Huacachina

This town, if you can call it that is one of the most insane things I've seen and definitely not something I was expecting out of Peru. For all my desire to visit Peru it's my most under researched place, so maybe its a good thing we're being told when and what to look at. Huacachina is a desert oasis straight out of a cartoon, there's a murky green lake surrounded by palm trees and towering, golden sand dunes all around. I’m pretty sure no one actually lives there but instead there is two streets full of hotels, restaurants and people trying to sell you something you don't want or need. But it is quite a sight and it was warm, at least during the day, proper swimming weather!

Our bus rolled in a little bit late and we a sand boarding tour booked so we quickly dumped our bags at our new hostel, private room again lucky us! And headed out to get fitted for our sand boards which are snowboard which had its base removed and a coating of resin put on instead. These were extra as most people were given some kind of foamy number that was really only fit to lye on. They had straps for feet but the straps were not strong enough and usually broke which probably explained the high instance of broken arms in town. We headed out in a proper sand buggy that sat about twelve and the driver. Some how James and I ended up, up the front with the driver and we barely had time to fit out harness style, but definitely not very safe, seat belts before he was roaring out of town and flinging us through the dunes. He seemed to be following other tracks and driving in a safe-ish manner but I did notice that he crossed himself as we hit the sand which didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. After about 10 minutes on the dunes we stopped for the classic photo shoot with the seemingly endless stream of other buggies that were doing the same thing. We are well and truly on the Gringo trail now and tourists are everywhere. Finally we piled back into the buggy to hit the main attraction, the sand boarding. We stopped at the top of a series of three short but steep dune faces. Because I'm kind I let James go first and after watching him fall I knew what not to. It was a lot of fun, although doesn't at all compare to snow. It felt closest to a sticky spring snow on a hot day so lots of fun but unpredictable. The last dune even had a little lip that we tried to jump off but didn't really have enough speed. We did that a couple of times, and as fun as it was it was also exhausting! Where have my snowboarding muscles gone? Anyway we were happy to jump back

in the buggy and head to a high spot to watch the sun go down. It was pretty awe inspiring.

We headed out again with our bus tour group that night and went to and all you can eat/drink bar that was organised by Peru hop. Needless to say it turned into a pretty fun night. We opted not to go to the club that was right behind our hotel but that was fine because we heard their terrible reggaeton music all night. Disaster, but we'd already decided to extend our stay there.

The next day we spent doing lots of nothing, our bus crew all moved on to the next spot so it was just us, we had breakfast by the lagoon and strolled around for a bit. James spent the afternoon watching the football and I read my book by the pool. Later on we headed up to the top of a dune to watch the locals ski and board of a jump they had made. I wished that we had rented boards again but it was pretty fun to watch. Then we watched the sun go down and had a chill dinner in front of the lagoon again, while circus performers busked in front of us. I can't remember what we ate but I don't think it was very memorable like a lot of the food we ate in Peru. People say the food in Peru is amazing but once you've eaten the ceviche and the lomo saltado their is not much left. Vegetarian options are usually pasta, pizza or omelettes normally served with a sad looking salad chips and rice.

We had another relaxed morning waiting for our bus the next day. I braved a trip to the pharmacy and got some pseudoephedrine to unblock our sinuses as I couldn't face heading up into the Andes all blocked up. Turns out it must have been black market stuff as when I tried to get more in Arequipa I was told it was a controlled drug and not available over the counter. Anyway, I didn't get any excruciating ear or sinus pain on the bus heading up so my one black market pill did the trick.

Before we knew it, it was 1pm and we were being herded onto a bus to our next stop, luckily this was a double decker sleeper bus and we managed to score a full-cama. It wasn't exactly a full bed but it was like a big lazy boy chair.

Heading to Arequipa in style....