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The best way to escape Ica's hot desert afternoons is to wander around the cool chambers and vaults and sample the wines at one of the town's bodegas or wineries. One of the best is Vista Allegre (daily 9am-5pm), easily reached by walking down Avenida Grau from the main plaza, crossing over the Rio Ica bridge, then turning left. Follow this road for about twenty minutes until you come to a huge yellow colonial gateway on your right (or take the orange microbus #8 from Avenida Grau or the market); the arch leads via an avenue of tall eucalyptus trees to the bodega itself, an old hacienda still chugging happily along in a forgotten world of its own. There's usually a guide who'll show you around free of charge, then arrange for a wine and pisco tasting session at the shop. You don't have to buy anything, but you're expected to tip. If you follow the road beyond Vista Allegre for another 6km you'll come to Bodega Tacama (daily 9am-6pm), a larger and slightly more important wine producer about 3km from the centre of Ica, which also offers guided tours and wine and pisco tasting. The vineyards here are still irrigated by the Achirana canal, which was built by the Inca Pachacutec (or his brother Capac Yupanqui) as a gift to Princess Tate, daughter of a local chieftain. According to legend, it took forty thousand men just ten days to complete this astonishing canal, which brings cold, pure water down 4000m from the Andes to transform what was once an arid desert into a startlingly fertile oasis. Clearly a romantic at heart, Pachacutec named it Achirana - "that which flows cleanly toward that which is beautiful". About 35km further south, the tourist oasis of Bodega Ocucaje is another of Peru's finest vineyards. You can stay here at the Hotel Ocucaje ($10-20) and explore the surrounding desert, particularly the Cerro Blanco site where whalebone remains have been found.
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