The south coast: between ocean and desert

The road and the distances

The southern Pan-American Highway links all the stops, from Lima to Nazca. Distances: Lima (Miraflores)–Chincha 189 km; Chincha–El Carmen 16 km; Chincha–Paracas 64 km; Paracas–Pisco 16 km; Pisco–Tambo Colorado 50 km; Paracas–Ica 70 km; Ica–Huacachina 6 km; Ica–Palpa 93 km; Palpa–Nazca 49 km; Nazca–Chauchilla cemetery 28 km. By bus, allow 3 hr 15 min to 4 hr 10 min from Lima to Paracas, 1 hr to 1 hr 30 min from Paracas to Ica, and 7 hr to 8 hr 30 min for most services to get back from Nazca to Lima. The FDFA advises against intercity journeys at night and recommends higher-category bus companies.

Paracas

Paracas brings together two visits that should not be confused.

The Ballestas Islands, by boat. A few rocky islets offshore, protected within the national reserve of guano islands, islets and points. You do not land: the boat sails along the cliffs and arches while you watch Humboldt penguins, cormorants, boobies, pelicans, Inca terns, fur seals and sea lions. On the way, you pass the Candelabra, a geoglyph traced on the side of the peninsula, whose origin is still debated. Guano, the accumulated droppings of seabirds, was one of Peru’s great sources of wealth in the 19th century, exported as fertiliser.

The Paracas National Reserve, by road. It protects 335,000 hectares, nearly two thirds of them at sea: a windswept coastal desert (the “paracas” wind that gives it its name), cliffs, beaches and a bay rich in birds. According to SERNANP, the visit starts from the interpretation centre, 2 km from the entrance, which explains the food chain of the Humboldt Current, then follows viewpoints and beaches: Playa Supay, La Catedral (a cliff arch that collapsed in the earthquake of August 2007), the isthmus, Playa Roja and its red sand, the Lagunillas cove and its fishermen’s restaurants.

The Paracas culture, which gave its name to the peninsula, is known for its large embroidered funerary textiles and its deliberately deformed skulls: you see them mainly in the museums of Lima (Museo Larco, National Museum of Archaeology) and at the Ica regional museum.

Ica

Ica is a town in an irrigated valley in the middle of the desert, at about 400 m. People come for three distinct reasons.

The Ica regional museum presents the cultures of the south coast, from Paracas to the colonial period: textiles, Nazca ceramics, deformed skulls of the Paracas elite.

The bodegas. The valley has produced grapes since colonial times, and the neighbouring town of Pisco gave its name to the grape brandy exported through its port. A bodega visit is worth choosing for its content: an explanation of the grape varieties, fermentation and distillation, the difference between “puro”, “acholado” and “mosto verde” pisco, a guided tasting. Distinguish the artisanal bodega, with its jars and its still, from the industrial establishment; and arrange transport, without driving after a tasting.

The desert. PROMPERÚ’s portal mentions the San Fernando National Reserve and the great Cerro Blanco dune, each of which requires an organised outing in an off-road vehicle.

Huacachina

Huacachina is a small village built around a natural lagoon, a few kilometres from Ica, at the foot of very high dunes. The lagoon, originally fed by the water table, has seen its level fall with agricultural pumping; it has been topped up artificially since 2015. It is a fragile and very busy place.

With or without a buggy.

The FDFA points out that the safety of risky sports, including dune buggies, varies a great deal: look at the condition of the vehicles, the seat belts and the roll bars, and ask how long you will actually spend in the dunes. Sandboarding is most often done lying on the board; have what is offered specified.

Staying in Ica or Huacachina? Huacachina for the setting and the sunset, with the night-time activity of the hostels; Ica for the services, the town and the bodegas.

