Sorry this post was so long in coming...I have been really busy studying for Quechua tests, traveling for Semana Santa, and (starting today) volunteering!!
Anyway, this should wrap up my post about my trip to Paracas, Pisco, and Huacachina a few weeks ago.
After going to Islas Ballestas (see last post!), we took a taxi back to Pisco.
The name of this city also happens to be the name of Peru's national drink...the pisco sour! So, naturally, we had to drink pisco in Pisco! (here is a link to the wikipedia page about the pisco sour if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisco_Sour)
We looked in the guidebook for classic bars to go to and found this one:
Here is my pisco in Pisco:
After enjoying our piscos we hopped on another bus to Ica, and then took a taxi to Huacachina, a tiny oasis int he middle of the desert. The entire "town" of Huacachina is basically just restaurants and hostels one ATM and the lagoon. There is not much else. But despite it being very touristy it is very charming.
Here is the view from right outside our hostel:
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| lagoon |
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| lagoon |
After exploring a bit we did the thing that everyone comes to Huacachina for: SANDBOARDING!!
Above the town are VERY tall, VERY steep sand dunes. To get up into them, you take a sand buggy, which looks like this:
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| Sandbuggy |
The ride up into the dunes was simultaneously terrifying and awesome. The driver drove EXTREMELY fast and went up and down impossibly steep dunes. You know that moment when you first start the descent on a roller coaster (after the uphill)? I had that about a hundred times. It was so bumpy I felt like my brain was scrambled by the end.
We eventually stopped for a photo and our entire group couldn't stop laughing...we were so full of adrenaline. The view was incredible as well...the sun was just starting to down behind the dunes:
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| sun setting in the dunes |
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| sun setting in the dunes |
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| group selfie...glad to be alive after the terrifying sand buggy ride |
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| Dune buggy selfie |
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| the view from inside the dune buggy |
Our next stop was to do actual sandboarding. I had not thought about this actual part until we got to the dune. The first dune was...EXTREMELY steep and tall. This picture of the dune buggy parked on it does not do it justice. I was convinced the buggy was going to slide right down the hill...
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| so steep!!! |
Lisa in our group was brave and went first....I went 2nd to last. We didn't attempt to look cool and go down on our feet like a snowboard. No, we went headfirst on our stomachs.
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| me waiting to go down and slowly becoming more and more scared |
I may have screamed a lot going down. But it was really fun! Here is a picture from the bottom of the dune where you can see how tall it really was:
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| my view from the bottom of the dune. SO TALL! |
The driver did not tell us when he was gonna take the picture so we are not looking at the camera at the same time:
After the sand buggying, we stayed up in the dunes to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!
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| Huacachina |
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| Huacachina |
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| sunset in Huacachina |
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| Huacachina and Ica in the distance |
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Huacachina and Ica in the distance
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The next day we returned to Lima. Definitely a great weekend trip!!
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