Winery pt 2

These pictures didn't show up in the first post, so I am posting them again here.  Hopefully they work...

 

 

Where they stomp on grapes

Ceramic jugs to hold wine for fermentation

Giant copper pot for firing

Wines and Piscos

Pervian food - lamb

Typical Peruvian food

Peruvian food

Ica tour and Winery

James: I guess after a later start around 10 AM. We were picked up by our tour guide contractor, William. He took us around the city if Ica, giving us background info. Our first stop was at a chocolate factory, Helena. It is famous in Peru and recently started exports to Miami. With their walls open to the factory with glass windows, you could see dozens of people working inside. From people working with Carmel to white chocolate, mixing in local fruits and nuts (pecans are local here). We sampled some in the store and then quickly brought several dozens grams of chocolates.  Mateo's favourite was the Chocolate Mint Bon bons. Janice's and my favourite was the Carmel centered pecans covered in dark Chocolate. Yum.  

Chocolate shop w our guide William

Chocolate shop

      We then went down the main commercial street in Ica  looking for a camera lens cover (we lost ours in the sand dunes). William dropped us off at this....market, where sales people operating out of booths are very aggressive. It was an electronics type of market, which is not a great word for the place, but the best I have. We wander through the place asking vendors for a camera shop...we were given many different directions, but eventually ended up a booth with an old man. He looked at the camera and reached into his showcase and pulled out a used camera lens cover. it was very basic, and in his words, the "only one." So we bought it.    

Commercial street in Ica - crazy busy

  Our next visit was a place to get a haircut. William yelled out the window to woman on the street and asked if she could cut his friend's hair. She said yes, I jumped out and followed her through a maze of hair dressers, probably 12 deep, to her chair. Where I proceeded to get my head shaved and my goatee annihilated. It cost 10 sols. good enough.    

We then stopped at the Ica Regional museum and viewed clay pottery (like the stuff we bought yesterday) dating back 200 years, textiles, and 5 mummies from Nazca area, and some skulls with elongated heads. We could not take any pictures in the museum. ON our way out we got to to see the Nazca Lines, a la museum, out back, painted on the cement. 18 sols totals.    

Nazca line drawings behind museum

  Then we headed to an artisan winery called. All the wine and Pisco made here is made without machines or chemicals. The grapes are pressed by foot and mechanical press made of wood, then it ferments in clay pots that are 4 feet tall for 12-14 days, and is  then pumped into a huge concrete cistern lined with copper. Here is is fired to 80 degrees Celsius then the vapour is cooled through a Large tube and cooling system, and eventually the wine is produced.    

Artisan winery

   

Where they stomp on the grapes

Clay pots where wine and Pisco ferment

Giant copper lined pot

The wines and Piscos

  We had a lovely Peruvian lunch and then headed back to the hotel to hit the swimming pool.    

Peruvian roasted lamb

Half eaten beef and rice w beans

Fried pork and sweet potato chips

Pool

       

Rest day in the dessert

Updated July 20, 2016 with video.

 

Pool Test Video 

 

 

Today we are having a rest day at our hotel in Huacachino. It is a lovely spot and our plans for the day are to swim in the pool, pack up for the next and last leg of our travels...and hopefully hit the sand dunes one more time. Today we sent our third load of laundry out...we sent out loads in Cusco and Puerto  Maldonado...starting to think about packing and moving on... Thoughts of home and other mundane things are starting to seep in....dentist appointments that need to be made, James returning to work, the Diego dreaming of an Ice tea (has has drunk nothing but water on this trip, poor boy). Also, hoping to get the more of the blog up and running. Many past posts have now been updated with images.... From the pool, Janice    

From the patio at hotel. Notice sand dunes in background

 

