Pisco in Ica and sand boarding in Huacachina

We are continuing to travel South down Peru and had an overnight stop in Paracas first off; the thing to do there appears to be to visit some local islands on a boat trip. The selling point was sea lions; and given we had seen millions of them on the Galapagos we gave the trip a miss.

From there we moved onto the town of Ica and visited a winery on the outskirts. Here they grow grapes for both Pisco and wine; and actually make the Pisco. The start of the process to make Pisco is the same as wine; crush the grapes and leave to ferment. The Pisco stays in for far longer and is then distilled to give a clear spirit that's between 40 and 50% alcohol depending on the maker. We were shown the traditional process including these fermentation vessels; for volume newer larger tanks are now used

We also had a tasting; the local sweet wine, two types of Pisco made from single grape varieties or blends and a Pisco based baileys (with fig instead of coffee- yum!)

And of course the opportunity to shop :)

We then headed to Huacachina; where sand boarding seems to be the passtime of choice. It started with a frankly insane buggy ride where the brilliant driver sent us flying and drifting over the dunes; up and down seemingly undrivabley steep gradients. Here I am after the ride out sporting my "glad to be alive" face 

We had an opportunity to take photos of the miles of pristine dunes

We got introduced to a particularly steep one and sent down in face first lying on our boards; yes I know I am braking with my feet it was steeper than it looks in the photo :) 

We had a go standing up too

I also made it down standing up; but sadly matts camera was so full of sand by that point he couldn't take photos. Good excuse to invest in a go pro perhaps?

Final stop of the day was to a view point over the Nasca lines as the sun set. Beautiful, but do take a look at the next post for even better photos of the lines from the air! 

Between all these tourist activities, fun though they are, you drive through the real Peru. Hundreds of miles of desert here, with towns dotted about that have grown out of collections of shacks in the sand as people struggle to make a living. Drinking water has to be collected from large tanker lorries that park up on the Main Street and money only really seems to be made by vast areas of irrigated desert turned over to growing fruit or grapes.