Desert life and daytime leisure

On my first full day in the South American desert oasis, which was also my first day off, I spent my time sandboarding with three Israeli guests from the hostel. Sandboarding involves getting shoes, a sandboard, and wax, and then surfing down the sand dunes with the waxed board. The sand dunes, which I hadn't seen upon arrival due to the darkness, are gigantic and surround the entire oasis like huge walls. However, it is also quite tiring to climb up such a dune only to slide back down in a matter of seconds. Despite my lack of experience in surfing, snowboarding, or skiing, my attempts at sandboarding didn't go too badly, but also not too well. At first, I was incredibly scared to surf down for the first time because it looked incredibly steep from the top, and I had seen injuries caused by it from a staff member. However, nothing happened to me, and I would have loved to do it more often if I didn't have to climb up again each time. In the evening, I spent time with the 3 Israelis and Danna in the hostel bar, where there was already a lively atmosphere.
Admittedly, outside of the hostel, there isn't much to do in Huacachina other than riding a buggy or quad bike through the desert. So, during my free time during the day or on my days off, I would go with friends to the Quinde Mall in Ica, where I went shopping twice and watched movies at the Cinerama cinema three times in total. Fortunately, the cinema was much cheaper compared to German cinemas, so I didn't pay more than 7 euros for the ticket, popcorn, and a drink in total. However, unlike in Germany, the popcorn here is salty, and the most popular drink is Chicha Morada, which is made from purple corn, has a violet color, and is incredibly sweet. The movies were in Spanish, but I understood them all quite well. We watched 'El Bosque maldito' (The hole in the ground), 'Cementerio maldito' (Pet Sematary), and 'Captive State'.
It is also worth mentioning that I watched the sunrise and sunset from the highest dunes, which were both incredibly beautiful and definitely worth the effort.
I went boating on the oasis with Francisco, another volunteer from Chile, and after watching the sunset, we ran down the steep sand dune. I must say, this is one of the things that makes you incredibly happy. Running down the soft sand and the seemingly endless path downhill without any obstacles makes you feel incredibly free, and you don't want to stop running.
On the only day I didn't spend in Huacachina or Ica, I went to the Tacama winery with Fernando, a friend of my boss, with whom I had already had several conversations during work. We took a tour of the winery and learned about the production of wine and Pisco, followed by a wine and Pisco tasting. As expected, the wines were very sweet, which I enjoyed this time. On the other hand, pure Pisco was simply strong, and I preferred it mixed. After visiting the winery, we also visited the Bodega Lazo wine bar in Ica, which included a museum with very old objects related to winemaking.
When I spent my free time at the Wild Rover Hostel, I participated in the entertainment activities, attended a ceviche cooking class and a Pisco Sour class, took part in competitions like the beer pong tournament or the splash cup tournament, made predictions for football games, helped my colleagues when it was very busy or when we needed to decorate the bar for the evening, or simply went to the pool or got thrown in fully clothed by others. However, on some days, I was very tired from the work the previous day, as sometimes we went to bed very, very late, and I would sleep until the afternoon.
The only peculiarity that I could mention is that on my second-to-last day, I got a third ear piercing at our hostel tattoo artist, but this time he didn't use a piercing gun, he did it himself, which was incredibly painful and took unimaginably long for some reason (possibly because he bent the earring while it was already in my ear). However, he placed it in the right spot, even without marking it with a pen beforehand, and it didn't get infected or anything that would worry my family.

Another thing I could mention about life in an oasis is that there are often power outages, showers or faucets may not work at times, there is only one ATM, no supermarket, but there are small kiosks, pharmacies, restaurants and bars, tourist offices, hotels and hostels, and a market with souvenirs and clothing for tourists.