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Published: October 16th 2015
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2015-10-08 20.48.41
Dune behind the hotel Huacachina is a desert oasis near to the city of Ica.
How I got there: Peru hop 2hrs from Paracas, Pick up & drop off at the hostel.
Where I stayed: Casa de arenas, triple room S/.30 - we didn't have much choice of accommodation this night as we arrived on the Thursday of a public holiday which meant the town was packed out as a lot locals from Lima head here for the long weekend.
What I did: Dune buggy ride & sandboarding S/.50
Due to the holiday they tried to cut our 2 hour buggy ride to 1hr but Francisco our guide managed to get them up to 1.5hrs if we started at 5pm instead of 4. The dune buggy ride was awesome! It was so much fun I would highly recommend doing it & the sandboarding was pretty cool to as it was something I had never done before.
We then had a BBQ at another local hostel for S/.30 which had a salad/bread buffet, chicken, burgers & sausages. I skipped the sausage as they can't make a good one other than chorizo out here
but the burger was ok & the chicken was really nice. You also got "all you could drink" rum & coke, vodka orange or Pisco sour.
After a group of us decided to play ring of fire. I was on "team rum" not wanting to pitch in for Vodka & between 7 of us we got through 2 bottles of rum. After the dutch gang (Yvette, Helena, Marco, Coen, Rene & Jorgen) & Sarah decided to hit the nightclub that was in our hostel. After all we weren't going to sleep with that going were we?!? I got to bed at about 4/4:30am... I also had the most horrific hangover the next day I could barely even manage breakfast, so grim.
*
Top tip: When you have an 18hr bus journey it's best not done on a hangover*
Other than sitting around sunbathing by the oasis or having a look around the market, which I managed to do both in the morning before I left, there is really not a lot to do in Huacachina but it's a nice nights stop for a bit of an adrenaline rush.
We left Huacachina at 1:30pm and went to a Pisco tasting (free tour included) - although I didn't sample most of the others didn't look too impressed either.
From the pisco tasting we travelled to the Nazca lines viewing towe, which took about 2.5hrs (& I got some much needed sleep!)
This was another free tour but I think it only cost a few soles to do anyway. You get to see 2 lines (the tree & the hand/frog) they Nazca lines are of interest as they are such shallow drawings which have not been affected by erosion or any other natural force & they can only be seen from above. No one knows how, why or who by the drawings were done.
Although I appreciated going up the platform & I didn't fancy the journey I'd of had to do to get a flight on my own I think for the full effect you really need to go up in a plane to view the lines.
Where I went next: After a dinner stop in Nazca it was in for the long haul as we went overnight to Arequipa!
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