Huacachina - the desert of Peru

Let's review the past weeks in Peru together: We started in Lima, the capital, then went to the jungle and the Amazon, followed by mountains and lakes, so what's missing? Exactly, the desert and the beach. Luckily, Peru also has that to offer. Therefore, the next stop was the largest sand desert in South America. We took an overnight bus from Arequipa to Ica, a total of 11 hours. We arrived in Ica in the morning feeling refreshed and took a taxi to Huacachina, an oasis in the desert. We checked into the hotel and headed straight to the pool. The hotel was not exactly in Huacachina, but a bit outside. This made it very quiet, but we had to walk about 10 minutes to get to the oasis. But that was not a problem because the hotel was very cool. There were various seating areas indoors, including a bar, restaurant, and pool. Everything was built with old materials, in line with the name and motto "the upcycling Hostel". With great attention to detail, a very inviting area was created, which we could make good use of. So we did, by going for a swim in the pool. Besides the fact that we had completely left the high altitudes, the weather was also better again, with about 28 degrees and sunshine. As we were lying in the pool, we suddenly noticed this huge yellow wall sticking out behind the hotel wall. That was already one of the sand dunes. It was somewhat surreal to have such a big sand mountain next to us. After some relaxation, we made our way to the oasis and what can we say? It was like a painting. A small oasis with a lake in the middle surrounded by huge sand dunes. A dreamy view for the sunset - at least that's what we imagined. After struggling up the sand dune (you surely know how exhausting it is to walk in the sand), we were greeted by strong winds. What was supposed to be a romantic sunset turned into a sand shower like a whirlwind. It was beautiful nonetheless, just not very pleasant when you could hardly see anything. Nevertheless, we persevered and sat on top of the dune until sunset. As a reward, we enjoyed a delicious pizza and forgot about the sand. Well, almost forgot, because we had sand everywhere - in our shoes, socks, pockets, ears, hair, and everywhere else you can imagine. But a shower was able to clean off most of it, so we could sleep peacefully. The next day, Roman really wanted to go on a buggy tour through the desert. We had heard a lot about it from friends and it promised a lot of adrenaline. Surprisingly, Leonie decided to stay at the hotel this time. The buggy tour involves fast, wild driving through the sand dunes with stops for sandboarding. Roman went to the oasis eagerly and booked a tour. Gradually, the group formed and I unfortunately realized that we had two children on the tour. One of them didn't even have a seatbelt and was held by their father on his lap. Great, I thought, because as feared, the driver didn't go all out. He drove slowly and took care of the children. That's generally good, but disappointing for me in that situation. But then came the first stop for sandboarding. We were loaned boards and could ride down the dunes sitting or standing, similar to snowboarding. It was quite fun, but climbing back up afterwards was tough. I thought my lungs were going to come out of my chest and give me a punch when I climbed the dune for a second round. It was definitely an experience worth having, but I didn't want to miss the lifts when snowboarding. Back in the oasis, we climbed the highest dune in the area to see the sunset once again. This time we were lucky with the wind, as it wasn't strong, but unlucky with the sky, as it was cloudy. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a great view and were able to take some snapshots. Afterwards, Leonie cursed Roman. Because on the way back, we took a "shortcut". This shortcut was simply straight through the dune. You have to imagine that these dunes are about 100 meters high. So Leonie didn't have much fun going down them, while Roman really enjoyed it. Well, we survived - as Roman would summarize it briefly. The second evening was also the last evening and we continued on the next morning. As mentioned at the beginning, we still lacked a beach in Peru to cover all the natural wonders. So it was off to Paracas!