We leave the desert town of Ica by taking a tiny cab from our hostel to Ica coach station. My expectations of a coach ride in Peru were not high so I was pleasantly surprised by the standard of Cruz Del Sur coaches. Reclining seats, legs rests, on board screens and privacy curtains even in the most basic seats. We traveled for over 2 hours for around £2 each! On the journey I read the John Steinbeck novella The Red Pony which I picked up before we left the hostel. An easy read to pass the time on the calm journey down to Nasca, occasionally looking out the window at the alien like landscapes.
The next journey was not quite as relaxing. From Nasca we had to take the Pan America highway south towards Acari. This two lane road mainly consists of huge 18 wheeler trucks travelling around 60km/h and dozens of pickup trucks going double that speed weaving in and out of the lorries. Our driver seemed to be in a particular hurry, add in the fact that a local sandstorm was still swirling and visibility was poor at best. I’m not often a religious man but on that ride I was praying to anyone who would listen! I’ve never seen a road so remote and desolate before.
Fortunately, we arrive in one piece in the dark desert evening and enter through the old part of the olive plant to the rustic family home next door to the factory. We are greeted by Vilma the lovely house keeper who took care of us throughout our stay. After catching our breath from the white knuckle car ride, we settle into our accommodation for the next couple of nights, a beautiful house and garden of one of Alex’s aunts.
We have a delicious meal of choclo, chicken and rice with some tasty custard apple ice cream for dessert.
The old part of the factory where it all began 25 years ago:
The next morning we are greeted by Rocky, the beautiful and rather playful German Shepherd who lives at/guards the house. After breakfast, Roger who works at the Nobex olive plant gave us an in-depth tour of the olive factory. It was a fascinating tour and impressive to see how this family business has bloomed from humble beginnings to a vast factory and farm employing over 120 workers. The 5 varieties of olives are exported to over 24 countries and automation has been introduced to help process the vast amount of produce. Of course, like all good tours, there was a tasting section at the end and I can see why they are so successful!
Each of these vats contains up to 6000kg of olives:
After lunch we are shown around the acres of olive trees growing around the factory by Richard. There is too much to share here in detail but we were blown away by how much data, science and maths goes into growing olives in the most optimal way, especially with climate change complicating matters.
Baby olives in their infancy growing on a branch:
The next day we mostly relaxed around the house, having enjoyed Steinbeck’s writing I read Of Mice and Men, a brilliant but bleak tale of aspiration and fate. After being served more delicious food we decided we needed to burn some off. We ran a 6km out and back across the farm to some trees that for some reason made me think of the Lion King.
On the final day we walked to an olive tree where some of Jeremy’s (Alex’s father) ashes were scattered. It was a beautiful peaceful spot and we both took some time to reflect before a final walk around the land. The skies had finally cleared after the sandstorm and for the first time I could see we were surrounded by imposing sand dunes and very little civilization at all.
In the evening we were kindly given a lift (and jars full of olives) back to Nasca to continue our journey to the mountains of Arequipa.
James (from a hammock)
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Adventure – leaving the gringo trail to go somewhere not many people get to go, drinking tap water and surviving
Excitement – playing yanif for the first time on this trip, being able to just chill out and read and be looked after for the last time
Trauma – fighting off losing our feet to Rocky, driving head-on towards trucks and cars at ridiculous speeds