Pisco, Peru

Today is Sunday and we are docked here in Pisco, Peru.  We arrived about 7 am and the Silverseas Spirit is already here.  They were with us in Callao and left after us but are here first.  I guess we just took our time getting here.  The cruise lines are scheduled to arrive at a certain time so we keep on schedule like we are told.  We had breakfast in La Veranda.  Because we are taking a shore excursion today, we will swim later in the day.

Peru is made up of three areas.  10% is the coastal region with 60% or the people living there, 30% mountains and 60% jungle with 10% of the people living there.  They have just found a new tribe of people living in the Amazon Jungle.

Landscape of area

The landscape heere is dramatic to say the least.  Here is the Pacific Ocean and then desert as far as the eye can see.  Our excursion was The Route of The Pisco.  We traveled by bus for an hour drive to the town of Ica.  Here there are several wineries and we were scheduled to visit two.  The Peruvian pisco is a clear to slightly yellow grape brandy distilled from fresh grapes with an alcohol content of approximately 42%.  We learned about the process to make pisco and then a tasting.  Nice.

Tacama Winery

View of the winery from tower

On the way to the bodega, we encountered tons of traffic in this little town as it was market day.  And then the road into the bodega itself was not passable so we took another route and encountered a ton of goats on the road.  The roads were all dirt and narrow.  I will add pictures later as today the internet is very slow.


The second winery we visited told the story of how Pisco is made.  They used to stomp the grapes from 6pm until 5am because of the bees being attracted to the grape juice.  Now it is done by machine.

View from winery

We got back to the ship around 2pm so headed up to La Veranda for a quick lunch.  That afternoon we swam only to be almost chased out of the pool because of the winds and fog.  So the fog horn would blow every few minutes and being in the pool, it is quite loud.  Hurts your ears.  


Tonight was formal night.  We did not realize there would be four formal nights on this cruise so did not bring our formal wear.  We made do with what we brought.  Coat and tie for Bob and black dress with topper for me.  Passed as we were allowed to eat in Compass Rose.  While dressing for dinner we watched part of the New England/Baltimore game and then after dinner watched the 49'ers/giants game but did not see the end as we were tired and turned off the tv.  


They had the Captains reception tonight but we did not attend.  We went to the Mariners Lounge for a club soda before dinner.