everything, and was odd just driving along a trail through it, essentially offroad, but in regular cars.

We continued on to Playa Yumaque, where there was again no swimming, but looking on the beach for a short while we found many pieces of coral that had washed up.

Our last stop was to the “Cathedral” which used to be a giant arch from the shore out into the ocean. Unfortunately the earthquake that leveled Pisco also destroyed this rock formation and there isn’t all that much left.

We got back to Pisco and said our goodbyes to Dave who boarded a bus to Lima and flew back to Vancouver. After chilling out at the hostel for a little bit, we wandered around to try and find a place for supper. In one of the appliance stores, we saw a brand new tuk-tuk for sale.

It was only S/ 11,149 or around $5,000. And if there was some way for us to get it back home and import it into Canada, we figure we could make an absolute killing during Stampede. We spent some time having a drink and watching Modern Family in the hotel room (it is a really funny show and I highly recommend it), had dinner at another chicken restaurant before heading off to bed for our last night in Peru.