The earthquake struck Pisco on August 15, 2007. It left behind broken buildings, broken people, a broken town. Piles and piles of rubble line the streets and beach front. The Cathedral´s roof still shows the scars, it was holding Mass when the quake hit, inside 100 people died that day. Around 80% of the city was destroyed and not much has been rebuilt by the look of things. When we arrived it was the first time our tour leader told us not to go out on our own and certainly not at night, the place has turned very dangerous as places so often do after major disasters. The locals claim the quake was an 8.2 in magnitude but the government says it was only 7.8, apparently if it was 8+ the government would have had to rebuild the city but as they claim it was less they seem to have left it to make do. Very sad.

The journey from Nazca was through a vast desert with the odd cactus that turned into palm trees as we neared the coast . On the way we went to La Huacachina, which has an oasis and is found near the town of Ica so we could do some sandboarding on the surrounding sand dunes. We took a sand buggie ride across the dunes, bouncing around the vast and often very steep sand walls, it was good fun. We also stopped to do some sand boarding down 50 to 100m slopes. We body boarded our way down them, to me it seemed faster watching people going down than when you actually did it yourself. It was a fun couple of hours.

Another stop was at a winerie to see how the famous Pisco drinks are made, which is still largely the same as it was in the 1500s, very basic but effective. The stuff is potent, in its purest form it is between 43 and 49% av. Of course, we had the obligatory taste tests of all the different types, from Pisco as a dessert wine, at 13% av, to its pure form and all in between. We had to make sure we understood all the subtle differences of course. Numerous Pisco Sour ######### were consumed that evening .

The next day in Pisco we took a tour out to Islas Ballestas, the 'poor man's' Galapegos Islands. It is actually a group of three islands caked in bird pooh or Guano, which is the Quenchua word for bird droppings. Apparently there is as much as 2 to 3 metres deep in parts and is the most expensive fertiliser in the world, people come out to the islands to dig it up and sell it. It has a very pungeant smell that takes some getting used to if at all while you tour round them on the boat. The islands are full of thousands of birds, such as pelicans cormorants, boobies and seagulls, and hundreds of sealions and penguins. It was 35 soles, not bad for a couple of hours to see such spectacular wildlife in their own habitat. After the tour we upped sticks again and headed to Lima to end our full crossing of the continent.