Huacachina is a teensy town just outside of Ica. When I say teensy, I mean it’s a handful of hotels, hostels, restaurants and homes built around a natural oasis in the middle of the desert. It’s become pretty popular with tourists for the dune buggy rides and the sandboarding you can do in the desert surrounding the town. We had planned on going for a dune buggy ride this afternoon, but Andrew and I felt like we had just gotten off of a serious bender (symptoms of altitude sickness include feeling like you have a hangover). We went for a little walk around the oasis and halfway around (it’s not very big. at. all.) I had to sit down. Three quarters of the way around, I had to lie down. So instead of spending the afternoon crashing around the desert in a dune buggy and sandboarding down steep dunes, we crawled in bed and didn’t come out until the next morning. You win high altitude, you win.
For some reason, I really liked these (what I’m guessing to be) old-fashioned personal changing rooms. Obviously, they are no longer in use, but I thought they had so much character and that it’s a shame they weren’t maintained. That didn’t stop the locals from enjoying the “beach” and the water though! It’s not necessarily advised to go swimming in the oasis, and there weren’t any foreigners indulging in the activity… but Peruvians were all about it. Forgot your sandboard at home? Don’t worry, this little guy will rent you one of his!
