Wineries and Dunes

I meant for this to be posted days ago, but the internet was not good enough. Anyways here it is!

We had an awesome day in the desert city of Ica! We went on a Wine and Pisco tour that took us to two different wineries just outside the city. One used to be a monastery and had beautiful historical buildings. Another was family owned (and very old) and once every year they use the traditional equipment and methods to create some special batches of wine and pisco-- this includes inviting people to come crush grapes with their feet. We got to have a few samples at each place-- a few wines and some very strong pure pisco. We also had a typical Peruvian dish called "arroz con pato" at one of the wineries. Overall, it was interesting to learn about the methods and get a feel for the industry in Peru, as pisco is the national drink. After the tour our driver stopped by the Plaza de Armas in Ica and showed us a famous cathedral that was unfortunately destroyed by the 2007 earthquake-- only pieces remain.

At around 4PM we went on our second tour of the day-- dune buggying and sandboarding!  It was insane! Riding in the dune buggy was like a bumpy crazy (and sandy) roller coaster. Our driver went very fast and really liked zooming down the slopes. This was fun but also scary because it felt like we were going to fly out of the buggy or worse-- tip over and roll down the dune. We got to the top of one dune and this is where we sandboarded, it was quite the experience-- much like snow boarding (but slower and less painful). We got to go down several different slopes and it was so much fun! Our group also got to watch the sunset over the dunes, which was very unique and beautiful.