7th October

Today we are in a new destination, taking a 5 hour bus from Lima, we have arrived in Lilliputian Huacachina. This has got to be the tiniest village I have ever seen, smaller still than the impression I had from reading about it just a few months ago. Just two or three streets at best, you can walk around this place in five minutes flat, it is that small. And in this case, small is most certainly beautiful.

Centred around a palm fringed oasis, and surrounded by mammoth sand dunes, it is almost the stuff of dreams. It has a real "holiday" feel to it, very relaxed, and all about having fun. If I were dreaming of a holiday location, then this would probably be it. After Lima, this is just the antidote we were looking for.

The town is separated from the rest of the world by the sand dunes that closet it on all sides. Its nearest neighbour is Ica, reached by a 2 km road, so this town really does feel like it is somehow in isolation of everything else. Beyond Huacachina, the desert, for mile upon mile as you head into the Peru and away from the coast. The sand dunes that surround the place just seem to go on forever.

One of the great things about Huacachina's minute size is that the number of people there is also equally small. Unlike a lot of holiday destinations, such as Mancora, it doesn't feel the least bit overcrowded.

Circling about in a boat in the middle of the oasis, taking in the whole town in each revolution, life seems very simple. I love it here already.

For the first time this trip, we have come into contact with "holiday makers". You can tell from their clothes that they ain't no backpackers. But I don't blame them, if you're going to holiday anywhere in Peru, in a reasonably conventional sense, then this is the place to be.

Settling down to sleep on our first night here, it is comforting and welcome that we don't have the assistance of a DJ to help us get there. Nicely nicely, with ice and a slicely.

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Part of trip: South America 2009 - Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia

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