23 Best Sights in The Southern Coast, Peru

The great Inca Pachacutec himself probably stayed at this, one of Peru's most underrated archaeological sites. The labyrinthine alleyways and trapezoidal plaza of this huge adobe settlement were devised as an outpost for soldiers and visiting dignitaries of the far-flung Andean empire, making it the most important Inca site on the Peruvian coast. Today, Tambo Colorado is incredibly well preserved, owing to its bone-dry setting. When you go, you'll feel some of the same grandeur found in the stones of the Sacred Valley around Cuzco.

Tambo Colorado, or Pucahuasi ("red resting place") in Quechua, derives its name from the bright bands of imperial red, yellow, and white with which it was once blazoned. The site comprises several sections laid out around a large central plaza, and you can see the quarters where the great Inca received his guests. Notice that the plaza's distinctive trapezoid shape is mirrored in many of the tambo's architectural features, such as the trapezoidal windows and portals. Modern engineers have argued these elements are anti-seismic in nature, something that is highly necessary in this volatile region.

Be sure to visit the on-site museum, which houses many finds by the great Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello, the site's excavator.

Spectacular rocks pummeled by waves and wind into ballestas (arched bows) along the cliffs are what characterize this haven of jagged outcrops and rugged beaches, which serve as home to thousands of marine birds and sea lions. You're not allowed to walk onshore, but you wouldn't want to—the land is calf-deep in guano.

Bring a hat, as tourists are moving targets for multitudes of guano-dropping seabirds. Also, be prepared for the smell: between the sea lions and the birds, the odor can be overpowering.

A boat provides the best views of the abundant wildlife: sea lions laze on the rocks, surrounded by Humboldt penguins, pelicans, seals, boobies, cormorants, and even condors, which make celebrity appearances for the appreciative crowds in February and March. On route to the islands is Punta Pejerrey, the northernmost point of the isthmus and the best spot for viewing the enormous, cactus-shaped geoglyph "El Candelabro" that is carved in the cliffs. It's variously said to be a religious symbol from the Chavín culture, a Masonic emblem left by the liberator José de San Martín, or a staff of the Inca creator-god Viracocha.

No less astonishing than Machu Picchu or other Peruvian wonders, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was discovered (or rediscovered) in 1927 by Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejía Xesspe, who stumbled upon them on a walk amid the foothills. Almost invisible from ground level, the lines were made by removing the surface stones and piling them beside the lighter soil underneath. More than 300 geometrical and biomorphic figures, some measuring up to 300 meters (1,000 feet) across, are etched into the desert floor, including a hummingbird, a monkey, a spider, a pelican, a condor, a whale, and an "astronaut," so named because of his goldfish-bowl-shaped head. In 2020, a research team came across a faded feline outline on a hillside. The catlike geoglyph stretches for 37 meters (120 feet) and has been dated to between 200 BC–100 BC, meaning it's part of the Late Paracas period and older than any of the other geoglyphs found in the area. Theories abound as to the purpose of these symbols, from landing strip for aliens to astronomical rituals or travel markers. Since 2000, investigators have discovered hundreds of additional figures, leading many to speculate that science hasn't begun to fathom this most puzzling of Peru's ancient mysteries.

If a two-hour jaunt around the Islas Ballestas doesn't satisfy your thirst for guano, sea lions, and seabirds, then a land trip to this 3,350-square-km (1,290-square-mile) park just might. The stunning coastal reserve, on a peninsula south of Pisco, teems with wildlife. Pelicans, condors, and red-and-white flamingos congregate and breed here; the latter are said to have inspired the red-and-white flag General San Martín designed when he liberated Peru. On shore you can't miss the sound (or smell) of the hundreds of sea lions, while on the water you might spot penguins, sea turtles, dolphins, manta rays, and even hammerhead sharks.

Named for the blustering paracas (sandstorms) that buffet the coast each winter, the Reserva Nacional de Paracas (Paracas National Reserve) is Peru's first park for marine conservation. Organized tours take you along the thin dirt tracks that crisscross the peninsula, past sheltered lagoons, rugged cliffs full of caves, and small fishing villages. This is prime walking territory, as you can stroll from the bay to the Julio Tello Museum, and on to the fishing village of Lagunilla 5 km (3 miles) farther across the neck of the peninsula. Adjacent to the museum are colonies of flamingos, best seen June through July (and absent January through March, when they fly to the sierra). Hike another 6 km (4 miles) to reach Mirador de Lobos (Sea-Lion Lookout) at Punta El Arquillo. Carved into the highest point in the cliffs above Paracas Bay, 14 km (9 miles) from the museum, is El Candelabro geoglyph. Note that you must hire a guide to explore the land trails. Four-hour minibus tours of the entire park can be arranged through local hotels and travel agencies for about S/50.

Like the Incas, the Nazca had an advanced understanding of hydraulics, and this system of puquios (spiral-shaped stone wells) just outside the city limits testifies to their engineering genius. The wells are actually entry points to a complex network of underground aqueducts the Nazca built to funnel the scarce runoff from the Andean foothills; they would then pool this runoff in reservoirs and use it to irrigate their crops. Today some 46 puquios still exist; most are in good working order. Their existence continues to be vital to 900 subsistence-farming families in the region as well as (scandalously) to a few local washerwomen, who've been known to sneak in to do their weekly scrubbing.

