Day 29, 11/05. the Oasis Huacachina

In the morning, we booked a last-minute quad tour in the desert for the morning.

This quad tour turned out to be “driving around on a piece of private land” between Ica and Huacachina - but there was sand and dunes, and it was still fun. 😅 However, these quads were not power monsters, quite the opposite - and they had “summer tires,” not rugged treads for off-roading. So when you drove uphill, you could really feel the power and speed drop. And at one point, I really had a moment of panic: just a few meters before the crest of a steep incline, I was stuck. The wheels spun, and the engine was done. If you gave too much gas, the quad would tip forward and threaten to flip backward. 😳😨 So I slowly rolled backward down the hill. With the sand and steep incline, I quickly found myself slipping. If you braked too much at the back -> backflip down the slope, if you braked at the front -> sideways slip and side flip down. In the end, everything went well - thanks to my MTB experience 😅😅

In the afternoon, it was time for relaxation and a leisurely stroll through this beautiful piece of land. Here it was a “new development”: anyone wanting to enter the desert actually had to pay an entrance fee 🤣🤣

So I took one of the many paths up the dune away from the “tourist entrance.” Two steps forward, one step back - walking in the sand is a struggle, especially when going uphill and in 35-degree heat under the blazing sun. 🥵🥵

… why do I put myself through this?! … halfway up I turned back 😅😫

Evening came quickly. And after dinner, it was time to pack our bags for the journey to Nasca the next morning.

Oh, by the way: our schedule was really, really tight (see report from 11/4). We wanted to be in Nasca the next morning (only about 150 km south of Huacachina) to take a flight over the famous Nasca lines. However, since there was no bus service from Ica to Nasca in the morning, we went ahead and booked a package with private transfer and a timed flight from the “agency” that morning.