Harvest and Holy Week keys for tourism in Paracas

By: Sandra Ferrándiz E. (special envoy)

Paracas once again pays tribute to the fruit that gives rise to pisco and wine: the grape. After three years of absence, he returned to the agenda on V Harvest Festival in the port city. This festivity, which celebrates the cutting of the grape, is one of the most important in the entire department of Ica and took place on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1. The event featured salsa and cumbia musical concerts and 12 stands for the sale of different varieties of pisco from born and Ica, as well as food.

According to the Paracas Chamber of Tourism and Commerce (Capatur), the estimated income would reach close to half a million dollars and more than 3,000 workers in the field benefited. tourism.

Pisco Producers

30 kilometers from the city of Paracas, is the Fundo La Mora, where the wine and pisco winery, San Gallán, is located. This is the setting for one of the central moments of the grape harvest: Bárbara Cam —the recently crowned Miss Paracas 2023— proceeds to perform the traditional stomping of grapes, an action that serves to extract the must with which the Peruvian flag drink will later be made. , he pisco.

The festive atmosphere also reached another of the nearby wineries, San Nicolás, which is located only 17 kilometers from the Paracas bay and has 16 hectares, where different strains of pisco grapes are grown, such as torontel, quebranta, muscatel and Italy. The most famous drink they produce is Pisco 1615, whose varieties are exported to more than 50 countries around the world. Last year they made 1.8 million liters of pisco, but this year they plan to double it and reach 3 million liters.

Holy Week in Paracas

At the gates of Easter, the grape harvest is a foretaste of everything there is: places like the Ballestas Islands and the Paracas Nature Reserve, as well as activities on tours to wine cellars, they hope to host more than 60,000 tourists.

“The projection has risen anticipating that the north is affected. Paracas is a safe possibility within the Ica region”, commented Eduardo Jáuregui, president of Capatur. Also, it is estimated that revenue for this long weekend hits $3 million and the average ticket will be S/200 per day per person.

Wineries will increase visits on holidays

For the long weekend, the main wineries in the Pisco Valley indicate that the reservations for pisco tours and tastings are completely full.

Jesús Castro, in charge of making Pisco 1615 at Bodega San Nicolás, indicated that he expects to receive some 2,000 people for Easter. 80% are foreign tourists.

For his part, Ernesto Chang, producer of Pisco San Gallán at Fundo La Mora, pointed out that for holidays reserves and sales will increase by 20% compared to last year.