Vines are abundant, despite the sandy and infertile terrain; they grow in many places because of the moisture from inside the earth and provide Lima with its wines and grape concentrates that run along the various mountain provinces extending to Panama and Guayaquil.

In 1820, the Liberating Expedition[6][7] arrived in Pisco under the command of José de San Martín[8] and Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, disembarking in the Bay of Paracas, where the first flag and the first national emblem of Peru were created.

In 1832, the Peruvian Congress ordered by law that the city of Lima would receive the title of "Villa y Puerto de la Independencia", extending this qualification to both the town and the riverbank population.

In 1947, the historian pisqueño Mamerto Castillo Negrón said that Pisco had received two additions in its history that granted it honors worthy of merit, the first being "Villa and Puerto de la Independencia" and second, its recognition as a provincial capital.

Media officials reported that 80% of the city was destroyed, including the central San Clemente Cathedral of Pisco, located in Plaza de Armas in which mass was taking place at the time of the earthquake.

On September 4, 2012, President Ollanta Humala was present for the beginning of renovations to the airport,[19] which is expected to be operational by 2015 with the ability to receive an anticipated 400,000 passengers a year in 2017.

Many bird species can be seen in the islands including pelicans, penguins, cormorants, Peruvian boobies, and Inca terns, as well as sea lions, turtles, dolphins, and whales.

In the city is the Plaza de Armas, where people buy tejas, small sweets made from pecans and assorted dried fruits.

Other building in the city is the heavily baroque Iglesia de la Compañía, begun in 1689, features a superb carved pulpit and gold-leaf altarpiece.