Huacachina Nightlife

At night was the time when I worked as a bartender in the hostel, three days in the first week, five days in the second and third week, and six days in the last week. My shift started every evening at 6 pm and ended after closing and cleaning the bar, which was around 1:30 to 3:30 am. Often, after work, I would go to another bar or to Club Las Arenas with my coworkers. On these days, it was also normal to enjoy a grill plate with potatoes, chicken skewers, and sausages, which was sold as street food right in front of the hostel at night. Even though Huacachina has less than 100 inhabitants, it was possible to go out and party until morning, between 7 and 10 am, which happened frequently since there wasn't much to do during the day.
I really enjoyed my work. My tasks included taking food and drink orders behind the bar, mixing cocktails, serving food, and of course, maintaining cleanliness and order. Working in a party hostel had some positive side effects, which made it feel like I was not working but partying myself. To encourage our guests to drink and party, we would occasionally dance on the bar counter or play drinking games like dice games or rock-paper-scissors if we had some free time. The loser had to buy a shot for everyone who was playing. At least once every evening, we played 'Flip-Cup,' where the guests competed against the bartenders. Along the counter, one cup with a few centimeters of beer was placed for each guest, and the same amount was placed on the other side for the bartenders. After our bartender's beloved 'aaaay Selina' into the microphone, we had to drink the beer in a race and then flip the empty cup upside down. We could only start once the person in front of us had accomplished this. Since we naturally had fewer bartenders than guests, we always had to play with 4-7 cups ourselves to even out the numbers. That's probably why we were so skilled at it and won every evening, except for one.
Another special thing was that about 3-4 free shots were distributed every night. One of the bartenders would run along the bar counter and pour self-mixed liquor from the bottle directly into the mouths of the guests. We took turns doing this, so that everyone had a chance to come out from behind the bar.
During the week, the work was relatively relaxed, but on weekends, we usually had around 400-450 guests that we had to serve with 4-6 bartenders. In my last week, Semana Santa, we even had about 650 guests, most of them Peruvians who wanted to celebrate Easter weekend, so we also opened the second bar of our hostel. Unfortunately, it was very noticeable on these days that most Peruvians had no patience at all. They would half lay on the bar counter and shout at you to signal that they wanted to order something, even though you were obviously busy mixing a cocktail. It even happened that they reached out their hands towards us, grabbed our arms, or held money directly in front of our faces because they couldn't wait for two minutes. Equally unpleasant were the comments from male guests, which occurred almost daily. They would ask for your name, Instagram account, phone number, or things like 'How can I get to you?' or 'How long do you have to work? I would like to do something with you afterwards.' What confused me a bit was when guests had ordered something or had talked to you before, so that they knew your name. It happened more often that guests said goodbye to me when they left and said things like 'So Selina, I have to go now. It's such a shame that I have to leave already, but I wanted to say goodbye to you.' and I had no idea who was standing in front of me. However, this should be normal with daily changing hundreds of guests. Even when I later was in the Wild Rover in Cusco, people came up to me and greeted me directly, saying 'Hi Selina, how cool that you're here now. Have fun in Mexico later' and once again, I had no idea who I was talking to. It was even more intense when I did a city tour in Cusco and a girl asked me 'Hey, you worked in Huacachina, right?'. This shows that almost all tourists in Peru travel the same route and everyone ends up in Huacachina at some point. However, I cannot say whether they ordered so many drinks that they could remember the face of the bartender.
What also made us unique as a party hostel was that we had a different themed party every night, including Ladies Night, Zoo Project, Circus Party, Glowjob Party, Playboy Party, Karaoke Night, Quiz Night, Wild Bongo Bingo, Full Moon Party, or Game of Thrones. Depending on the theme, we also had to dress accordingly. On my very first day of work, I was told that I had to dress up as a man for the Gender Bender Night. What I didn't know at the time was that there would be a gender swap every week, and I never got a day off on that day, much to the delight of my coworkers. I also didn't get a day off on my birthday and the night before, but that was not a problem since it was during the week and we didn't have any stress, so we could enjoy the night ourselves. I practically celebrated my birthday with my friends and then celebrated again on the actual day. I can mention that on my birthday, I even mustered the courage to sing karaoke. Together with my friend Danna, I sang Despacito and survived. Besides our karaoke nights, there were also other events or games in which guests could participate. Guests could sign up on a list. However, if no guest dared to write their name on the list first, employee names were often added to make it look fuller. Sometimes, I also happened to discover my name on the list without having signed myself up, and then I could participate in games like 'Musical Chairs' or Nacho, eating without hands (having to). But it was always fun and I enjoyed it just as much as the rest of my time at the Wild Rover Hostel.