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Published: July 17th 2006
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30th june - 2nd July
imagine...driving up to a lagoon, set among trees, and surrounded by mammoth sand dunes!!! i have seen my very first Oasis- such is the magical place of Huacachina.
10 minute drive from the nearby town of Ica, this backpackers wonderland was the perfect break i needed from the days of bang bang touring preceding! our hostel- Casa De Arena, with its own pool and sand in the backyard, full of backpackers and a bar...the only thing missing was umbrellas in my cocktails...
ok...its no beach-side paradise, but its the closest thing ive come to the beaches i so dearly miss back home! i can´t wait till i hit the beaches of Columbia!!
stayed in a dorm with my travel buddies- Helen, Claudio and Lacy, with windows looking over the ever so tempting pool!!
So it was disappointing to wake up to a drabby and cold morning, white skies and misty. It seems that the sand dunes create such atmospheric pressures that up till midday the sun cant be seen and remains cold...so no better time but the present to test out the wineries of the region. Ica, as it turns out, is
one of the oldest regions for growing wine in South America, and its home to the favourite alcohol- PISCO. its a strong alcohol, that can only be drunk straight by the crazy old man, whilst us gringos taint it with coca cola! though i´ve learnt that fanta makes it taste like vomit- bottoms up!
We cram 6 people into the smallest cab that we can find, and winery hop! our first winery, we get taken on a tour whilst surrounded by 30 little old ladies having a holiday from their husbands. You should have seen some of them screech and moan when they get refused free wine taste testing! learnt some new spanish words that day!
The second winery, Tucuman, is the oldest winery in South America, dating back from the 1500s. Though the wine was the best that i tried in Peru, it definitely didnt warrant buying a bottle for keepsafe, or for dinner accompaniement for that matter! god i miss Argentinian wine! The 3rd winery was half distracted as we kept veering over to see the Brazil vs France Game...south America´s last hope was detroyed that day...there was so much disappointment that day with the Brazil
loss!
Then one of my highlights of my holiday- we get in sand buggies and cruise through the surrounding sand dunes. These bugguies hold 12 people, open aired. and metal bars surrounding them like a cage. Didnt realise the importance until we kept on going up hills and slam down the other side, with exhilaration, windswept and eating sandwiches, all the while feeling like your jeep is gonna topple over- i loved it!!!!
Then strap our feet on some greased up boards, and sand surf down the dunes! they started off on the small dunes, manageable and exciting, but then they keep taking us to higher points! not ashamed of it, but i took a few too many falls and ate alot of sandwhich! but its sand...how can u hurt yourself! my friend Claudio breezed through them like a pro, unlike the rest of us unco people that would fall at every point, summersault, roll down...or simply crash! that night, i found sand in places that i couldnt even reach!
Sunday was just chilled day...spent most of the day just lazing by the pool with a book...it was heaven. joined some adventurous people, Tony(UK), sarah+kelly (NZ), and
we hiked up the nearby sand dunes for sunset views. But each time we´d conquer one dune, we would find another that was higher and offered more promising views. The views along the way with the sunset layering the colours on the surrounding dunes was something out of a book! we set ourselves atop one of the dunes and absorbed the endless beauty that the world had to offer...so many sunsets that ive seen along the way, each one unique and magical in its own right.
We had to destroy the night by going to the Cinemas that night - my first time so far in south America- it was called ¨Ultravioleta¨ with Milla yankovich (not sure of exact spelling of last name, but she used to be a model). This could possibly be one of the worst movies i have ever set sight on. The automatic laughter by everyone at the conclusion of the movie was immediate acceptance of the absurdness of the movie! But i do urge you all to see if you think you claim to have seen a worst movie!
That night, cockroaches seemed to have sprout from everywhere. Don´t think telling my story
of the patient presenting with a cockroach in the ear before going to bed was a help to my travel buddies!
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