9 Best Sights in Ica, The Southern Coast

A favorite stop on the tour circuit, this family-run bodega produces wines and some of the region's finest pisco. Tour guides are happy to show you a 300-year-old section of the distillery that's still in operation. If you're here in March, try to catch the annual Fiesta de Uva, when the year's festival queen tours the vineyard and gets her feet wet in the opening of the grape-pressing season. The excellent on-site restaurant and bar are open for lunch after a hard morning's wine tasting; there's also live music on weekends. If you don't want to drive, take a colectivo taxi from near the Plaza de Armas.

One of the more enjoyable alcohol-making operations to visit in Ica is owned by Elar Bolívar, who claims to be a direct descendant of the liberator Simón Bolívar himself (some locals shrug their shoulders at this). Regardless, Elar's small, artisanal operation includes a creepy collection of shrunken heads (Dutch tourists, he says, who didn't pay their drink tab), ancient cash registers, fencing equipment, and copies of some of the paintings in Ica's regional museum. The question is, who really has the originals: Elar or the museum? As part of your visit, you can taste the bodega's recently made pisco, straight from the clay vessel. The pisco is so-so, but the atmosphere is priceless. Some organized tours include this bodega as part of their itinerary. It's not a safe walk from town, so take a cab if you come on your own.

A sunny brick archway welcomes you to this large, pleasant winery, which has been producing fine wines, pisco, and sangría since it was founded by the Picasso brothers in 1857. A former monastery and now the largest winery in the valley, it's a popular tour-bus stop, so come early to avoid the groups. Tours in English or Spanish take you through the vast pisco- and wine-making facilities at the industrial-sized production center before depositing you in the tasting room. It's not safe to walk here from downtown Ica, so if you don't have your own vehicle, take a taxi.

This stately neoclassical temple is the only surviving colonial church in Ica. Erected by the Jesuits just before their expulsion from the Americas in 1767, it was later designated the city's cathedral after the original was demolished by an earthquake in 1868. The interior is still closed to the public due to the earthquake of 2007, but restoration work is proceeding apace; meanwhile, visitors can appreciate the august pilasters and triangular pediment of the simple but noble facade.

Dating from 1684, this is one of the oldest working distilleries in the Americas. For the past few years, the historic hacienda has been continually upgraded, now that it is the home of the internationally famous Pisco Portón. Master distiller and pisco celebrity Johnny Schuler designed the distillery so that it would move liquid only through the natural forces of gravity, which allows for small-batch distillation and control over every bottle. On the guided tours, you’ll see several traditional pisco-making methods on the estate, from the large wooden press to the gravity-fed channels. You’ll also see the modern additions, such as the roof garden that was planted to offset the carbon dioxide emissions created during fermentation, as well as a water-treatment system to recycle water from distillation into a source of irrigation for the vineyards. Tours end with, of course, a tasting. With prior notice, the distillery can set up lunch in the vineyard or caballos de paso horseback rides. Reservations are essential.

Soaring ceilings, ornate stained-glass windows, and the fact that it's the only one of Ica's historic churches still open to visitors after the 2007 earthquake make this the city's most frequented Catholic temple. Yet even this colossal monument didn't escape the quake unscathed. If you look on the floor toward the front of the church, you can see the gouges left in the marble blocks by falling pieces of the main altar.

And this wasn't San Francisco's first brush with seismic fate: since the 16th century, it has been destroyed by tremors no less than six times. The present incarnation, of neo-Romanesque cast, was inaugurated in 1961.

Curious to find the real meaning of the Nazca Lines? Head to this small building on the Plaza de Armas, which contains a collection of more than 11,000 intricately carved stones and boulders depicting varied pre-Columbian themes, ranging from ancient surgical techniques to dinosaurs. The charismatic and eccentric founder, Dr. Javier Cabrera, studied the stones for many years, and the staffers are more than happy to explain to you how they prove the existence of an advanced pre-Columbian society that created the Nazca Lines as a magnetic landing strip for their spacecraft (they even have the diagram to prove it!). It's essential to make a reservation before you go, as hours are irregular.

It's a little out of the way, but don't let that stop you from visiting this compact museum with a well-preserved collection of regional pre-Columbian artifacts—particularly from the Inca, Nazca, and Paracas cultures. Note the quipus, mysterious knotted, colored threads thought to have been used by the Incas to count commodities and food reserves. Fans of the macabre will love the mummy display, where you can see everything from embalmed humans to a mummified bird.

Meanwhile, the squeamish can head out back to view a scale model of the Nazca Lines from an observation tower. You can also buy maps and paintings of Nazca motifs from the gift shop. The museum is about 1½ km (1 mile) from the main square, but it's not advisable to walk, so hop on one of the city's three-wheeled mototaxis that will make the trip for around S/5.

Founded in 1540, this vineyard is the oldest in South America; it was from here that Spanish émigrés disseminated the cultivation of European grapes throughout the continent. After suffering earthquake damage in 2007, the vineyard's owners took the opportunity to overhaul its now very modern operation. Internationally renowned, it produces some of Peru's best labels, particularly the Blanco de Blancos and Don Manuel Tannat wines and the Demonio de los Andes line of piscos. Stroll through the rolling vineyards—still watered by the Achirana irrigation canal built by the Incas—before sampling the end result. The on-site restaurant is one of the best in Ica. The estate is about 11 km (7 miles) north of town.