The first day... a good start

We have to get up early!! 5 in the morning s for us not a problem. Worse for the "group" who few in tonight.
After breakfast we leave with our small bus for Ica. The start of the tour is tedious. Along the coast there is fog until noon at least. We drive through a kind of desert (the Atacama stretches along the coast). The rocky cost near Lima consists of clay and pebbles. A bit unstable at first sight. (I took pictures from the bus... and so there is sometimes some reflection.)

Outside Lima it gets empty (and a bit gloomy because of the fog). Suddenly we see stretches of land marked out. Some contain ramshackle huts. This is the way people (homeless) claim land from the state. If their claim is awarded it will be possible to live there. The government has an obligation to build roads and other utilitarian provisions.... in time. Further down the road we see more of these projects.

Along the Panam (Pan American Highway) going south.

When the fog has lifted, the weather is sunny and warm.

We have lunch in a restaurant where they produce Pisco (from their own grapes). They give us a guided tour around the Pisco "factory". Old, nostalgic equipment. In the end we can taste the Pisco.

The jars for the wine.

Distilling...  

And then it comes out of this thing. Don't ask me how it will end up in this pot.

Yes we could taste. Pisco tastes a bit like Jenever (and I don't like that). The Pisco Saur tastes good. It is a mix of Pisco, sugar and the white of an egg, very well shaken with ice cubes.

  

After some more driving along the Panam in the desert we arrive at Huacachina; an Oases surrounded by sand dunes.