Day 19 Huacachina/Ica

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Huacachina

So, we caught a local bus for about 10 soles (3 dollars) versus the 35 soles bus company that we have been riding with for a 3 hour ride to Huacachina. We stayed in a very interesting hostal. I´ve noticed a pattern of complaining in my blogs, so I´m gonna try and be positive about this place as much as possible. Creeky wooden floors make it fun to walk across the room, my dad calls it rustic. The abscence of a roof over the bathroom leaves a natural sky light. The giant gaping hole in the bathroom gives you something to ponder while you´re on the toilet. Whats back there you may ask yourself, I wanna know. Trekking across these areas requires quite a bit of stretching, fortunately you have to reach for the sky to flush the toilet, at the same time, you can tone those muscles as you yank the metal clothes hanger/pull string for flushing. As there is no Television, you can entertain yourself by peeling the paint off the wall as many inhabitants have done before us, maybe even pre-incan. You don´t have to worry about those foggy windows in the morning, because there are none! Instead, we have wooden shutters that also creek. Pitter patters in the walls make an excellent track to listen to while sleeping, its also why our blankets will be particularly useful, as we don´t want to wake the tennants that could be sleeping in the covers. I can´t wait for this wonderful orchestra to soothe me to sleep.

This tiny town is an actual oasis in the middle of your cliche dessert. Apparently, writers and poets come here to get away. I can understand as this place is very beautiful. It even made it to the back of the 50 soles bill. We paid about 70 soles to take a dune buggie tour of the dessert. We waited at this little outdoor bar where I met an interesting little spider. This sucker jumped from the desk, to the top of my inca kola bottle, to my hand, and then to the edge of the desk where it descended vertically underneath the bar. I guess this is home to the peruvian jumping spider or something. I was kinda hoping the little guy was radioactive and would bite me. Go ahead and run down your list of windows screen savers and you will find a screen saver of large sand dunes, we were there. Large gold dunes as far as the eye could see. We joined up with this australian girl and a peruvian guide to sand board down these dunes. The australian was actually a snowboarding instructor. She informed us that snowboarding is a bit easier. We took our buggie up these number of dunes (of which we got pictures of) and sand boarded to the bottom. You had the option of boarding down on your feet or on your stomach. Dad and I mostly went down on our stomachs. I wanted to try and go on my feet down the dune. That didn´t go very well. Eh, I would´ve gave myself a 10. Got half way down before falling on my butt. Dad passed on the first dune because it was huge. I had a blast going down the big ones. The sand rushing up to meet you, the cold dessert wind in your face, and the adrenaline rush that came with it. I got a nice helping of the sand, and somehow got some stuck between my teeth. Eventually dad caught the hang of it as he had as much fun as I did. I might go again tommorow morning.

I think this is the most fun we´ve had together this entire trip. Something awesome we enjoyed together. Well, I have to go...I think that piece of sand in my teeth had a friend.

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