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Published: March 13th 2011
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Huacachina, near Ica, Peru.
After doing our time in Loki, Cusco, the next destination was the much hyped sand boarding, like snowboarding, but in the desert. We time our exit so that all our friends from the hostel come along, that made Jane and myself, Grif the Yank, Drew the Aussie, Joe English, Cass and Joss, also Aussies. Grif had spoken to other travellers who had already been sand boarding and learned that not only could we hit the slopes, but we could camp the night between the dunes and under the desert stars, with bbq and music to boot.
Arriving by bus at Ica, we all managed to squeeze into one cab, as Joss and Cass would be following the next day, and headed to Huacachina, a small village of restaurants, hostels and tour companies, built around an oasis situated just inside the desert 5 kms from Ica. The cab driver suggests a hostel, it seems they are bribed by hostels to bring tourists, we were happy enough with the basic accommodation reflected in the price, and it had a swimming pool with two 5 seater sand buggies sitting in the drive, as everyone does here and I
now want one. It also has a cat called 'Adolfo', for reasons the pictures will reveal... We head to a restaurant for lunch by the oasis for our first (of many) taste of Ceviche, a Japanese influenced dish of raw fish mixed with red onion and other stuff, cooked slightly by being marinated in a great deal of Lime and chilli, it's very good and we got quite addictive. Then we mingle for a while, walking around and pricing a few companies for boarding, laze in hammocks by the hostel pool. Later we again, head to another nearby restaurant, more Ceviche for starters, and Lomo Saltado for mains, before hitting the two for one Pisco Sours, apparently here, happy hour is every hour, and two for one, becomes four for two, and six for three. We then head back to the hostel for beers by the pool.
Day two, I'm up early checking prices at different companies, there are some that will offer disconcertingly dirt cheap prices and the mains ones won't budge, I head back to the hostel and all are beginning to rouse. The girls have arrived, sand boarding has been postponed by a day. We eat
out, ceviche again, agree to sand board with a company called Bananas who we had spoken with the previous day, and hang out in their hammocks, which make a perfect afternoon when combined with napping and chocolate and ice cream pancakes. Later, we go for a 20 Sole bbg, including two free cocktails, the conversion rate is around 4.5 soles to the pound, this is cheap even by Peruvian standards, which should have been a warning. Jane feels ill on the way home, so we hit the hay early while the others continue, the first of many casualties...
The following morning the hostel has become a hospital ward, and we gain full appreciation of the phrase, 'you get what you pay for'. Myself, Drew and Joss have all the usual signs of food poisoning, bbq chicken looks the likely culprit. Cass and Grif go sand boarding, on return the hostel owner has a bone to pick as only two of the five who agreed to go the previous night went due to cheap chicken, meaning less money for the owner. We leave the back way and head to Bananas to avoid conflict and recuperate for boarding. The hostel owner
manages to find us and demands payment, 'I will teach you a lesson in honesty', suggests that Grif go with him to 'speak' with his brother, Grif regretfully declines. He leaves unsatisfied and returns with a local policeman, in the end, the score is settled with 30 soles, as he claimed he gave his brother one hundred to reserve the car. Some of the group later go shopping with the owner of Bananas for the bbq, and we head a little before sunset.
All aboard the monstrous eight seater buggy, buckled in by a 3 point harness threatening to castrate any males should we crash, the engine rumbles and the seats vibrate. We head around the oasis, pay the 'desert tax', everything in South America has a tax, there's a roar from the buggy and we fly up the side of a sand dune. The car tilts down as we run along bank of the dune, and the next half hour is a roller coaster ride, of turns and dips, speeding over hills before your stomach turns and the buggies heads down the other side. The buggies comes to a halt at the top of a massive vertical sand
dune, the engine cuts out, and we climb down. Our guide pulls sand boards from the netting at the back of the buggy and hands out small broken pieces of candle wax. First, we rub down the back of the board with the wax then climb to the peak and look down... It's a long way down, and there are two further dunes below. The technique is to lie down face first on the board, hook your thumbs under the harnesses and tuck in your elbows. Mounting the board, we are given a push in turn, and then you fly down with your face two inches from the sand, using your feet to control direction and speed by dipping them in the sand. The start is slow, by the bottom the speed is dangerous, then come the foot prints in the sand, which turns out to be quite painful for the boys, if you catch my drift! It is amazing, well, not so much the last bit, and we head for the next one. That night we are driven to a spot between the dunes, the bbq is set up, and the ipod is plugged into the huge amp sitting
on the end of the buggy. We party and sleep under the stars, as it was a ull moon it wasn't even dark so you could see the surrounding sand dunes for miles, it really did feel like the middle of nowhere! We awoke early after not much sleep and headed back at about 7am.
Spending the rest of the day relaxing, we head to the Ballestas Islands "Poor Man's Gallapagos" the following day which is a few hours drive toward the coast. We then don life jackets, board the tourist boat and head out towards the islands. Along the way we are shown a Jewish candle shaped design in the side of a mountain, though no ones sure of it's origins. As we near the island, thousands upon thousands of birds come into view (including pelicans, seagulls and Peruvian Boobies, cue immature puns) and we begin to make out penguins perched and hopping between the rocks. One of the birds pooed on Joe's hat which was hilarious. The top half of the rock across the islands is coloured white from the bird poop which they harvest and sell for fertiliser, there are a few buildings that appear deserted,
which are used for this purpose. We then come to a huge alcove and a deafening sound like a playground with the roars of lions running through it. There are hundreds of sea lions piled on top of each other, lining the beach and swimming through the nearby waters The season also means that many of these are the far cuter baby sea lions which are tiny and were everywhere. After heading back to shore, we caught a mini bus to the main road and had to wait in the middle of nowhere under the desert sun flagging down a bus to Lima. Luckily, a hour hour later we have success and are Lima bound.
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