Huacachina: An Oasis of Fun, Frolics, Buggies and Sandboarding!

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We arrived in Ica, a large city just 5kms from Huacahina at about 6am. We hopped in a taxi, sleep deprived (it was not a bad bus but probably the least comfortable journey we have had yet for some reason) and before we knew it we were booked into a hostel and grabbing a nap. Although we arrived as dawn broke I couldn’t believe this quiet little town was so close but felt so far away from an overpopulated metropolis.

Huacachina, pronounced Wack-a-Chee-na, is a little paradise. Not by the sea but covered in sand. There’s water though… An oasis perched among imposing, steep and curvy sand dunes is what you find here. Is on the Peruvian 50 soles note for a reason. Postcard perfect and like something from a mirage, it would be easy to get lost here. It was once a resort geared for the elite Peruvians but it is now a backpacker and gringo ghetto. With a tiny population of about 200, you can walk around in a few minutes and you will feel like you know the place for years. Palm trees line the lake itself along with restaurants, hostels, some small hotels and nice paved streets.

The oasis is not the only drive here. The surrounding desert is now the main attraction with sand boarding drawing the extreme sports fans and sand dune buggies drawing everyone who wants a bone shaking thrill. The good news is that you can even combine them! That is just what we did (no sand boarding for weak ankles Ciara though). We set of at 4pm or so because we heard the sunset tours are the best. The sand buggies are like big roll cages with wheels and seats, open engines and they make a lot of noise. Once you are strapped in and pay the tourist tax for going on the sand you are off. Before we started I was telling him to go Rapido (fast). I dunno why cos my god it is like being in a food mixer sitting in one of these things. Especially over bumpy sand! But it was just hilarious fun. I could only describe it as a waltzer mixed with a rollercoaster mixed with a bumping car. A real concoction of a day at a theme park! The speed these things can do over the sand is remarkable with their 6 litre engines. The scary things they can do adds to it – driving up steep dunes, not knowing what’s on the other side to realise it’s a steeper downward slope. John was on this buggy with me and 6 other girls and we were screaming our lungs out. I think he was laughing at us more than the thrills. The sand is constantly flying in your face because you are cruising along with winds hitting you in different directions. I think I literally smiled or laughed the whole way through our time on the buggy!

We stopped for the sand boarding and the rest of the group were all set to give it a go. John was the only one who did it properly on the first three dunes. It’s just like snowboarding basically. The girls all did it on their stomachs and that looked like fun. I wasn’t able to walk properly on the sand though so I stuck to the safe buggy option to take me to meet them on their final dune descent. Sand boarding is hard, I heard that before. We had watched a few people climbing the dunes and giving it a go and most struggled. John arrived down the final dune with some dodgy falls; a few nice proper sand boarding moves but with a sand beard, clothes overflowing with sand and a sore wrist. He wasn’t going to do it again, done with it he said. I could only laugh!

The driver told us there were three more dunes. I advised John just to do it on his stomach cos the girls looked like they were having fun doing that! So when we got to the first dune, it looked steep. Off he went on his stomach, shouting back that it was crazy! We drove again to meet them on the last one. Oh it was high, oh it was steep and oh I was glad I wasn’t doing it! It was 250m high and John looked like an ant at the top. The driver told me to tell him he was in the right spot. He hopped on his stomach and he was off. He looked like a little comet flying down. There were funny sounds at the end, he told me after that it was so bumpy and he was going so fast he almost got sick! The girls followed him, all mad in my opinion! But if my ankle was ok, I reckon I would been down there too!

Our next stop was to watch the sunset. John got a photography job all along the tour with the Israeli girls and here was no exception! The sunset itself was really relaxing. The driver noticed I was taking it all in and told me that lots of people feel that it’s very tranquil out here on the desert. The sand almost looks like clouds in places and then there are places where the ripples designed by the wind are like the sea. It is very pretty indeed.

