Province of Ica

Capital: City of Ica
Altitude: 406 m.a.s.l.
Distance: 267 kilometers from Lima

The province of Ica is located in the central south coast of the Peruvian seaboard. It is considered the center where the important pre-inca civilizations Nasca (300 years b.C.) and Paracas (700 years b.C.) developed.

The men of Paracas practiced the trepanation of skulls on living bodies using knives made of "obsidiana", a certain kind of volcano rock. They also reached a great development in the art of weaving.

The Nasca culture stood out for its admirable knowledge in hydraulic engineering building aqueducts and subterranean canals reinforced by inner walls of stone and roofs of huarango.

Ica is known as the region of the sand and sea, of oasis and valleys, besides of the pisco, wine and popular devotions, like the Señor de Lauren or the Sanctuary of Yauca.

How to arrive

The city is well communicated thanks to the proximity to Panamericana Highway. The route Lima - Ica (300 kilometers) by Panamericana south the trip takes approximately 4 hours by car.

The province has a small airport, departure point for the Nazca lines expeditions. At the airport also you will find air taxi service that operates from Lima and Ica and also fly over locally the Nazca.

There’s 2 aerodromes at Ica Province:
- Aerodrome close to Las Dunas Hotel, just 5 kilometers Highway from Ica.
- Aerodrome María Reiche Neuman in km 447 of Panamericana South highway (Nazca).

Festivities

Vintage Festival (March first fortnight)

The Vintage festivity celebrates the grape harvest and the Wine of Ica. During the Vintage fairs, contest, horse exhibitions, decorated cart parade, musical festivals and parties where the afroperuano rhythms are danced.

The major attractive of the festivity is the Vintage Queen patient and crowning, the elected queen joined by her parliament carry out the first crushing grapes step to extract the fruit juice which will be processed into wine.

The Vintage parade takes place the principal day where a group of festival queens march in decorated cars throw grape bunches. During the vintage festivity is the best time to taste the wine and pisco variety, also you can taste the traditional “cachina” liquor prepared of fermented mosto.

Nazca Torism week (May 15)

Diverse cultural activities take place in Nazca to honor María Reiche, who spent many years studying Nazca lines.

Fisherman’s Festival, San Pedro and San Pablo, Religious Festivity (May 29)

The San Andrés Creek, in Pisco, honors San Pedro and San Pablo, which images are taken in a pintoresque boat trip, accompanied by musical bands and fisherman’s. The celebration includes cooking contests seafood and dishes prepared with fish, challenging the imagination of the best chefs.

Ica Tourist week/ September

During the touristy week takes place Horse exhibitions, cock fighting, wine contests, pisco tastes, cellar strolls and the international sand board contest. The main objective is to promote the main touristy attractions of the city.

Señor de Luren Festivitie (October-Second and third week)

The devotion to Señor de Luren saint patron of Ica city origin are in 1 570 when the image mysteriously disappear in the desert, during the route Lima to Ica and later was found in a lonely spot called Luren.

The central celebration day, the image is take in procession along the main streets of the city since nightfall till the sun appears at the next day. Hundreds of persons travel to Ica city to join the procession and to participate of the prayers during nine days looking for special favors and also to show their devotion. The Ica streets are decorated with beautiful arches and flower carpets specially made for the occasion.

Virgen del Rosario de Yauca / September - October

Celebrated with a massive pilgrimage where thousands of pilgrims walk 25 kilometers from Ica to Yauca district. The traditional barridos, novenas and a typical fair also takes place as part of the celebrations.

Virgen del Carmen de Chincha (December)

Del Carmen Virgen is the most venerated in Peru after Señor de los Milagros. In several locations of Ica, especially in El Carmen and El Guayabo areas, where the majority of afro-peruvian population are settled, a special celebration takes place at the end of the year. Del Carmen Virgin is well known in Ica by the name of “La Peoncita” because of the ties that are shared with the adolescents that perform the Negritos dance and the Pallitas to celebrate the virgin.

Tourist Site Attractions:

It is interesting to visit:

Square of Arms
Sanctuary of Señor de Lauren
Regional Museum Maria Reiche
Museum of Piedras Grabadas (Engraved Stones)
House of the Marquis of Torre Hermosa
Wine cellars Vista Alegre, Tacama and Ocucaje
Huacachina Lagoon
Snowy Mountain Ampay

National Reservation of Paracas

It has a surface of 3.350 hectares, is one of the most important, protected areas of Peru, being the only one that has a marine ecosystem. The place is a refuge for sea dogs, Humboldt penguins, flamingos and others. It is located at 250 kilometers from Lima.

