Going up and up the valley we reach the city of Puno. All the houses are in bare bricks without any painting on them, and they therefore look incredibly homogeneous spreading from the shore of Lake Titicaca into the mountains around.
The Lake, and the city of Puno, are at an impressive altitude of almost 4000m above sea level, but being almost in a plateau the surrounding mountains don’t look so high and the whole background looks more hilly than Andean.
We have decided to take the night bus to Arequipa, and we therefore have one more afternoon to spend in Nazca. We are lucky enough to get into a bar which is showing Chelsea-Barca! Ten minutes before the end of the match we take a minibus to see Chauchilla cemetery which is in the middle of the desert. The place has a many original tombs with mummies and artifacts, all well preserved. Time for a very light dinner and we head to the bus terminal for the 22.30 bus. After 11 hours of smooth ride we get into the amazing town of Arequipa at 2400m of altitude. It finally feels really great to be able to put on some long trousers and stop sweating! The maximum temperature of the city is between 21 and 23 degrees all year, so during the day the comfort is at top level. The mountains at the back of the city are amazing, in particular the perfectly conical vulcano El Misti. More »
Last taste of Ica is a wine tour in the vineyards outside town. The Ica region is one of the few places in Peru where wine, together with Pisco, is produced in what are called Bodegas.
Everything here is on a very small scale and done by hands and feet during the month of March, so we get the chance to only hear about their way to produce one of the sweetest wines I’ve ever tasted. Actually the day before I was served a full (to the rim) glass of port wine during dinner and I really hope it wasn’t going to be all like that! Horror! nevertheless the wines are not particularly interesting, they are very strong and sweet. The Pisco (like grappa), on the other hand, has more potential and can be served also in different kinds of cocktails (most famous is the pisco sour).