Huacachina, Peru

Huacachina is designed for tourism and does a good job:

This is the view from our room, which is $20 a night. Total. During the day there is  dry heat, around 80f, but it cools off after 4pm. Our hostel is called "Bananas", and mostly has dorm-style bunk-filled rooms.. We ended up with the grand master presidential suite for an extra $0.65 each per night. 

Huacachina is an oasis.. We aren't sure if its real or if it was created for tourist purposes. Either way, its pretty.

Yesterday after arriving from Paracas, we relaxed and swam in the pool, and ended up buying a bottle of rum to save money at the bar. Last night we went out to dinner and had chicken with rice. So far the ceviche has been the best meal, but the chicken filet con papas y arroz is the local especialidad and that's been good as well. 

Today I woke up late.. really late. Marcela woke up on normal time and relaxed in the morning coolness until I finally got up.  There are hammocks and a pool, so we took full advantage and swam again, played cards, and read all day until our sand-buggy reservation at 4:30. Very relaxing. 

Speeding out of town was absurd. The engines on these things are very powerful (american v-12) and our driver had fun tearing through the streets of Huacachina on our way to the dunes. There was no shortage of screaming and hard turns. Our Australian friend from Paracas had the same driver, who he described as a mixture of the planet of the apes and mad max:

Wish I had a better picture of him. On the way back he stopped us to help a broken down guide/buggy. He was instantly under the hood with an adjustable wrench schooling the younger guide... And when he came back he was bleeding from his head a bit. I told him "hay sangre en tu cabeza" (there's blood on your head) and he gave me a look like "so?". He started our buggy and zoomed off.

During the buggy trip, we went over the crests of dunes and down the absurdly steep opposite sides, went sand-boarding, and had a blast. We took a bunch of pictures:

The classic view of Huacachina. We had a great time on the buggy ride, and equally enjoyed showering afterwards to get the sand out of all of our surfaces and holes. :D

Tomorrow we are taking an early bus to Nazca to see the "amazing" Nazca lines.. We aren't really overwhelmed with excitement but figure it's a good place to stop for the day on the way to Cusco. (2.5hrs to Nazca, 15hrs more on an overnight bus to Cusco, and we got row 1 on the top floor again!) hasta entonces mis amigos!