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.

This venerable bodega dates back more than 200 years to colonial times, making it the oldest institution of its type in Lunahuaná. The owners pride themselves on still using artisanal techniques to produce their wines and piscos, and eagerly expostulate to visitors on the minutiae of oenology and liquor distilling. A 45-minute tour culminates in a free tasting; you can also visit the bee colonies where the winery makes honey. The bodega is located in Catapalla, a 15-minute taxi ride from Lunahuaná. While you're there, snap a few selfies from the puente colgante (hanging bridge) that spans the Río Cañete.

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.

Inside a walled, 4-square-km (1½-square-mile) precinct west of the Nazca Lines lies an ancient ceremonial site. In it, five adobe pyramids, the highest of which stands at about 21 meters (69 feet), tower above a network of 40 mounds, with a bevy of rooms and connecting corridors. This is Cahuachi, which archaeologists had previously supposed to be the Nazca capital, but which current studies suggest was actually a pilgrimage destination for inhabitants of Peru's Southern Coast. Built by the early Nazca culture, the site has been called the region's "theocratic capital" and is estimated to have existed for three or four centuries before being abandoned around AD 500. Also visible nearby are grain and water silos, as well as several large cemeteries outside the precinct walls. La Estaquería, with its mummification pillars, is nearby. Tours from Nazca, 18 km (11 miles) to the east, visit both sites for around S/50 with a group and take three hours.

To see where a lifelong obsession with the Nazca Lines can lead you, head to the former home of the German anthropologist who devoted her existence to studying them. There's little explanatory material here among the pottery, textiles, mummies, and skeletons from the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, Chincha, and Inca cultures, so don't expect any grand archaeological revelations. What you'll see instead is the environment in which Maria Reiche lived and worked. A scale model of the lines is behind the house; her grave lies not far away. Take a taxi to the Km 421 marker to reach the museum, which is 28 km (17 miles) from town.

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.

In the midst of the pale, scorched desert, 30 km (19 miles) south of Nazca, lies this ancient cemetery, whose precincts are littered with sun-bleached skulls and shards of pottery. Huaqueros (grave robbers) have ransacked the site over the years, and, until the early 2000s, the mummies unearthed by their looting sprouted from the earth in a jumble of bones and threadbare weavings. Now, however, they are housed neatly inside a dozen or so covered tombs. It's an eerie sight, since the mummies still have hair attached, as well as mottled, brown-rose skin stretched around empty eye sockets and gaping mouths with missing teeth. Some are wrapped in tattered burial sacks, though the jewelry and ceramics with which they were laid to rest are long gone. Tours from town take about three hours and cost around S/60. Visits to the cemetery are also packaged with Nazca Lines flights and other attractions.

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.

The ruins of this pre-Hispanic fort are minimal, but they conceal a violent history. The Huarco were a tiny seaside kingdom that resisted the incursions of the Inca Empire in the 15th century. After four years of fruitless attempts to subdue them, in 1470 the Inca ruler, Túpac Yupanqui, hit upon a stratagem: feigning a desire for peace, he tricked the unsuspecting Huarco into descending to the sea en masse to solemnize a would-be truce in a water ceremony. Then, in their absence, the wily Inca proceeded to seize the Huarco fortress, which he used as a base to subjugate the ill-fated tribe. Today, you can still pick out a few Inca trapezoidal niches among the ruins' crumbling walls, which overlook a precipitous cliff. There's also a museum in Cerro Azul with artifacts that tell the Huarcos' tragic story.

This intriguing church is a tiny précis of Peruvian colonial history. When the Spanish colonized the Americas, they typically built their churches on the former sites of Indigenous temples, in a show of religious triumphalism. Here, during the consolidation of the colonial empire in the late 1500s, they left the original 15th-century Inca structure almost entirely intact, and then erected a church on top. Today's churchgoers thus look out through Inca trapezoidal openings during mass, while the pagans' triangular niches house images of Catholic saints.

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.

These wooden pillars west of Nazca, carved of huarango wood and placed on mud-brick platforms, were once thought to have been an astronomical observatory. More recent theories, however, incline toward their use in mummification rituals, perhaps to dry bodies of deceased tribal members. They are usually visited on a tour of Cahuachi.

For an overview of the Nazca culture and the various archaeological sites in the region, this Italian-run museum is the best in town. The exhibits, made up of materials excavated from the surrounding digs, are heavy on scientific information and light on entertainment, although the display of Nazca trophy skulls will appeal to the morbid, and textiles fans will appreciate the display of painted fabrics from the ancient adobe city of Cahuachi. All the signage is in Spanish, so ask for the translation book at the front desk. Don't miss the still-functional Nazca aqueduct in the back garden.

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.

Everyone comes to town for the Nazca Lines, but a more contemporary spot that's also worth visiting is the studio of Tobi Flores. His father, Andrés Calle Flores, years ago discovered Nazca pottery remnants in local museums and started making new vase forms based on their pre-Columbian designs. Today, the younger Flores hosts a funny and informative talk in his ceramics workshop, and afterward you can purchase some beautiful pottery for reasonable prices. It's a quick walk across the bridge from downtown Nazca; at night, take a cab.

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.