Ica Hotels
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Sandboarding in a desert Oasis
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Ica,
Peru
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Sunday, Nov 19, 2006 09:55
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Entry 20 of 58 | show all | print this entry |
After our big night as DJ superstars, it was time to move on....unfoirtunately, wed spent too long in Cusco, and time was short, so I decided I didnt have time to go to Bolivia and had to part ways with Meri n Justin (who flew out of La Paz) as my next flight was on the 24th from Lima.
So I hopped on a bus for 20 hours, drove past Nasca and the Nasca lines (so technically I saw em, but u really need a plane to see anything more than a line in some sand) and arrived in the dessert town of Ica.
Unfortunately, Id lost the paper with the name of the place to visit, and trying to mime sandboarding to my waitress as the first available restaurant was prooving fruitless (despite knowing the town started with the name Huac). And my 16 yr old lonely planet had nothing about it either.......so I walked to where Ica's tourist board was 16 years ago, luggage n all, before deciding Id have to go n use the internet (Ica is a pretty boring town, but Huacachina is about 5k away and v cool) just to learn the name. Stupid me!!! But no, the internet shop was full. Luckily the name came to me right there n then, and the dude helped me get a taxi at a good price, so off I went and there I was 15 minutes later - the incredible dessert Oasis of Huaca fcking China (as some call it).
Unfortunately I backed up all my photos upon arrival here, and having had my Camera recently stolen (read about it in a future blog) I have no piccies of my own. So youll have to view other photos to see how cool it looks......(u can see a pic of Huacachina, or the Nasca lines here)
http://www.therealperu.co.uk/guide/southcoast.aspx
I guess its not to everyones taste, and its kind of a boring place with very little to do....but to me, it looked like it was straight out of a movie set. Absolutely picture perfect. U can even swim in the little oasis.
One thing u can do though (besides read books, relax, and swim), is go sandboarding and duneriding. I paid US$40 for the pleasure (apparently u can get $30 if u ask enough people), and they take u on these stripped out old cars on the dessert.
I ended up in a small car along with a French couple - the small car was pretty average, which meant the hooning in the car part wasnt quite as cool as some of the weird space-buggy looking vehicles that other people use (as the car wasnt that powerful). On the positive side, u get more goes at the actual sandboarding, coz there are fewer people in the vehicle.
Its really quit weird - I first tried it like snowboarding....but the board wasnt set up for a goofyfooter, was badly shaped, had dodgy velcro bindings, was made from solid wood, and most importantly of all.....was on sand, not snow. So it mainly resulted in a few falls and a feeling of general uncoordination.
However, we then switched to head first sled-type usage.....What a difference!! U pick up speed and just go faster ans faster - it actually gets kinda scary, and I even managed to get some burns/scrapes on my arm from the friction when I didnt manage to keep my arms entirely out of the sand. But it was v freekn fun!!! Unlike skiing/surfing/boarding etc, u dont really have much control. But the hills arent huge, and its more of an adrenaline rush than anything.
Finally, we hooned around some more (which was just as scary really, as they hoon up big walls of sand sideways and it feels like the car/buggy is going to roll for sure!), and went to watch the sunset over the dessert and the oasis. Perfect for taking photos, unless of course ur camera gets stolen. Grrrrrr.
The hostel was kinda cool too. Got my own room relatively cheap, and there are a shitload of parrots, giant McCaws etc in their backyard, some of which speak various words in Spanish or English.....along with a little swimming pool. Plus lots of cats and a few exra small kittens. It felt at times like I was in Dr Doolittles house, esp the 2nd night - there was this little screeching sound for hours n hours.....it was clearly an animal in distress, but I had no idea what. Noone seemed to do anything about it, and everytime I went to look for it it stopped screeching.
Finally at about 3am, I went out and saw it - it was a baby something or other (perhaps a cat?) that had literally just been born. Just a pink little thing flexing itself in distress on the floor. I really had no idea what to do with it, esp semi naked at 3am in the morning, so I just went back to bed feeling guilty and a little helpless. Hmmmm. It was quite surreal and v strange, but no I wasnt dreaming.
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