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Published: November 29th 2007
Huacachina is a small oasis town in the Ocucaje desert. Once a holiday playground for Peru´s rich and famous, Huacachina now serves to amuse passing backpackers who venture here for sandboarding and rides on Dakar-wannabe dune buggies through the endless desert surrounding the oasis.
Yet another long bus journey took us through areas struck by a large earthquake in August 2007 and we saw many families still living in tents provided by the United Nations in the aftermath of the quake.
Our first night was spent at ¨Casa Del Arena¨, a hostel 20 years past its prime and filled with Israelis travelling after compulsory military duty. The questionable establishment was abandoned and we booked into ¨El Huacachinero¨, a brand new hotel with a beautiful pool and lovely rooms... only 20 metres down the road and for the same price per night.
The reason for our trip to Huacachina was to try the sandboarding on offer down the enormous dunes nearby. We rented a snowboard and headed for the nearest dune, strapping in and trying our best to conquer down the monster. However, we quickly learnt how difficult it is walking up sand dunes in the desert sun and,
after 2 fun-filled hours, we were exhausted and accepted defeat.
The following day we took a dune buggy and sandboarding tour. The buggy, which looked like a cross between a monster truck and a prison cell, was driven by a 50-something maniac, with complete disregard for human life. The trip was more exciting than a Queensland fun park as we plummeted over gigantic sands dunes, our driver choosing to ignore his passenger´s screams of fear (mine not Lynsey´s).
The highlight, however, was being dropped off at the top of the largest of the sand dunes, plywood in hand (which the brochure claimed was a sandboard) and launching ourselves, face first into the sandy abyss.
Each brave soul would disappear in a cloud of sand, reaching Mach 3 speeds and praying that the flimsy board would save us from gravel rash in places I can only imagine. To this day we are still trying to remove sand from cavities it was never intended to go...
From Huacachina, we headed to Lima for a brief stop in the country´s capital. We spent 2 days in the Miraflores area (which is meant to be the ¨classy¨suburb of Lima) and
decided that was enough. Next stop is the beach for some relaxation in the sun.
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