The 2018 Blog / July 12, 2018
So with that, I think it’s time that I tell you all the story about Huacachina, the desert oasis about fifteen minutes or so outside of Ica Peru. There’s a lot of quality content in this post as I think Huacachina might have been the weirdest, most exciting, and most random spot we have gotten to yet! So unlike all our other posts, i highly suggest you don’t just stop reading after the first couple of sentences and finish it off because I promise this will be some quality content.
Alright, so we touched down in Huacachina around mid-day. Sarah and I have been on the run non stop for awhile since the amazon so we decided we would take the rest of the day as a break and just kind of do whatever. So here’s how our few days in Huacachina went down:
· Got off the bus, and immediately signed up for the Hostal BBQ because we heard about the free unlimited booze. Upon hearing that the free unlimited booze was going to cost us an extra 20 sols, (thats like 6 bucks, yes your cheap asses, honestly prob just me) we decided to just sign up for the food.
· Walked over to our hostel, which was unbelievably nice and we only paid like 8 bucks a night for?!?!?
· Found the only place in all of the desert to do our laundry so we would finally stop smelling like a 6th grade sweaty locker room minus the axe and add some fresh monkey poop with a hint of mosquito repellent.
OH ALSO WE PAYED 75 SOLS TO DO LAUNDRY. UMMMM EXCUSE ME, WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE. BUT ALSO PROPS TO YOU HUACACHINA, YOU KNOW YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR SUPPLY AND DEMAND I GUESS,. #IAMSTERN
· I then dragged Sarah up the biggest sand dune in Huacachina for Sunset. It was a bit of a hike, but i mean damn look at this view. Def worth it
· Watched the sunset on the dunes and made friends with this man named Mark. He was 31 and a travel cinematographer. I asked him about his camera (Panasonic GH5) and we bonded and geeked out about cameras. We even helped him with some photos he needed to take up until he grabbed my bag and started going through it looking for his other lens?!?!? Turns out we have the same camera bag. Wow thought he was trying to steal it at first #wandrdfam
· Anyways, I told him we might come back up to take some star pics, and he asked for my number and we parted ways. Sarah got a bit jealous (but shhhhh dont tell sarah)
· Made our way down, and decided we’d jump in the pool before the BBQ. Sarah felt the pool and told me it was warm. Jumped in, only to realize it was colder than a popsicle on a glacier in Alaska during winter.
· Jumped out, and got ready for the BBQ.
· To our surprise, we had a ton of food, and they served us alcohol without even asking. But hey, I’m not here to complain or tell someone how to do their job, so I obliged. Our Peru Hop bus tour guide was eating with us. His name was Alex, and once he was done hitting on everything and anything with a pulse at the table, he brought us all inside and got us a round of shots and we danced the night away. And by night away, I mean till 11pm. Then we got way too tired, passed out and went to bed.
· That next day, we walked around town. Took us about 8 minutes, picked up our laundry, and headed to our AirBnB that we booked for one night because we thought it was cool that we would be sleeping in a tent. Yes, we paid extra to sleep in a tent. Check it out. Also, pay attention to that fence.... you’ll see later.
· Anyways, after getting through the gates, we hung out by the pool, put our stuff in the tent and made our way to our dune buggy/sand boarding excursion.
· Before getting in the dune buggy, this local man, Tony, came up to me and asked if I wanted an actual snowboard to go on, instead of the pieces of wood that people lie down on. I guess i look like a snowboarder because I was the only one he asked.
· Anyways, got a board and headed off to the dunes!
· Our driver didn’t speak, but really went to town on the dunes! It was like riding a rollercoaster and was honestly so much fun. We stopped about five times to head down on the dunes on our boards.
· I can gladly say that Sarah and I made it down every time without severely injuring ourselves!
· Anyways, the tour ended at sunset and we got ready for our second hostal BBQ. The exact same one, we signed up again.
Sunset on the dunes!
· Got to the BBQ and actually made friends this time!?!?! WHAT?!?!? ARE WE COOL YET? No? Oh.... okay yea anyways....
· We met and talked to this couple from San Fran who were both 31 and teachers. After hanging out at the BBQ for awhile we decided that we should actually act our age and we went out to a bar.
· HUACAFUCKINGCHINA. Yes, that is the name of the bar we went to. And I could not be more happy about it because I’ve been wanting to go here for months. We went with our new teacher couple friend and this legend named Bram who was a 23 year old student from Europe. We convinced Bram to drink way too much, but he loved it.
· Anyways, played a game of GIANT JENGA. I won. I may have cheated. But I won.
· Ran into the other tour guide at the same bar who bought us all shots. Apparently Peru Hop has budget for their tour guides to buy drinks for the guests. Wow, now that perk definitely beats stopping at “Lima’s Machu Picchu” (see previous post)
· Anyways we got tired again, this time at midnight! (Wow were improving) We headed back to our hostel/AirBnB/tent.
· BUT
· TO OUR SURPRISE IT WAS LOCKED
· UMMMM
· EXCUSE ME?!??!!?
· After ringing the doorbell and knocking multiple times we gave up, walked around the place and I scouted out a place to attempt to break into OUR OWN AIRBNB THAT WE PAYED FOR.
· So after finding a place I thought I could lunge myself up and over the 15 foot fence. (Yes thats not an exaggeration)
· I launched my small fragile half Asian body over the fence and a few meters away from our tent, walked across the property to the door to open it for sarah.
· YES, we just broke into our own AirBnB. Can’t wait to write that trip advisor review!
· Anyways, we went to bed and woke up the next morning to get ready for our bus at 1pm.
· But, SUPRISE, I got a text from Mark, asking me if I wanted to Solo Paragliding for free and help him film promotional advertising for this paragliding/ sand-boarding company. SO OF COURSE, I had to take him up on that offer.
· Met mark, then met up with Filo, and Tony who drove us to the dunes with two paraglides and a couple sand boards.
· Mark and I signed our life away, and Mark was up first.
· I remind you, we signed our life away to go solo paragliding. SOLO PARAGLIDING. A sport where you fly hundreds of feet into the air. AND mark and I had never done this before. But, you know, why not?!!?!? RIGHT. Sorry mom!
· So anyways, like a responsible young adult, I let Mark risk his life first. After several attempts and very little instruction and a few crashes into the sand dune Mark finally got flight and flew for a solid 40 seconds or so. Not bad Mark!
· Anyways, he had one more turn and I was mentally preparing myself for death. Silently drafting a goodbye letter to my parents (JKJK but not really?!?!)
· When my turn came around we were running out of time and decided it was good to just head to the sand boarding location before our bus had to leave. While I was a little heart broken, I was also pretty relieved that I was going to live another day.
· Headed over to the sandboarding location where Tony and I walked up the tallest sand dune in Huacachina and sent it down the mountain at full speed while Mark filmed with his drone.
· Yes, yours truly helped shoot and star in this sandboarding/paragliding promotional video. Feel free to check it out here!
· Anyways, after that, we just barely made our bus half relieved that we were still alive, and half confused at this entire experience.
WOW what a whirlwind that one was, but I’m so glad we experienced all of it! Now we were looking forward to our Wine tour coming up, viewing of the Nazca Lines, and Arequipa! But I’ll save those for the next post as I’m tired, and wow that was a long one! But until next time!
Originally published July 12, 2018 / See the Huacachina gallery