From the spa of Paracas, in the county of Pisco, it is interesting to visit the islands Ballestas and San Gallan, habitat of sea dogs, by boat. On the way one can see a figure of El Candelabro, engraved on the slope of a hill.

El Candelabro

It is a geoglyph of great rocky formation eroded by the sea and the wind. It has a width of more than 120 meters which is also called Tres Cruces or Trident. The best way to see it is from the sea.

The tourist information site of the reservation is called "Centro de Visitantes" and it is located on the 27 kilometer of the road from Pisco to Puerto San Martin. It provides information about the reservation and the protected species. On the other hand, the museum Julio C. Tello (at the side of the Centro de Visitantes) also shows representative pieces of the Paracas culture like mantles, mummies and pottery.

Huacachina Lagoon

It is considered one of the most beautiful places of the Peruvian coast. Located at 5 kilometers from the city of Ica. It is an oasis with abundant vegetation (dunnes, palm trees, tamarindos and eucalyptus) with sulfurous, green waters with curative properties. The sand dunes of Ica are considered the best place for sand-boarding.

Chincha Town

It is  located at 202 kilometers from the city of Ica. It is a rich oasis with pre-inca remains. Cradle of a great part of the black population of the county and of its rich folklore. The ranch of San Jose has tunnels and punishment cells for the old slaves.

Humay Town

Place of the ruins of Tambo Colorado. The site was built on an antique fortress of the Chinch culture and later adapted and transformed by Pachacutec in the 15th. century.

Archeological remains of Tambo Colorado

It is located at 45 kilometers from the road Los Libertadores. This Inca urban center is the best conserved one from the coast. The name Tambo Colorado comes from the Quechua word "tampu" that means place to rest and the Spanish word "colorado" (red) due to the color of its walls.

Melchorita Sanctuary

It is located at 10 kilometers the city of Chincha. Melchora Saravia Tasayco, known as La Melchorita was a Franciscan tertiary devoted to the virgin Santa Rosa de Lima. She devoted her life to caring for the poor and sick people of the town.

In the county of Nasca are the Paredones, located at 2 kilometers from the city of Nazca and it is considered an administrative center of the Incas. It consists on rooms, terraces, patios with floors of stone and adobe walls. Besides of the aqueducts, true water galleries with walls of boulder and roofs of stone slab that pass, in some cases, at 12 meters of depth.

In San Pablo, in the county of Nasca, it is interesting to visit the House Museum of Maria Reiche.


Other Site Attractions:

The wine cellars of Tacama, Ocucaje and Vista Alegre are only a few minutes away from Ica. Traditional cellars used for the elaboration of wine and pisco.

Beaches La Mina, Lagunillas and El Raspon: with sandy ground, few waves and clear water, ideal for recreation.

Yumaque Beach: Favorite beach of the bathers. One must be careful because it is a nesting place of birds.

La Catedral and Los Frayles Beach: Are rocky formations on the coast, produced by the erosion of wind and sea. It is possible to visit the interior of La Catedral.

Punta Arquillo: A natural view-point from where you can observe colonies of sea dogs and other species.

Lines of Nazca

The old settlers of the Nazca Culture have bequeathed a valious archeological monument consisting on an enormous net of lines and drawings of animals and plants on an area of about 350 square kilometers. The spectacular size and shape of the pictures are amazing.

It is located at 25 kilometers from the city of Nazca between the kilometers 419 and 165 of the South-Panamerican road.

They were discovered in 1927 by Toribio Mejia Xexxpe, studied by Paul Kosok, Hans Horkheirmer and the German doctor Maria Reiche, (the lady of Nazca), who lived in that zone for over 50 years studying and investigating its origin.

To fly over the lines of Nazca is an unforgettable experience. There is also a 12 meters high view-point from which it can be see the figures of "La Mano" (the hand) and "El Árbol" (the tree).

These giant tracks and grooves of up to 30 centimeters depth form a huge net of lines and drawings in the soil.

The conclusions state, according to the theory of the researcher Kosok, that it is a giant calendar with astronomical signs built over 2000 years ago.

The Lines of Nazca were declared Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity in 1994.