ICA DESERT

Ica is the best launching point for tours through the desert, which apart from being beautiful also happens to be one of the world’s richest hunting grounds for marine fossils. You need at least three days, preferably a week, to get there and back from truly remote, wild desert, and make sure you have a hat, plenty of sunscreen, a gallon of water per day pp, and a desert-worthy vehicle with plenty of spare tires (protection against razor-sharp volcanic rocks). The three desert guides recommended below are intellectual but all self-taught, absolutely passionate about the desert, and safe. They make a living by guiding foreign paleontologists, and they know all the local huaqeros, or grave robbers, who tip them off about new fossil areas.

The guide with the best transport, and most experience, is Roberto Penny Cabrera, alias Desert Man (tel. 056/23-3921 or 056/962-4868, icadeserttrip@yahoo.es). It is hard to miss Roberto, who hangs out most evenings in Ica’s El Otro Peñoncito Restaurant. He is the one with the desert hat, camo military khakis, and huge bowie knife strapped to the waist. A former prospector for mining companies, he can show you detailed satellite imagery and geology maps of the whole area, and a quick glimpse of his truck is the best proof that you will not end up dying of thirst or crawling out of the desert on your hands and knees. His powerful diesel pickup has mattresses for three, a 22-gallon shower, and even an air pump for inflating his three spare tires. He speaks impeccable English, is a descendant of the town’s founder, and lives to this day on the Plaza de Armas. He is intense, well-organized, and endlessly entertaining. One evening at El Otro Peñoncito, for instance, Roberto was showing us maps when he suddenly held up his forearm for us to inspect. “You see this?” he shouted. “That’s chicken skin. That’s passion. I love this stuff!” His 300-km round trip desert excursions combine geology, archaeology, anthropology, and paleontology. He charges $100 a day and can take up to three or four people.

Other recommended guides include m Marco León Villarán—see Punta Hermosa for a complete description—who leads trips in the Ica desert and works as a professional bone hunter throughout Peru’s coast. He is a genuinely nice person who leads very professional expeditions and speaks Spanish only.

Mario Urbina (mariourbina01@hotmail.com or contact Hotel Hacienda Ocucaje) is assembling a fossil museum at Hacienda Ocucaje, speaks English, and is probably the most academic of the bunch. He does not have his own vehicle, but can rent a Land Rover for $50/day.

A final option is Marc Romain, a young Frenchman who has several brand-new dune buggies at the Hostal La Rocha at Lago Huacachina. He has started a company called Desert Adventures (tel. 056/21-2314, Nextel 98169352, desert_adventures@hotmail.com). He offers six-hour desert tours ($30 pp), a 10-hour wilderness beach tour ($35 pp), and two-day expeditions ($50 pp) that explore wild beach scenery and fossil grounds and include a barbecue with cocktails. Unlike the others, Marc does not work as a paleontologist guide and does not have the fossil knowledge. But he is young and friendly, and man does he have fast dune buggies.