Pisco - 11/4/09 - Tour Day 16

After a lie-in we left Lima at 1pm, taking a four hour bus trip to Pisco, home of the Pisco Sour.

Pisco is far from an attractive city. It was hit in 2007 by an earthquake measuring 8.7 and apparently few repairs have been done since. International aid was given to the Peruvian government, but nothing has been passed on to Pisco since there is no specific organised project; as a result, there are hundreds of people still living in tents nearly two years later. As well as the school and the hospital being destroyed in the quake, Pisco prison was badly damaged and numerous prisoners escaped - therefore Pisco is very dangerous and we were told to ensure we remain in the hostel after dark.

Fortunately, the hostel had a small, basic kitchen available for our use but the supermarket in Pisco is tiny with no fresh produce - I ended up making a spaghetti dish in tomato sauce, using tins of lentils, asparagus, olives, mushrooms, palm hearts and tuna, with plenty of oregano thrown in. It was surprisingly good, and Silvana knocked up some more excellent Pisco Sours to wash it down with!