Huacachina
Huacachina was the 2nd stop of our Peru Hop itinerary and one I was very excited about. If you are looking for another interesting place to stay while in Peru look no further…The desert! Huacachina is a small village not far from the City Ica. What makes it interesting is it is built around a small oasis and surrounded by sand dunes! Huacachina is not very big and you can walk around the entire town in about 20-30 minutes. It is a very small town and I wondered how the Peru Hop bus was going to turn around.
Desert Oasis
Huacachina is only about 1 hour from Paracas. We arrived a little after lunch time and had to walk around to try and find Wi-Fi to contact the person who was coordinating the sand boarding and camping. We finally got in touch with him and went to meet him at his shop. This is where we stored our bags and got our equipment for sand boarding. I decided I was not going to do the stand-up version (since I broke BOTH my wrists the last time I tried snowboarding…years ago). I was just going to stick to laying on my stomach. Therefore, I didn’t need to be fitted with boots, Hector on the other hand wanted to give it a go and they set him up with a board and boots.
Our Group
Hector and I arrived at the shop where two other, a guy and a girl, were getting their boots fitted. We would end up joining a larger group for the dune buggy ride and sand boarding but it would be just the four of us camping (plus guides). He was from Brazil and she was American. They had met when she lived in Brazil for a study abroad.
Once all our bags were stored and we had our boards we set off to the buggies! You could see them all parked up high on the sand dunes when you get to Huacachina. If you’ve never walked on sand dunes it’s pretty strenuous! It was a lot of work but we made it to our buggy! There were about 5 or so other people that would be joining us and we discovered most of them were from the Netherlands.
Sand Boarding
We set off! It was so much fun riding through those sand dunes. Climbing up the dunes wondering if the buggy will make it. Then tilting over the edge at the top before taking off again! You just see sand in every direction. I actual wonder how the drivers don’t get lost out there. After riding around for a bit we came to our first stop. The four of us (from the shop) plus our guide were let out first before the dune buggy took off to another hill.
I actually refused to do this first hill. The guide wanted me to go first before the others went boarding down but it was so high and steep that I was terrified. I saw the rest of the people in our dune buggy a little ways away starting on a wayyyy smaller hill so I asked if I could start there. I made my way over and sand boarded for the first time!! It is a lot of fun but it is scary! I watched as the others from my group came down the hill standing on the boards, but I was quite content with laying on my board! I think our guide had competed in some big competition because he made it look so easy!
Breaking Down…
Once everyone was down, we then hopped back in the buggy and set off for the next hill. We rode a few more hills with each of them getting progressively bigger. Before the last one our buggy actually broke down and the driver had to call for help. I had no idea you could even get a signal out there! The driver was able to get the buggy back up and running after about 10 minutes before we needed rescuing. I was wondering if we would be walking back. That wouldn’t have been good because I couldn’t even see which direction to start walking in. The last hill was the biggest and the fastest. I actually got air on one of the bumps!!
After 5 or 6 hills the driver took the 4 of us to the camp site before taking our guide and the others back to town. We actually passed the owner of the company on the way (out in the dunes still). His truck had run out of gas on the way to the campsite! I’m not sure how he sorted that but he did show up a few hours later…more on that soon!
Next up camping in the desert!
