Blogs from Huacachina, Ica, Peru, South America - page 8

We arrived into Ica at around midnight on Monday night... way later than we wanted and we were exhausted from the bus ride, which ended up being a lot longer than anticipated. Ica is famous for being the capital of the Peruvian wine region and an important industrial center. About 5km from Ica is a small desert town called Huacachina, which is famous for its relaxed atmosphere and sandboarding. After some groggy decision making we decided to go straight to Huacachina because the hostels there are more backpacker friendly (ie cheap). Huacachina is tiny! Basically a couple buildings, restaurants, and hostels around a small lake (called the oasis). It is so small that most buildings do not have an address so it was a bit hard to find the hostel we wanted to stay in. In ... read more

We got to Ica at about 5ish and jumped in a bike taxi straight to Huanchchina, it is such an amazin place to see one road in, one road out and just an oasis in the middle of the desert. We had already booked 2 nights in Desert Nights Hostel and were pleasantly surprised when we got there. It had loud music playing, plenty of people eating in it's restaurant and friendly staff, the only negative was the toilets/showers that smelt like the toilets at the Riverside. We dropped our bags and went for a mooch, it was a nice little town with plenty of activities to do; sandboarding, camping, buggying, and other sand related stuff. The lagoon was in the centre of the town with all the restaurants around it, we looked in a couple ... read more

{I accidentally published this with the current title. It was meant to be temporary until I thought of a clever one but... oh well, sorry no clever title today.} I don't feel like typing a long one but I should write about Huacachina... its atiny tiny oasis in the desert, a cheap short taxi ride from Ica. I took an crappy bus from Puno to Arequipa (don't take Frael buses, they are awful), hung out there for a bit then an overnight bus to Ica. Shared a taxi to Huacachina with a french/irish couple and took a stay in a hostel they had in mind. We signed up for a dune buggy tour with sand boarding in the surrounding dunes. The dune buggy ride was nuts - like a rollercoaster but no track, less safety and ... read more

Having discovered that Soyes runs buses every 30 minutes to Ica, we jumped on one straight after breakfast... our cheap price however did not include leg room for me or Sophie. My plan to recline my chair was also foiled as this caused the base of the chair to slide forward, further cramping the legs. I decided I could stretch out in the aisle but I got stood on here by many of the hop on hop off conductors. A short taxi ride from Ica took us to our hotel, el Huacachinero, in Huacachina; a luxury hotel with a pool next to a lagoon oasis in the desert. Beds complete with duvets! What a treat! We had lunch overlooking the lagoon before Soph and I chilled out by and in the pool. One of the main ... read more

After we left the hustle and bustle of Lima, we headed 4 hours down the coast to the city of Ica. The buses between cities are a lot bigger than the local buses and are quite comfortable, which is good as I have a feeling that we are going to be spending a lot of time on them. From Ica we head out of town a few miles to an Oasis in the desert, surrounded by a few hotels and restaurants and miles of sand dunes. It was such a big change from the city. The first night we chilled out by the lake and I had a few cocktails (with ice which I think was my down fall). The next day we arranged a sand buggy and sandboarding tour of the dunes with Eric and ... read more