Southern Peru

Kara says:

Back to Peru. Back to a diet of chicken and chips, with more chips and then extra chicken. So far managing to avoid chicken for breakfast so only having it for lunch and dinner. Every day.
But also back to very friendly people, I think maybe spanish-speaking Irish people are relatively rare because people are always surprised and interested to meet people from Ireland. Although the waiter at the bus station in Tacna was mostly interested in learning the subtleties of the english curses he's picked up on the internet.

Came across the border by taxi in an awesome big, black, pimp chevy. Spent a few hours in a town called Tacna - pleasant enough, nice plaza, cathedral designed by Gustave Eiffel (evidently not very imaginative in his pre-tower days), men who sweep the streets with old palm leaves (see photo). Karl found a row of buses that had met their end in dramatic fashion - maybe they're being displayed on the street as a warning.

Then we came to Ica. In the desert but known for making wine and pisco (white spirit made by distilling wine). Went to visit a winery, the oldest in Peru at 150ish years (must start paying attention on tours). In the middle of a dusty, chaotic, crazy south-american town you go through a set of huge gates and there you have it - a tree-lined driveway through the vines, with that wonderful relaxed vineyard atmosphere, if a little dusty. Loved it. Realised why last night's semi-sweet wine tasted so funny. It's made from grape juice mixed with pisco. The guy in the shop had offered us sweet or semi-sweet and looked puzzled/bemused when we asked if he had anything a little drier. Am currently drinking a very pleasant white wine from the winery so the reputation of Peruvian wine is not totally without hope of redemption.

This afternoon we went to an oasis just out of town and climbed some dunes! There's no desert left now 'cause it's all in my shoes. Watched the first sunset we've seen in ages.