Desert Sunset

Huacachina is an oasis, surrounded by massive rolling sand dunes of the Itacama desert. Although it sounds like it would be in the middle of nowhere, it is actually a 5 minute drive from Ica, a desert city of some million or so people.

Oasis amongst the dunes

People go to Huacachina to see the sand dunes, dune buggy on the sand dunes and sandboard down the sand dunes. And so we went. In addition it was a nice pit stop on our planned route to Cuzco via Arequipa.

We made a late call to go on the dune buggy tour when we saw a bunch of people at our hotel lining up to leave. Unfortunately there was no more room so we had to get our own private buggy which turned out to somewhat of a blessing.

Our driver, Pedro, took off as soon as we hit the sand! He was tearing over the dunes at breakneck speed, much to Mish’s chagrin and my amusement. The scenery however, was absolutely phenomenal, with sand dunes as far as you could see. We stopped for a sandboard down a few of the dunes. At first glance it appeared way too steep to even contemplate, but I put my trust in Pedro and committed headfirst on the board down the first dune. Despite the lack of safety briefing or equipment, I hurtled down the dune and landed safely at the bottom. For my next dune I attempted the standing board, however without adequate bindings or a smooth enough board it wasn’t nearly as fun as the heads first deal.

Mish on the dunes

Grey with sandboard

Our buggy

Pedro with our buggy

After watching the sunset from the dunes we were taken home and were very happy that we opted-in for the little excursion.

After the first night, we spent the next day waiting for our overnight bus to Cuzco (we decided to forget about Arequipa for the time being).

Other Huacachina highlights (which were quite difficult to come up with):

·      Twix milkshake at café;

·       Walking around Ica while waiting for our bus – a messy and hectic town.