huacachina, peru

The Oasis
Huacachina is a great little stop. It's solely a tourist destination (there are no locals that live there), but it's just so cool to visit a real oasis in the middle of the desert.



Little Dune Buggy
On our first day we signed up for sunset dune boarding. The guy that drove our buggy loves his job and why wouldn't he? He raced around the dunes and for the most part, the ride felt more like a roller-coaster than a cruise in a buggy. We all screamed as we approached the apex of the dunes, and screamed harder as we rode the decline at what seemed like an uncontrolled pace.




Sand boarding
With his instructions in Spanish, we were a little confused with how we were meant to ride down the enormous dunes. But with a little practice (and a lot of foot planting), we got the hang of how to slide our way down the long, steep dunes. Such amazing fun. Watching the sun set over the dessert was a great way to end the day.



Wine Tour
Unfortunately our camera conked out and we weren't able to photograph this excursion. But we had a really cool taxi driver/tour guide. This is a photo we took of him after he helped us get some new batteries for our camera.



Highlights of the tour of which we were not able to photograph included:
1. Visiting an industrial sized pisco manufacturer
2. Witnessing the old-school method of manufacturing pisco
3. Tasting the wine at different stages
4. Checking out the creepy artefacts that had been hoarded amongst the barrels including taxidermy bats and seals
5. Teaching the tour guide about the nativity of the Eucalyptus tree. "No, Peru imported the trees," we explained, "They are native to Australia." To which he assured us, "Well Australia might grow them, but we have them too." We figured the best way to prove it was to explain to him that the Eucalyptus tree even came with it's own little Australian native animal, the Koala, of which was obviously missing from the Peruvian's imported trees.

Ballestas Island

This island gets the name of being the "poor man's Galapagos" because it has sealions and birds. I'll get straight to the point and declare that nickname an utter load of horse shit. Granted, we have not been to the Galapagos islands. As far as our understanding goes, Galapagos has hundred-year-old tortoises and blue-footed boobies. I love sealions, but a hundred sealions, a thousand birds and a collection of rocks caked with white bird shit does not qualify as the sister destination of the unique Galapagos islands. This sounds like a total dig at Ballestas, but let me clarify. Instead of giving something a name to entice (and confuse) tourists, call a spade a spade. And call the Ballestas Islands.... the Ballestas Islands.