Ica and Huacachina - Boarding in the Sand

After having some difficulties finding a computer, I am finally online again and can share my trip to Ica and Huacachina with you.

From Paracas I went by bus to Ica, which took approximately 2 hours. This time I sat on the first level because I had met some other German before with whom I wanted to sit along the journey. I realised that on the busses there were two classes and that the seats in the lower level were even a bit better than the ones on the top. Good to know that I had booked the full luxury. hehe... but now some more about my time in Ica. I arrived in this city with roughly 250mio inhabitants in the evening and had my first 'Lomo Saltado', which is one of THE typical Peruvian dishes. It consists of stir fried meat - usually beef, sometimes chicken - alongside many vegetables like red onions, tomatoes and capsicum. It is all nicely marinated and served with rice and French fries - yes it is very typical for Peru to have rice and fries or rice and pasta or pasta, rice and potatoes in the same dish. Yes, Peruvians do love carbohydrates! hehe

The next morning I went to Huacachina, which is a small tourisitic village near Ica with a lagoon surrounded by massive sand dunes. This place looks like drawn by some artists and not natural. Simply amazing. Then my trip to the sand dunes started. We took some quads to go up and down the sand dunes. It was like being on a rollercoaster. Thrilling but lots of fun! At times, we stopped and got sand boards (like snowboards) and went down the dunes. Mostly on our bellies since the straps didn't stay closed once attached to the feet. Oh well... anyhow lots of fun. We were lucky that our guide only let us walk up the dunes three or four times. On the steeper dunes, we only went down once and he picked us up with the quad. Lucky us. At last, we watched the sunset over the dunes, which was again a highlight of the day.

Back at the hostel I was completely worn out and overwhelmed from the day and went straight to bed, before travelling to the next destination Nasca the following day.