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Peruvian Pisco is a grape brandy or aguardiente, distilled from fresh grape must in stills that do not rectify the final product. Thus the pisco obtained from the distilling process features is transparent or slightly yellowish, with an alcohol content that runs at around 42°.
Pisscu means seagull in Quechua, the Inca language. It was also the name of a fertile valley often visited by condors and settled by descendants of the ancient Paracas culture. Here the local potters, also called piscos, crafted the large clay jars used to ferment chicha and other alcoholic beverages.
When the Spanish Conquerors arrived in the sixteenth century, they found this part of the south coast featured the ideal conditions to plant Mediterranean grape varieties, and were able to plant them here thanks to the skill and knowledge of the ancient Peruvians who invented a system of irrigating the arid coastal desert.
When the Spaniards started distilling, they baptized the grape brandy "pisco", as well as the port from where it was shipped, as can be seen from maps dating back to the late sixteenth century. Pisco exports reached their height between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Pisco varieties are defined by flavor and not their aroma. There are four types, according to the ingredient used for their preparation: pisco puro (made from non-aromatic grapes); pisco aromático (aromatic); pisco acholado (distilled from several different grape varieties); and pisco mosto verde (distilled from grape must that has yet to fully ferment).
Peruvian writings dating back to the nineteenth century state that drinkers who ordered pisco would "tomar las once", in a reference to the 11 letters used to spell the word aguardiente. Peruvian writer Ricardo Palma (1833-1919) writing in his Tradiciones described pisco as "alborotador quitapesares..." (a rousing pick-me-up).
For more information on recipes for Pisco Sour, Peruvian gastronomy, culture, tourism and much more, visit
http://www.peru.info/e_ftoculturaeng.asp
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Improvements Made to the Inca Trail |
Peru’s National Institute of
Culture will invest 4.5 million soles this year for the ongoing
restoration of the Inca Trail branches starting in Cusco. Project
coordinator Wilfredo Yepez Valdez said work is ongoing in the Trail's four
branches that started in Cusco towards the four cardinal regions of the
old Inca Empire. |
As work proceeds along the 230 kilometer road portion, new findings and old sites appear that were not previously catalogued or referenced anywhere. These improvements have allowed for the discovery of new historically and archeologically significant sites along the famed Inca Trail. These sites will enhance a visitor’s experience to the area and allow more to be known about the people who once lived there and their culture.
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Mountain and Adventure Sports International Film Festival in Lima |
The first ever Adventure Sports Film Festival in Lima, will take place at the PromPeru
auditorium in San Isidro, from August 31 to September 2, 2005. The
festival seeks to reach out to the sports community and ordinary city
people through film and slide shows focusing on the mountain and
mountain/adventure sports cultures. It provides a forum for exchanges and
sharing among movie-makers, sports enthusiasts and the public at large. In
this way it supports the ways in which art can be used effectively as a
means to spread information about the world of mountains and mountain
related activities.
The Festival has as one of its primary goals to highlight the importance
for modern man to preserve the environment, nature and, particularly,
mountain ecology. The South American Explorers Club will host a meeting
with the director of the Inka Fest on August 17th and they are planning on having a booth at the film festival. For more information, write to
incafest@climbingperu.com
or visit www.inkafest.climbingperu.com.
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National Geographic to Shoot Movie About Machu Picchu |
National Geographic will be shooting a film about Peru and Machu Picchu's archaeological complex, which may be seen by around 200 million people in the United States, said Carlos Canales, President of the Tourism National Chamber (Canatur). He also said that this movie's investment, in "Cinemax"
format, will be of approximately
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US$14 million, of which only a million would be afforded by the Peruvian
State, by means of PromPeru. The film is going to be screened in universities, colleges and other United States' media outlets.
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Gonicutac A New Tourist Site |
The Pre Inca Gonicutac Citadel, in the heart of the Peruvian Andes is ready to dazzle the visitors with its enigmatic constructions and the beauty of its surrounding landscape. Gonicutac is a site almost unexplored of Pasco region, 400 kilometers to the east of Lima, where the authorities will invest more than US$ 45,000 in research and restoration so as to promote this new Peru's tourist offer. Angel Jimenez Fernandez, Mayor of Rocco district, Cerro de Pasco, assumed that the works on this archaeological area would be started very soon and would have the support of the community.
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New Peruvian Tourism and Crafts Website |
With the goal of strengthening the tourism industry in Peru, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, through the Technical Office for the Centers of Technological Innovation for Artisans and Tourism launched a tourism website. The website,
www.arteturcites.com.pe will increase the competitiveness of Peruvian handicrafts, as well as develop and promote artisan activity and tourism. The creation of the website was made possible through financing provided by the United Nation’s Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the eight artisan and tourism institutions that are working directly with that Ministry. The website provides information on business opportunities, handicrafts and items for sale, cultural and artisan events, as well as links to other sites.
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