The Dunes

The photos are:

1. Our hotel in paradise

2. Me and the Dune Buggy

3. Eva truly on vacation

4. Getting ready to slide

5. Sunset

We decided to hit the road the next morning and get out of Lima. We were flying out of there in 15 days and had a day and a half to site see then. I showed Eva briefly around Barranco and then we took a cab to the bus terminal. We arrived with about three minutes to spare before the bus pulled out to Ica, and we hoped on as it is was pulling out more or less.

Around 3 1/2 hours later we arrived in Ica, a busy town south of Lima. Our goal was not Ica however, it was Huacachina a small oasis 4km outside of town. When I say Oasis, I truly mean it. It was a small village of probably a couple hundred people or so, with a lagoon in the middle, surrounded by tall sand dunes and littered with palm trees. Exactly what I think of when I think Oasis. We had hear it was nice, but we were soon in love with the place. I had met an American Chiropractor living in Ica who was on the bus and he recommended a hotel to us. We went there, and found it to be a little expensive, but ohh so nice. Besides, it was still under 20 USD and was in fact a little oasis inside the oasis. How many times can I say oasis? The Hotel had a bar out by the pool and the back opened up to a massive dune rising above the hotel.

We didn't have long to enjoy the paradise though as we wanted to explore the town before going on our sunset dune buggy ride. The town didn't take long to explore (I like that in a town actually) and we also had a quick swim before the buggy ride. Then we were off with another couple (Spanish guy and Italian girl) onto the dunes. I strongly recommend this tour, as Eva and I agreed it was one of the best things we did on our trip. If you don't go on a buggy, you are just on the dunes on foot, and really can't cover much ground. Ask Eva how far she made it up the dune behind our hotel.

Anyway, we zipped around for about two hours. Up dunes, down dunes and over what seemed like dune cliff edges. It was great fun, like a roller coaster. Every so often we would stop and bust out the sand boards. Our driver told us we could go standing up, but said it was much more dangerous and he recommend it on our belly. I have snowboarded three times and spent most of the time falling. I did not really fancy traveling around Peru with a broken ankle, so my belly it was. Apparently the belly thing didn't really work as well for Eva though. On our second dune, which in her defense was the largest (probably the length of a US football field) she lost control near the bottom. She wears contacts, and sand started to get in her eyes so she closed them. Then, she started to go sideways but didn't realize it because her eyes were closed. Sideways wasn't really working and she rolled (as my friends dad used to say) ass over tea kettle. She probably rolled about 15 or 20 times and then came to a stop in a massive cloud of sand. I was all the way at the top and could only hope she was OK. I slid down myself to find out that she was mostly just banged up and scratched a bit. Nothing serious except maybe her pinkie. We still don't know, because she never went to a doctor, but a few months later her pinkie is a little tender and we think it was broken. But still she had fun, thinking it was one of the best things she did in Peru.

We parked for a while taking in the sunset over the dunes and took lots of photos. Below us in the distance was a massive chicken farm out in the middle of nowhere. It was said to be there to protect the chickens from the Bird Flu and had only been there less than a year. It was weird site.

Back in town after our ride I bumped into Adi and Lucy (AGAIN-the third time) at the shop where I was buying beers. We sat with them for a little bit, but had dinner plans with the couple from the buggy ride. Travel circles truly are a small world. Dinner was nice, and involved lots of meat and Israelis. Actually we only had the meat for dinner, but the restaurant was filled with Israelis celebrating their Independence day, April 24th.

We loved Huacachina and considered staying another night. I felt I could have gone on the ride every night for a week and still enjoyed it. But we were on a schedule and had to get moving. We did climb the dune behind the hotel before leaving, but then back into town to catch a bus further south to Nazca.