Our trip to Ica was fortunately very comfortable and seats uno y dos were baller. We slept most of the night and awoke at the bus station in Ica. Once we arrived, we immediately bargained with a taxi driver to drive us the 5 kilometers to Huacachina - little did we know what was right around the bend of the towering sand dune in front of us...
This tiny village built around a desert oasis was such a surprise in our itinerary as we hadn't expected it to be so appealing to the eyes. The palm trees around the oasis with the sand dunes in the background was unlike anything we had ever seen before. We settled into to a hostal bustling with backpackers enjoying the sun by the pool and then took a quick walk around the oasis. (Quick not because we were walking fast, but because it only took ten minutes to walk around the whole town.) Although the village itself is set up solely for tourists, we couldn't get over the unique views, so the multitude of shops and restaurants were easily overlooked for the white dunes against a saturated blue sky.
We spent the day enjoying the views and the sunshine. Walking to the tops of the neighboring dunes was difficult in the loose sand but the views were spectacular. We also enjoyed "frolicking" through the sand. Running downhill and jumping was a thrill because of the steepness of the slope and the amount of air you could obtain; we acted like two five year olds in a sand box. (Crazy American tourists.) The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool and trying our first Pisco Sour, a very popular Peruvian beverage. It was quite tasty! After watching our first sunset over a desert, we took freezing cold showers and went to bed semi-early so we could grab breakfast before our day of dune buggy-ing and sand boarding!
My mission while Jenn was relaxing by the pool sipping pisco sours was to talk to the other tourists and find out which company gave the best (read most out of control) dune buggy tours. The tourist comment that solidified my decision was "he knows the dunes like the back of his hand and doesn't stop when he scares you...only when he scares himself." Jorge was our man. He picked us up at our hotel with one other couple and "warmed the tires up a bit" through town as we headed into the dunes. As we left the oasis one could easily see the tracks of where all the other dune buggies had gone - I think Jorge also noticed them and avoided them like the plague. A lot of the drivers would go up one end of the dune as high as they could and then upon losing speed they would come down making rainbow shaped tracks in the side of the dune. When Jorge noticed one he would drop it a gear and floor it, always making sure he got closer to the top making larger rainbow tracks. I noticed one hill had rainbow tracks almost cresting the top of the dune and thought there is no way to better that - so young and naive. Jorge made a big circle gaining speed the entire time and hit the dune head on. We got closer and closer to the top, I was anxiously waiting for him to cut the wheel but it never happened. We burst over the lip of the dune airing out as we careened down the other side. Although I have done my best I don't think words or video really shows how awesome it was. We also did some sandboarding which was a little harder than snowboarding - the biggest difference is that when you wipe out and snow goes down your pants it melts - with sand...not so much. All in all, Huacachina packed a bigger punch than expected, much thanks to Jorge.
From Huacachina we caught an overnight bus with baller 180 degree reclining seats to Arequipa. In Arequipa we are doing a two day trek into Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon but without the same steep vertical walls.