Our final sand stop was to look down on Huacachina from one of the surrounding sand dunes. And yes it was as I thought. Ok a little touristy but still it’s not too many times that you get to see a desert with the over sought after water in a perfect circular shape inside of it. We took a few snaps (and John for the Israelis!) and took it in….

The other side of our trip to Huacachina was fun fuelled in a different way! As I said this place is now gringo central but the tourist agencies in the area have really taken on the drinking side of things! When we were walking around the town we notice the SHIT FACED TOUR advertised here and there with slogans such as “you are guaranteed to get drunk” or the like. We chatted to one place and we were given the funniest strangest talk about how much drink we would get and then a book with photos of seriously drunk people was pulled out and the staff member pointed to people and said things like “look at this Australian, she had 5 shots of Pisco and she got so drunk”, you will get this drunk too. John quickly asked her does the Aussie know she is in the book. Oh yeah yeah, she told us ok. (Probably when she was SHITFACED, John and I mumbled!).

Our first night in the hostel we decided just to sign up for a BBQ that they had running. We have been to these in other hostels and they are usually good. This one didn’t disappoint either. We got a big dinner, some free drinks and after all that some of the locals were chatting to us. The next thing we know one of them was stripping (dunno why), the girl was trying to get John to dance with her and it was all good fun. We spent the night partying with them all, salsa dancing, crazy dancing, having beers and just having a good laugh. The bar in the hostel is pretty good and it was a good night. John did decide to have Pisco shots with two of the locals. They smelt disgusting never mind tasted! I even got John to try a bit of salsa but that abruptly ended when he told me I was a bad teacher……

So the next night we were planning to have an early one because we had booked a bus to Lima for 7.30am. We were walking down the street to get money to have dinner and we ran into all the locals we were partying with the night before. It seems they work in one of the tourist agencies. As sure before we know it, we are signed up for the SHITFACED tour that’s leaving in 30mins. We needed to eat, so we ordered pizza and chips in the hostel, changed quickly. But the bus was ready to go early so we were given two take away boxes and off we went onto the bus sharing pizza and chips and getting geared up!

We drove to Ica to visit a Pisco and wine bodega first. Here we tasted different types of wines, piscos and got a promo talk from the owner. It was a bit sensible really. The next place though was not. It was like a mafia place or something. It was out in the countryside, a barn with disco lights and drunken people dancing on a makeshift dance floor (it was only about 8.30). Then we went into a room, it was like something from a horror film or something (it didn’t help that as we walked in, there was a real godfather like person sitting in a leather chair to our left). There were stuffed seals, alligators, swords, scary statues, turtle hats, cow hats and lots of these containers that looked like bombs.

Next thing we know the lads are putting bamboo sticks in these containers and giving us shots of Pisco from them. So we were told we had to drink it in a certain way by sniffing it, then sniffing it again and swallowing. If you didn’t do it right, you had to drink another. By the time we moved along the line to a group of French lads – a massive funnel was taken out and they were drinking about 8 shots at a time out of it! I really don’t know how! We then had some very sweet red wine. John was taking three, four, five shots at a time. After the freaky room for wine tasting we headed to the disco outside. We were given jugs of Pisco and ginger ale or Pisco and coke and it was all good. I even got a few salsas in with Petr (a Czech guy who was with his Irish girlfriend, Mary) and some of the locals again. It was all kicking off in the barn disco but we had to leave. We were headed back to Huacachina to go our hostel again to party.

There was a weird situation about heading back. I dunno what happened really but the French guys didn’t want to go back at first and there seemed to be a bit of a standoff with one of the guides. Anyway we all ended up going back and the night went great. We were on beers and rums and there was dancing (I know I shouldn’t have been at all on any night with my ankle but I just cannot resist). We had some great chats and fun with Petr and Mary, the French guys, some English girls and it went on a bit late……

Hangover central next morning for the bus to Lima but I tell you what if we had more time we really could have hung around Wackacheena!

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