Huacachina and up north

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Huacachina is an oasis, literally.
We were so excited about this, specially since we've never been to a real oasis before.
The thing is though, it lies only 5 km (or so) outside of Ica and the paved roads goes right next to it.
But, nevertheless it feels like you really are in the middle of the desert.
It has a very nice surrounding, it's quiet and there are different options to keep you occupied during the day.
We decided to jump straight into what we wanted to do there.
So, first we went on a Pisco-tasting tour at a local winery.
The Pisco wine, spirits and so on are famous throughout whole Peru.
The guide we had, was actually a little bit more interested in practicing his English than telling us about the wine production. At one point he asked us for the correct lyrics to "I'm a believer". He said he loved Shrek!?
Anyways..
We got to taste a lot of wine that day! And as a matter of fact it grew on us.
The first couple of sips wasn't all that, but since this was wine-tasting Peruvian style we didn't have a bucket to spit in.
Needless to say, we drank quite a bit!
After this somewhat weird experience, we were off to our hostel again.
We had to get ready for the next thing on our list; a dune-buggy ride in the dunes, to do some sand-boarding.
We got the front seats, and the best view! Blame it on the wine (pointy elbows)..
The sand-boarding was actually a lot of fun. We weren't going at it snowboard like, but instead we were laying belly down on them.
Sometimes the "slopes" were really steep, which means that we got some good speed down the hillsides!
The day after, we went on a tour out to the "Ballestas Islands" which is a national reserve with protection of thousands of seabirds, sea lions and some penguins.
This area played an important role in the Peruvian economy in the mid 19th century, as the "guano" (bird droppings) were exported to Europe for use as fertilizer.
Besides this, on our way to the islands we passed "La Candelabra" (a Nazca like formation which is etched into a hillside). Nobody knows who made this or why, and it's been there for centuries. A real enigma that is!
It's about 200m high and it can be seen from as far away as 19km.
Well, that's it for the facts!
Our journey from here went up to Lima, where we did a little shopping and drank some good Starbucks coffee. FINALLY!
And then we went further north to Trujillo, to look at some ruins and excavated pyramids.
If you aren't specially into these two things, I would recommend not going here!
It's a really shitty town, and besides quite a struggle to get away from.
Actually, we hated it.
This is also the first place we've felt unsafe on our travels. People are trying to screw you over everywhere, and they're a little bit unfriendly there.
So, we did our things saw some buildings, ruins, pyramids and got away as soon as we could.
We wanted to reach the sea, and get some real beach life. So, we headed up north to Mancora.
To sum this up for you;
Sun, sun, sun, stomach problems - a setback of two days.
Riot in Ecuador with "kidnapping of the president" - another setback of two days because the border was closed.
And a little bit more sun!..
Ecuador next..

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Photos

Photo 7
Going down really fast!

Photo 16
all bruised up and full of sand

Comments

[steve]

that looks like good fun