Huacachina, the desert oasis

Trip Start Sep 28, 2007
1
5
9
Trip End Oct 29, 2007


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Peru  ,
Thursday, October 11, 2007

After sweating it out in the jungle, we took a bus 4 hours south of Lima along the coast of Peru to the desert oasis of Huacachina.  Quite literally a small lake in the middle of a vast stretch of sand dunes, the small village is about 5 km from the bustling town of Ica, which is famous for its Pisco (a type of brandy).  We spent the afternoon of our first day lounging by the pool drinking local cusqueña beer.  A few hours before sunset, we buckled in for a dune buggy ride into the desert with a group of about 20 people.  The highlight of the trip was sandboarding- basically strapping a snowboard to your feet and hurltling down the sand dunes.  We´ve never snowboarded before, let alone sandborded, but by our 3rd run we weren´t toppling over every 10 feet and were actually staying up the entire run.  The rest of the group was great fun- perhaps the first really social types we´ve met on this entire trip.  We befriended a Swedish couple and the next afternoon took a tour of local wineries and a chocolate factory in Ica with them.  After two days of rest and relaxation, we headed up to Lima again, where we took in the Peru v Chile soccer game (if only we could have scored tickets!) in a local restaurant. 
Print this entry Huacachina hotels