Ica & Huacachina: Wine, Pisco Tasting & Dune Buggy Sunset

4.98

(160 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing that hit me was the smell—grapes and earth—when we stepped into Tacama Vineyard outside Ica. Our guide, Rosa, waved us over to this old wooden press (she called it “la prensa”) and told us it’s been around longer than anyone in her family. I tried to imagine all those harvests. She poured us a splash of their Malbec—honestly, I’m not usually a wine person but it tasted like sunlight and something floral I couldn’t name. The pisco burned a little but in a good way. There was laughter from another group nearby; you could tell everyone felt loose already.

After that we went to El Arrabal winery—less polished than Tacama but somehow warmer. There were horses standing under fruit trees (one kept flicking its tail at flies), and the air smelled sweet and dusty. We learned about how they make pisco by hand here—Rosa explained the difference between quebranta and Italia grapes but I probably got it mixed up. Lunch was at their little restaurant; I ordered lomo saltado because why not? It was salty and perfect after all that tasting.

The drive out to Huacachina oasis felt unreal—the dunes just rise up out of nowhere, golden against this weirdly blue sky. Our driver, Carlos, grinned as he floored it in the dune buggy. There was this moment when we crested a dune and my stomach dropped—I yelled something unrepeatable and Carlos just laughed harder. Sandboarding looked easy until you try it; most people (me included) ended up with sand everywhere possible. But then the sun started going down over the desert, orange light on everyone’s faces—quiet for a second except for the wind. I still think about that view sometimes when things feel too busy back home.