Blogs from Pisco, Ica, Peru, South America - page 9

3rd July- 4th July after a restless night sleeping in a room filled with little scattering cockroaches we woke up at 5am to board yet another bus! Ballestas Islands (part of Paracas national reserve), nicely nick-named ¨the poor man´s galapagos¨, offered a short 2 hour tour through the nearby islands off the shores of Pisco. islands, filled with birds, and covered in white (alot of birds, alot of shit!!), containing a maze of caves and home to a multitude of cute Sea lions. there are 5 females to every male sea lion- the men are twice the size of the females, and i get told that due to their jealousy and aggresive nature, they often attack other males for supremacy or keeing thir concubine; even attack their new born males due to an eventual possibility of ... read more

Demonstration of how to make Pisco wine and Pisco Sours and then we got to taste them! Wine is pretty nice but Pisco Sours is fairly lethal-bit like tequila only worse!... read more

It was just a brief visit to the town which shares its name with the locally produced, white-grape brandy drink which is commonly knocked up into a refreshing Pisco Sour cocktail in this region. The name Pisco actually means "birds" in the local language of Quechua and was named as such because the area is host to millions of the feathery creatures. Pisco itself is fairly non-descript, it´s pretty small, not particularly attractive and primarily serves as a base for discovering the nearby nature reserve at Paracas and the wonderful inhabitants of the small islands called Islas Ballestas (sometimes referred to as the poor man´s Galapagos). Pisco Sour Ingredients *pisco brandy *sugar *lime juice *egg white Whisk and serve over ice The Islas Ballestas, which can be toured in a morning by speedboat, host flocks of ... read more

A quick change in our plans lead us to the small coastal town of Pisco, where there are beautiful chicas and plenty of birds. Pisco lies between Ica and Lima, and offers great tours to Peru´s Paracas National Park and Ballaestras Islands, which are considered "poor man´s Galapagos." Let´s just say that during the two hour boat ride, there were alot of birds. Tens of thousands of birds on a small island, which is white because, yes, it´s covered with bird droppings. There is also an abundance of sea lions. Over a hundred sea lions lying on the coast line, making wailing sounds that can be quite disturbing when echoed off of the shoreside cliffs. The tour ended at 4:00PM, and now we´re sitting in the town of Pisco enjoying the high speed internet. Will head ... read more

Well after leaving Lima, on a 3hr bus ride to Pisco which cost NZ$10 (try going to whangarei for that price!!!) we were dropped off on the side of the road at a "stop". This consisted of people trying to get you to buy sweets and water, and taxi drivers trying to get you into their car. After working out that there was nothing else around for a few miles, we enquired as to where Pisco was....the locals simply pointed down the only other road around...Dubiously we got into a taxi as we didnt fancy walking the 6km in the mid day sun. We had sorted out a hostel to stay at and after arriving and seeing that it had a pool we relaxed a little as the town is basically a shanty town. We asked ... read more