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Published: November 28th 2009
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We arrived in Huacachina, Peru on the 25th following a short 5 hour bus ride. Huacachina is a very small town (approx. 200 ppl) just outside of Ica and is the place where tourists come to sand board and dune buggy (the town is literally surrounded by sand dunes). We did just that on our 2nd day here and it was so much fun! Braeden learned that it is much easier (and faster) to go down on your stomach as opposed to standing up - apparently sand boarding and snowboarding aren´t as similar as one would think. Dune buggying was crazy and our driver made my stomach hit my throat a couple times throughout the 2 hour trip. Fortunately there was only 4 of us so we were able to get in more boarding than those in large groups (for safety reasons they only let 1 person go down the dunes at a time). By the end, we were all covered head-to-toe in sand.
The next day we toured 2 vineyards and got to sample quite a selection of Peruvian wines and Pisco (a very strong Peruvian liquor distilled from grapes). The first tour was good as there was only
us, another couple and our English-speaking guide. The next tour wasn´t as good as we were put with a large school group who felt the need to pose in front of everything for photos and wander around loudly while we were getting our English-version of the tour. Our guide even apologized to us at the end as he found the group to be frustrating as well. What we couldn´t believe is that they allowed the kids (they were either junior high or early high school age) to engage in the wine and Pisco tasting - just what everyone needs, an annoying bunch of liquored-up kids! We got out of there as soon as possible.
Our first hostel was nice with a big room, clean private bathroom and large swimming pool. We stayed there our first 2 nights until yesterday at 6pm when the woman running the place came and told us we had to leave because she over-booked and was expecting a group of 7 that had already reserved our room. We of course got angry because she could have told us the room was booked at noon when we paid for it, not on a Friday night at
6pm. This is a tiny town with only a few hostels and this weekend Huacachina is hosting a sand boarding competition - I think it´s understandable we were a little pissed about the situation. In the end we moved to another hostel owned by them (they still wanted our money of course). It is okay, a little more dirty, a little smaller and only 10 soles less per night so we still feel we are getting ripped off. Unfortunately, we don´t have much option at this point. They do however have a pool and a bar that plays good music. Last night we had drinks and played ´Jengä´with the bartender so I guess it turned out okay. This being said, we still don´t recommend ´Baineairo de Huacachina´- they do bad business.
Tomorrow we are off to Nazca to fly over the ´Nazca Lines´. We will probably only spend a day or 2 there before heading to Cusco, depending on how much there is to do there. We were going to go straight to Cusco tomorrow after our tour but decided against an 11 hour wait at the bus station before catching the 14 hour overnight bus. Hopefully we will
be able to find a more convenient time to depart with less waiting time in between.
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Matt
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Hey
That pic in the dune buggy with the sun on your face and the dunes in the background...HOT! Now that I'm back in the real world, it seems like my trip with you guys was just a dream!...doesn't feel like it was real at all! I started my job yesterday and absolutely LOVE IT! Have you been getting in shape for the Inca Trail?