Blogs from Huacachina, Ica, Peru, South America - page 5

Rocking into Huacachina, the name given to the only oasis in South America, is like arriving in a mirage. Suddenly the grubby looking city of Ica disappeared around the road and sand appears. As the final buildings are passed they are replaced in the distance by mountains of sand and once the windy road has passed a couple of kilometres in an area surrounded by overpowerering dunes, they break and a village appears and breaks in these building reveal the gorgeous little oasis in the middle. I wandered the lake with my gear before checking into a hostel and booking myself onto a 4pm trip. This trip was one that I had looked forward to from the minute that I heard of it and I was not disappointed. Promptly at 4pm my transport arrived at the ... read more

Yesterday morning I woke up packed my things and headed out the door to get a taxi to the bus station, after being ripped off by a whole tenner I had my wits about me this time, Id spoken to a guy in the hostal who said dont pay more than 10 soles so before i got in to taxi I said bus terminal for buses to ica si... si he said. Nice one, now I go to negotiate the price I held up 10 fingers and said 10 soles... ok he said. So we got to the bus station and I give him 20 soles... he looks at me gone out and says he wants 150... i told him to piss right off and we finally agreed on 50 which meant i got ripped of ... read more

Day 4: We joined our tour group on the morning of the 16th July after flying in from Brazil the night before. Only 9 people on the tour (so far) led by Alvaro, our tour leader. There are a mixture of English, Scottish, Swiss and Canadian, but unfortunately we are the oldest! The first day of the tour was mainly spent travelling down to Paracas, a port town south of Lima. We passed Pisco on the way, which was devastated by an Earthquake in 2007 - the place still hasn't recovered. Paracas has a population of 500, so pretty quiet, but has a beautiful promenade. Here we tried cerviche and our first Pisco sour (very nice!). Day 5: A brilliant day. We started early and went to the Ballestas Islands by boat. On the way we ... read more

Spent this morning admiring the wildlife on the Ballestas Islands and this afternoon sandboarding on the dunes of Huacachina. Scary as hell at first but very fun. More practise needed tomorrow. Met Italians,Portugeuse, English, Dutch and Spanish. They would put you to shame. Speak at least 3 different languages each.... read more

We are now in Ica, waiting for our overnight bus to Aeriquipa. There's a slight delay and we pass the time watching a Peruvian soap opera which seems to go on for hours. We stayed in the small oasis of Huacachina, in the desert. It looks very pretty but the water stinks. The hotel is really nice with a pool which I found too too cold to swim in. We were enjoying the lounges near the pool, reading under a shady tree when from above I was greeted with Hello. A couple of parrots wander around repeating this over and over. They also know the Spanish form Hola (pronounced Ola). Everyone is very friendly and last night after our dune buggy ride and sand boarding we were packed into a small car with 4 others and ... read more