Have you ever hurtled through sand dunes at nearly 50 miles per hour, down near vertical drops and up gravity defying peaks?
No, nor me, until this week.
I hadn't even heard of Huacachina until about a week ago, when Brazilian Lilian told me I should visit it and showed me a picture on her camera of this almost-too-picturesque-to-be-real oasis of water in the desert.
I decided to head south of Lima and go there, as a midway point between the capital and Arequipa. I'm so glad I did.
After a short taxi ride from the bus station at Ica, with a gregarious driver named Eduardo who spent the 15 minute journey telling me all about his sexual conquests with various European girls, I arrived at the Huacachinero hotel where I met English couple James and Sarah (who I'd spent time with in Mancora and Lima).
Huacachina was just a small lake in the 1930s, and then some wise Peruvians decided it would be a good idea to build around the lake. It's now a small, welcoming little village housing a few shops, a few hostals and hotels and some decent restaurants.
You can walk round the lake in 20 minutes, and the village streets in about the same time. Sleepy is probably a good word to describe it:
After a steaming night in the packed 10-bed dorm (featuring one small window for ventilation and a pair of unidentified odious feet) I woke early, headed to reception and upgraded to a private room - the first of my South American trip. Aaaand relax.
The hotel was perfectly designed, with a great pool lying at the foot of an enormous sand dune. Here´s my Judith Chalmers pose:
With a pool like that, it wasn't hard to plan my day. Sit by the pool, occasionally dive in to cool down, occasionally order some iced lemonade, occasionally play with the parrots:
This was another first for me: face-to-face and arm-to-talon contact with the friendliest parrots you're likely to meet (though admittedly you don't meet that many parrots).
They were amazing things. Completely tame, willing to have a chat (as long as the chat consisted of saying 'hola' to each other) and happy to walk up and down your arm, on to your shoulder and generally pass the time of day with you.
The two green ones did have a stunning blue friend, but he was a few marbles short and stayed up in the tree all day squawking to himself.
At 5pm, the real reason for my visit to Huacachina had arrived. It was time to head into the dunes.
Tim and Mindy, a friendly couple from Canada, accompanied me on a 'private' tour in a four-man buggy. Most people go on bigger buggies with bigger groups, but we fancied spending the extra couple of quid to use a zippier version:
Our driver Jesus looked like one of the baddies from The Wire, silver teeth sparkling in the evening sun and a glint in his eye that told you he'd led a full life. Perhaps not all of it in innocence.
But he also had a great smile, was really friendly, and drove like a maniac. Perfect.
We bolted away from the Huacachina lake like shit off a shovel. Apologies for the probably unneccessary use of that phrase, but it was real G-Force-sucking-your-head-back-into-the-headrest speed. Straight away the three of us had massive grins on our faces.
We zoomed through the massive dunes, sometimes tearing across open plains with incredible views of Ica below us, and other times building up speed before ascending steep banks of sand.
And what goes up, must come down. Most of the drops were unseen, but you knew what was coming. Climbing slowly, slowly to a dune peak, with only the yellow sand and blue sky in vision, we crawled over the top and then plunged down the other side, screaming as we went.
I haven't had such fun since an epic rollercoaster session at Thorpe Park in the '90s.
I've put a video on Flickr which doesn't really do it justice, but you'll hopefully get the idea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26607248@N08/5551118615/
After 20 minutes of driving we stopped for the first of three sandboarding slopes that we were going to tackle.
You like the science boffin goggle look?
One by one, Jesus waxed our boards, gave us instructions to keep elbows in and legs out, and sent us on our way. It was exhilarating. Lying less than an inch from the sand and travelling at serious speeds, I wanted each run to last a lot longer than the 5-10 seconds that they did.
Here's another video that Tim took of me heading down the dune: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26607248@N08/5551756196/
Having more fun than the kids in Pat Sharp's Funhouse (and apologies if you don't get the reference, but it's my blog and Pat Sharp's Funhouse has always been the nirvana of fun in my head), we then had another speedy drive over to watch the amazing sunset:
A great final drive back to Huacachina, at one point in the middle of a sandstorm, was the perfect way to end a memorable couple of hours. I could have done it for a couple of days, it was that good.
The same night, the hostel across the road was throwing a party, so me and a couple of Swedish lads went along. It turned a bit boozy, as parties tend to do, and we had a great time mixing with other backpackers and locals.
The problem was that it was 2-for-1 on drinks all night, and when that happens - and the drink of choice is Pisco Sours - then you start wearing silly hats, allowing stars to be stuck on your face, and going swimming at 4am.
You only live once, etc.
So that was Huacachina. A little oasis of fun, relaxation and the best adrenaline rush I've had in a while.
I'm now in Arequipa - more of which in the next post - and am doing a 3-day trek in the Colca Canyon tomorrow. My guidebook says it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Now that's deep.
Here are some more pics:
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| Not a bad spot to spend a couple of days |
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| Our wheels |
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| Sunset in Huacachina |