Due to the recent earthquake that had rocked Pisco we did not venture into the city itself.Our first stop was at a local Pisco distillery on the outskirts of the city.Pisco is the national drink of Peru and is a white spirit distilled from grapes.They drink it straight up or as part of a Pisco Sour, with lime juice, ice, sugar and egg white.We were given a tour of the distillery and sampled the local product all before lunch time; something told us today was going to be a good day.

From the distillery we traveled to an Oasis town in the nearby desert. Here we had some lunch and relaxed by the pool of a local hotel in preparation of our afternoon activity of sand buggies and sand boarding.The buggies were large open top four by fours that made the sand dunes into a roller coaster.The only problem was the seat belts were a little tight in a tender place.This was fantastic and after traveling up and down the dunes at high speed for half an hour we were dropped off at the top of a large dune and given a sand board (or a plank of wood with rope ties on it) to get to the bottom.The boarding was difficult and we had little instruction but great fun.After several attempts and struggling back up the dune some slow progress was made.From the first dune we were dropped of at an exceptionally high slope from which we were to get on our board head first and slide to the bottom. One of our group managed to put her tooth through her lip and Hannah acquired a large sand burn on her arm, despite this a good time was had by all.

From the Oasis we headed for hotel which was in the nearby town of Ica.After checking in we went out for dinner.Now on the coast I ordered the local specialty of Ceviche which comes highly recommended in all the guide books.Ceviche is raw white fish, marinated in lime juice and chillies and served usually with potatoes.Hannah on my recommendation also ordered this and was disgusted when she discovered the fish was raw.It was delicious however and all the better for now having two portions.

We were now approaching the end of our organised trip and in the morning we would catch the bus to Lima.