A picture perfect oasis surrounded by huge sand dunes

We had heard that north of Ica, we would come across several Bodegas (wineries) that were producing Pisco, the national brandy made of grape, and wine. We stopped at a small eatery on the Panamerican and after filling our stomachs up in preparation of the tasting, asked directions to a bodega. Lucky us, there was one juts next door. We drove into the property of Lovera and to our surprise, it was harvest time. The guys were using old time manual techniques where a few of them were stepping on the grapes in a manual press. It seemed that we were in an old movie, looking at how wine used to be made. We headed towards the tasting table where we had a sip of the strong Pisco, which reminded us of the Italian Grappa or Alsacian Marc de Gewurztramminer. Not bad but pretty strong at 43 degrees; we bought a half bottle for moderate consumption. The wine was another story; they only made Rose and it tasted like grape juice with alcohol. We passed this one and continued our route towards Ica.

Comparing artisanal and industrial wine making

We elected a small oasis in the desert as our base camp for the next two nights. A tiny road heading west from Ica took us uphill in the desert, through huge sand dunes and there it was, almost hidden by the sand around it: the Oasis of Huacachina, population 200. We could not believe how small and charming it was, all the houses grouped around the lake-like oasis. Granted it was pretty hot so after we settled in our hotel, we decided to relax in hammocks facing the oasis and call it an early day. It was nice to chill out as it seems that an oasis is just made for that. Everywhere we were looking, we were surrounded by big yellow dunes, providing that unique feel that we were lost in the middle of the desert, miles away from any other inhabited settlement.

The first part of our next day would be dedicated to wine tasting, but this time in bigger and more industrial wineries. We drove back to Ica where we had a good and solid breakfast and headed to our first winery: Vista Allegre. It took us some work but we finally made it there after asking many people. We got a tour of the facilities, all the more interesting since it is harvesting season and discovered the wine and pisco making process. It was so much cleaner and standardized than the winery we visited the day before: no guy here walking barefoot on the grapes to smash them. They also had a cellar with old and shiny oak barrels that they were no longer using but here just for show, originally bought from all over Europe. After the tour, the tasting: they had pretty decent whites, especially their Pinot Blanc, but the reds were way too sweet, targeted for the local palates. Their demi-sec was an equivalent of our sweet wines. The Rose was sweet but not too much and very refreshing in the heat so we decided to buy a bottle. Their Pisco was super smooth and also the lowest in alcohol sold in the country.
After a quick lunch stop, we drove to our second winery, Tacama, which was way further from town and at the end of a dirt road. It really took us some effort to get there so we were hoping that the wine would be good. After a short movie about the history of the winery, we went to the vineyard and saw how they were growing the next generation of vines, with plants coming from France as the vines need to be replaced every 25 to 50 years. We climbed up to the tower where we had a good view of how vast this property was, much bigger indeed than the whole oasis we were staying at. After the walk, we sat outside and started the tasting with the rest of the group: they had a good selection of white wines and even bubbly wines that we enjoyed in the afternoon's heat. There were only tow reds but of quite good standard: must be these French grapes:) Finally, we ended with three types of Pisco that were eaqully delicious though quite different. We decided to skip the end of the visit, a little tired by the drinks and drove back to Huacachina.

Racing through the desert and trying out Sand boarding

To continue along the lines of pleasing our palates, we visited a Tejas factory, the local sweet either a chocolate or a sugar coated with inside some Manjar (milk base caramel deliciousness) and other treats like nuts, raisin or fig. It was a very small factory indeed, with a one woman operation preparing all the ingredients and assembling the sweet before wraping them. The visit took all of five minutes but we got our delicious sample that we ate on the way to our next adrenaline rush experience. Who says big sand dunes says fun in unlimited supply of sand! Our oasis was quite famous for sand-boogie tours since we had 100 Kms of pure desert before the ocean. We boarded our mean looking boogie, attached in our front seats next to the driver: best view in the house for even more sensations. He turned the engine on and straight into the desert we went. He was going fast, getting up on the side of the steep dunes or climbing all the way to a summit and then descending fast on the other side. It was like a giant roller coaster with an unlimited playground. We could not stop laughing and yelling for fun, our mouths getting full of sand in the process.

After ten minutes of driving fun, we stop for our sand boarding lesson. It was pretty much effortless as we were dropped at the top of a sand dune and when we were all done, the driver picked us up at the bottom and drove us to the next one. Our first try was going to be belly on the board and head first. He also showed us the breaking technique with our feet. We both went down and loved the speed sensation: it was so exhilarating that we could not wait for the next descent. This one was much steeper and longer: done with the bunny slope. The driver waxed the bottom of the boards and gave us a good push. Craving for more speed, we did not even brake this time and went literally flying down the dune. Caroline even lost her sunglasses but thankfully another guy recovered them. We tried a few other dunes, one in sitting position and those who had snow-boarding experience could give it a try. It was a little to hard for the others to learn in five minutes. We had such a blast on the boards that it was hard to go back into the boogie but once in there, we also remembered how fun the driving was. We held on tight and drove to another oasis where the guys went down to pick some mangoes. They all came back with their pockets full and had a hard time climbing the hill back up. The drive back to our little oasis was both thrilling and enchanting with the sun setting above the dunes. We were still yelling, telling the driver to even go faster. At the end, we stopped above the oasis for a last photo opportunity. What a perfect tour it had been, two new things that took full advantage of all the space that a desert can offer. It was probably one of the most entertaining and fun experience we had since we left. How come we never heard about it !

We loved our last night along the water and walked around the oasis at dusk. We then enjoyed a little cocktail of Pisco before sharing a good meal with a Canadian and a German we had met at the hostel. The conversation was fun and the meal good, a great way to end a fun and busy day. The next morning we would leave for Nazca where we would see the famous line made by a pre-Inca civilization. That night we had a hard time sleeping though with the heat and Caroline was just getting eaten live by the mosquitoes. Every part of her body was itching and she had to get up to spray herself with mosquito repellant. Tomorrow will most probably be an itchy day given the night we are having.