It is said that the astonishing south begins in Ica, and that would seem to be true, for here the geography suddenly transforms itself into an immense desert. On the Nazca plains of the Ica region ancient cultures have left us the enormous figures known today as the Nazca Lines. Today, the Ica region is home to the white grape brandy known as pisco, Peru’s national drink, a rich Afro-Peruvian culture with its own music and colorful festivities, vineyards that produce Peru’s best wines, and oases such as Huacachina, where life is able to flourish amid imposing desert dunes.