Nazca Pottery

On our way to the Nazca Lines, our tour guide stopped at a ceramic shop that he thought we might find interesting. And he was right! The shop was basically someone's house. As we entered, we saw an elderly man working with clay. He tells, us to walk right in and then starts to explain: He uses the same technique as the ancient Nazca and everything in the shop is a replica of actual Nazcan pottery that you can find in museums (we later visited a museum and his statement was accurate). He learned the ancient technique from his father-in-law. Nazca pottery is famous because it retains its brilliant colour and is only fired once (not twice like in other countries). There is no wheel and all the the decorative paints are made from minerals. No Chemicals are used in creating the pottery from the shop. After the items are shaped (by hand only) and then painted, the paint is then ground into the pottery using a semi precious stone which is first wiped on his cheek to cover it in human oils. He then polished the designs with the precious stone until it is all blended into the pottery (we were able to touch the paint before the polishing and afterward, then difference was marked). Then a bunch of pieces are put on top of each other in a pit, upon which is fire is built. The pottery comes out...and it remarkable in how it feels and looks. This, he said, is the ancient Nazcan technique. We had the opportunity to hold pottery that was 2000 years old...and James even tried to paint some pottery. The shop was pretty cool and, as you can guess by now, we bought a lot of stuff. I am hoping it makes it home safe and sound. Fun fact : in addition to all the plates, vases, jars, bowls, and other decorative things, there was a series of sex pottery.... Those pictures are not in the link below... Click here for photos

More sand dunes 1

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It just Keeps Coming -Sand Dunes

In this trip so far we have seen amazing things - Machu Picchu, the Rainforest, the Andes, the ruins at Pisac and Sexy Woman, the textiles and colours...and just when I thought we had seen it all... Today I was amazed all over again at the majestic beauty of the sand dunes just outside of Ica. We are staying in Huacachina, an oasis located 5 minutes outside of Ica, surrounded by enormous sand dunes. It is something else to look up and see yourself tucked in between towering mountains of sand. It is a thing of beauty. When we went up the dunes in a somewhat death-defying buggy trip, I wasn't sure if I was getting points for being a cool mom, or if I was in fact endangering my children. The ride was a terrifyingly fast and loud scaling of very big sand dunes, punctuated by stops where we got out of the buggy and lay face first on a snowboard to toboggan down enormous sandscapes. Every where you looked all you could see was miles of sand mountians. It looked like something other worldly. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance. As Diego said when we were returning to the hotel: "that was fun, except when it was terrifying." P.s. We have also traveled in almost every kind of vehicle- buses, airplanes, trains, cars, and now, today, DUNE BUGGIES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rest Day In Puerto Maldonado

So we were ready to leave the Eco lodge by 8:00 AM. We hiked back down the path (the one with the zillion stairs). It was so much easier going down. Then back into the boat and down the river for 2.5 hours. We stopped once more at the Control Checkpoint, where all the river traffic is required to stop and register, this to help in controlling illegal mining in the rainforest. The miners use mercury to process the gold and it is killing the rainforest and the animals. The lodges are very proud of the fact that, because they populate the river, they can help monitor the illegal activity. One of the guides told us that the lodges are constantly calling in the police on the illegal mining and poaching activities, allowing the authorities to use their boats and other resources, and helping in any ways they can. They say that the Eco lodges (and the tourist money) are the last line of defence against these kinds of damaging activity in the rainforest. It's all terribly sad. So we head back down the river, we land in the community of Infierno, hop on a bus and trek back to the lodge's city station in Puerto Maldonado. There we hop into a cab and drive to a hotel in the city. We later learned that it was the hotel in Puerto Maldonado. Not as in the only, but as in the best. I had not been sure months ago about booking a hotel for the night instead of moving onto th next stop (Ica via Lima), but today I was sooo glad that I had booked a rest day for us. The hotel was a wonderful mix of Eco-ness and air conditioning. Located on the river banks of the Tambopata River, with a pool and great little restaurant...we played and splashed and rested in AC. It was a GREAT day. Fun fact: there was a live tarantula in the pool at the hotel. It wasn't a big thing for us, now being rainforest tested and all...haha  

Hotel in Puerto Maldonado

Hotel was buried in a small forest beside the river

 

Pool at hotel