Friday, 29 August 2014
Then I took the 10.45 am bus to Ica, a small town of about 350,000 people. Ica is a desert, it almost never rains, and it is hot! While hot is always good, the change from chilly Paracas to hot Ica makes me feel like an amphibian, I don't think this is good.
The primary industry for this town is producing wine and pisco. It is desert land, and for many years remained so until American and Peruvian companies, using technology from Israel, built irrigation channels to make the land fertile. Now it is a farming town, and apart from wine and pisco it also produces various fruits and vegetables such as artichokes.
First I went to see the Oasis of Huacachina Lagoon, it was originally a natural oasis but is now aided by a reservoir, it is about 2 metres deep. Next, I went to see how wine and pisco is made. Pisco is basically wine which is distilled. Pure pisco is 42% alcohol. The famous drink in Peru (and I heard Chile as well) is pisco sour, and it is made with pisco, lemon, syrup, crushed ice and egg white. I had the opportunity to taste various different kinds of wine and piscos, and I wanted to buy a bottle but I was concerned about how I was going to carry it so in the end I didn't.
After this we did a city tour, Ica is really a very small town. Every town in both Ecuador and Peru have a main or central square known as the Plaza de Armas, and there was one in Ica as well. In 2007, an earthquake destroyed most of Ica so the city had to be rebuilt again. Ica is in the heart of the ring of fire, with seismic activity almost on a daily basis. Luckily I didn't feel any tremors today! I also saw what used to be 2 mansions owned by rich men in the past, and one was inhabited by Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America. There are 3 main churches, but the most popular one is the Church of Lurin, unfortunately this was destroyed by the earthquake in 2007 and is now being reconstructed. The story of the church was that the Lord of Lurin was bringing a cross made of marble and something else to Lima on a ship, but the ship sank, never to be found. But the cross floated to shore, and they used a donkey to transport the cross to Lima. When the donkey passed an area in Ica, it stopped and refused to move. The people took it as a sign and built the church there.
Then I took the 10.45 am bus to Ica, a small town of about 350,000 people. Ica is a desert, it almost never rains, and it is hot! While hot is always good, the change from chilly Paracas to hot Ica makes me feel like an amphibian, I don't think this is good.
The primary industry for this town is producing wine and pisco. It is desert land, and for many years remained so until American and Peruvian companies, using technology from Israel, built irrigation channels to make the land fertile. Now it is a farming town, and apart from wine and pisco it also produces various fruits and vegetables such as artichokes.
First I went to see the Oasis of Huacachina Lagoon, it was originally a natural oasis but is now aided by a reservoir, it is about 2 metres deep. Next, I went to see how wine and pisco is made. Pisco is basically wine which is distilled. Pure pisco is 42% alcohol. The famous drink in Peru (and I heard Chile as well) is pisco sour, and it is made with pisco, lemon, syrup, crushed ice and egg white. I had the opportunity to taste various different kinds of wine and piscos, and I wanted to buy a bottle but I was concerned about how I was going to carry it so in the end I didn't.
After this we did a city tour, Ica is really a very small town. Every town in both Ecuador and Peru have a main or central square known as the Plaza de Armas, and there was one in Ica as well. In 2007, an earthquake destroyed most of Ica so the city had to be rebuilt again. Ica is in the heart of the ring of fire, with seismic activity almost on a daily basis. Luckily I didn't feel any tremors today! I also saw what used to be 2 mansions owned by rich men in the past, and one was inhabited by Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America. There are 3 main churches, but the most popular one is the Church of Lurin, unfortunately this was destroyed by the earthquake in 2007 and is now being reconstructed. The story of the church was that the Lord of Lurin was bringing a cross made of marble and something else to Lima on a ship, but the ship sank, never to be found. But the cross floated to shore, and they used a donkey to transport the cross to Lima. When the donkey passed an area in Ica, it stopped and refused to move. The people took it as a sign and built the church there.
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