Nazca

What the lines are. According to UNESCO, the geoglyphs of Nasca and the Pampa de Jumana were traced between 500 BC and AD 500. There are three kinds: figures of animals and plants (hummingbird, monkey, spider, condor, tree), straight lines that sometimes run for several kilometres, and large geometric figures (triangles, trapezoids, spirals). The technique is simple and now well understood: the reddish, oxidised stones on the surface were removed to reveal the lighter ground below, to a depth of about ten centimetres. The very dry, windless climate has preserved them.

Why? That is the real open question. María Reiche, a German mathematician who devoted her life to the lines, argued for an astronomical function; most researchers today attribute a ritual function to them, and among the hypotheses discussed are processions along the lines and rites linked to water, so scarce here. An experiment showed that a small team, with stakes and ropes, could reproduce a large figure in a few days: the “ancient astronaut” hypotheses have no basis whatsoever.

Three ways to see them.

Before an overflight: check the operator, what the price includes (airport tax extra or not), the postponement conditions in case of bad weather, and take it in the morning, on a light stomach. Do not squeeze it in between two essential connections.

Around Nazca, three sites shed light on the culture that traced the lines: the Chauchilla cemetery, 28 km to the south, where tombs from the Nasca period, long looted and protected since 1997, show bodies preserved by the desert; Cahuachi, a great ceremonial centre and place of pilgrimage with adobe mounds; and the Cantalloc aqueduct, a network of underground galleries and spiral wells that still taps water from the water table.

Palpa

About fifty kilometres north of Nazca, Palpa completes the visit. Its geoglyphs, often traced on the hillsides rather than on the pampa, include older figures, attributed to the Paracas culture; in 2018, drones revealed twenty-five previously unknown geoglyphs there. UNESCO listed the Nasca and Palpa lines together. A viewing tower lets you see some figures without a plane; with a local guide, Palpa can be visited in half a day, on the road between Ica and Nazca.

Chincha and Pisco

Chincha is one of the great centres of Afro-Peruvian culture, the heritage of the enslaved Africans brought to the haciendas of the valley. The district of El Carmen, 16 km from Chincha, is its heart: music, zapateo, and the Christmas dances of the Hatajo de Negritos, inscribed by UNESCO on the intangible heritage list in 2019, and of the Pallitas. The Verano Negro festival takes place in February. At the table: sopa seca (pasta in a basil and ají sauce, despite its name of “dry soup”), carapulcra (a stew of dried potatoes), served together under the name “mancha pecho”, and frejol colado, a sweet bean dessert. The valley also produces wines and piscos. Older still, the huaca of La Centinela, the ceremonial centre of the Chincha kingdom conquered by the Incas around 1460, and the Hacienda San José, a colonial plantation house whose history is linked to slavery, complete the visit.

The festivals and the music are experienced on the dates of the celebrations: do not expect a show on demand, and nothing should be organised in families’ homes without their agreement.

Pisco is a port town, badly hit by the earthquake of 15 August 2007, which gave its name to the region’s brandy. People pass through rather than stay: Paracas, 16 km away, is the more pleasant base. 50 km inland, Tambo Colorado is a remarkably well-preserved Inca adobe complex, with walls still painted red, yellow and white, built after the conquest of the Chincha kingdom.

Three, five or seven days

Three days. Day 1: Lima–Paracas, the reserve in the afternoon. Day 2: the Ballestas at dawn, then Ica (museum or bodega) and a night in Huacachina. Day 3: a free morning, return to Lima. If the Ballestas are cancelled on day 2, move them to day 3 and leave for Ica in the late morning.

Five days. The previous three days without the return, then day 4: Palpa and the viewing tower, a night in Nazca. Day 5: an overflight early in the morning or Chauchilla, then a bus to Arequipa or Lima. See the itinerary The south coast in five days.

Seven days. Start with Chincha and El Carmen (one night), then Paracas (two nights, with a spare morning for the Ballestas), Huacachina, Palpa and Nazca. The seventh day serves as a margin for the sea or the sky; if it has not been needed, devote it to Tambo Colorado or a bodega.