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Other entries in Huacachina

Some crazy mothers

When Noah and I left Lima on a bus we were glad to be heading on, as we had been a little bored the past few days, and the description of Huacachina promised us some great fun. As we rode the bus out of Lima central and into the suburbs away I began to see how shitty some parts of the city are. The slums of Lima are located on the completely barren mountains surronding the city, now not only are these people forced to live in homes which consist of nothing but four shitty small walls and a cieling, but they are also forced to live on barren rock and breath the smog which floats out of the city. It appeared that much of these people's occupation consisted in selling useless things to people passing by on buses. For example, one man was trying to sell car sunshades to people in our bus, which to me seemed a little ridiculous as most people travelling long distance on a bus dont have cars. Anyway, the slums on the mountains gave way to less populated slums in the desert, and soon dissapeared all together. This did not confuse me because It was perfectly clear that the Peruvian desert south of Lima is a real desert. Not like our desert in texas, with friendly shrubs, cactuses, and desert animals, but the real desert, completely barren stretches of dirt and sand. This actually continues until you reach the town of Ica, which looks like the land of Canaan after a hot windy trip. Now very few backpackers actually stay in Ica as only 8 km away is one of the hottest tourist spots in Peru: Huacachia.

I didnt mean that Huacachina was a popular tourist spot, i actually meant that the place is hotter than hell. Its an oasis located in what looks like an endless sea of sand dunes, and as it is right in the middle of the desert it is HOT. It is a good backpacker place too though, as tons flock there for the same reason that we did: sandboarding. Now sandboarding is basically snowboarding except on sand, with a wooden board that is extremely difficult to steer, its fun but more on that later.

Huacachina's location actaully lends itself to some beautiful and mezmoring scenery. If you take a short hike up to the top of a dune nearby you get to see on one side the small lagoon surronded by trees and the three hotels and three restaurants in the town (which is pretty), and on the other side nothing but giant dunes for as far as you can see. I'm not sure whether its the fact that you get really tired hiking up a sand hill or whether there is something about seeing endles sand, but once you get up there you really dont want to do anything but continue to stare. It was a feeling of peace and contentment that I think people rarely feel, and I felt like I had no more desires( as I was doing the one thing i really wanted: staring). Unfortunately thats not entirely true, becuase you eventually get hungry and have to come down to eat.

The next day I was suffering with some digestive problems, and had to take a medicine that warned me to stay out of the sun. So, I was forced to lay in a hammock for several hours in the shade until mid afternoon, which was not too bad. At mid afternoon, noah and I were finnally able to do what it is we came for: sandboarding.

We were loaded into a  9 seater dune buggy, with 7 other excited tourists and whisked out into the desert. As we approached the dunes our driver started to speed up, and I suddenly realized that most of the excitement might be just in driving out there. The  driver drove as fast as he could up and down steep dunes, swerving and skidding in the loose sand, and generally tearing ass through the desert. At several points the ride down the dunes were so steep that I felt as if I was riding a roller coaster, except a better one that was unpredictable as the driver was completely unpredictable and thus we had no idea if we were about to go down a hill, skid, or veer up a dune. When we arrived at our desitnation, just a small dune, we were handed wooden boards, instructed to get them greased and then told to sandboard. So with no real idea of how to sandboard, I strapped the board to my feet and headed down the hill. Here's how sandboarding works, to get moving fast you basically have to just go straight down; you'll slide along the top of the sand at an incredible rate, but you risk taking a horrible spill. On the other hand if you try to control your rate by making shallow turns you end up falling or stopping, so the best bet is to go straight for as long as possible then try to control your fall with a turn right at the last minute. As you get better and better (and braver and braver) it gets more fun, so its lucky that the drivers take you to a progression of hills.The first is small and slow, but the last is a massive drop that dwarfs even Noah. If I could properly describe it, I would, but if I can I will add a good picture that noah took to give you some perspective. Anyway, all in all it was a blast, even though our driver  was so crazy that him in the middle of nowehere made columbian drivers in a crowd  look less likely to crash into something.

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