Andean Explorers Day 3 – Ica and Huacachina

Hey everyone!   Sorry for the lateness of this post, commuting to Windsor for Summer work was competing for my time.   Anyway, the important thing (about a month later than I first intended) is that I’m putting up the edited third day diary entry of my time in Peru and Bolivia!   So, without further ado…

This day was written by a friend of the Great Saundini (although I have filled it a bit and doctored it – see square brackets].

We woke up in our hostel at around 4am after about 5 hours’ sleep [this was so that we could visit Huacachina before we were scheduled to be in Cusco before a Rainforest Trek - see a few days later!] .   On this occasion we decided to forego our showers since the water at the hostel was freezing, and tired + cold water = not good!

Erick [the owner of the hostel] was still awake!?   He’d told us the night before that his brother would look after us in the morning [so we were pretty surprised to see him].   The wife of the Great Saundini noticed that he was struggling with his english because he was tired, poor thing!   He had really looked after us during our time at the hostel and obviously worked really hard.   We got a taxi [which Erick helped us to catch] at 4:30am.   The driver was friendly, although, I have to admit, I was slightly worried as we turned around some narrow side streets in Lima at that time in the morning, especially as we didn’t even know the direction we were meant to be going in half the time.

On the bus we tried to sleep while it was still dark [it felt like an eternity to get out of the sprawling mess of slums and concrete that is Lima], but when it got light I realised that we could see the Pacific Ocean, which was quite exciting (the first time for all of us) and I was surprised at the size of the waves [according to the Beach Boy's surfing is pretty big on the "shores of Peru"].   As we went along though it really hit home how we were in a different continent [central Lima, for the most part, felt fairly European, but the surrounding area was largely depressingly barren hilly landscape] as we witnessed some pretty severe poverty.   There were small hamlets containing one bedroom residences [polite way of saying run down steel corrugated dirty shacks], some without glass in the windows [actually not sure anyone had glass - though some had plastic I think, but this isn't the worst part.   Many of the houses didn't look like they had water or sanitation!   Apparently, we learned later that many people from the mountains move down to Lima's outskirts to live in poverty, because people in Lima have a higher status than those who live elsewhere (as Lima and the coast is associated with the hispanic and the mountains with the Quechua who are pretty much second class citizens).   These attitudes dating back to colonial times are seemingly accepted by all parties].   The weather gradually cleared up as we got further from Lima until there wasn’t a cloud in the sky – a nice change from Lima [where it is perpetually overcast during the summer months apparently].

When we got to Ica [I'll describe it later], we got in a really cute little yellow taxi – about the size of a Kia Pride [whatever that is!], driven by a very friendly Peruvian.   He told us his brother lived in London, but that he was definitely Peruvian!   He took us to a nearby Oasis at a place named Huacachina, where he recommended a lovely hostel that allowed us to leave our bags and use their facilities if we booked a sand-buggy/boarding trip [which was reasonable considering we had this intention anyway].   We booked a trip for 1:30, which left us an hour and a half, so we left our rucksacks at the hostel and went for a wonder around the oasis.   We were surprised at how pretty and tranquil the place was [the oasis was surrounded by towers of sand and the place had the feeling of a resort.   The sky was clear and bright, the air hot and dry and the village was full of sunny colours].   There were people in pedaloes in the water and families strolling around outside numerous restaurants.   We were advised not to eat before the sandboarding, but decided to do so anyway, otherwise avoiding a really late lunch.   We sat outside a restaurant with views over the oasis.   Later on, I was glad I didn’t eat too much!

The sand-buggying wasn’t quite what I expected.   It was insane!   The driver made sure we’d put our belts on and then accelerated at such a speed that everyone screamed [I didn't!]!   The driver looked like he was having fun [he turned around on numerous occasions and gave us grins that revelled in our terror], as he drove up and down slopes that were really steep, at such a speed that we would have flown out of our seats were it not for our seatbelts  [We sat together at the back of the buggy in a row of three seats behind two more sets of three, it was almost like a roller coaster]! In front of us sat Travis and Sarah, a couple from Washington DC.   Travis was a very eccentric character with ginger dreads and his mannerisms reminded me of Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.  Further forward there was a girl called Anna-Mette from Denmark and her boyfriend (can’t remember his name! [neither can I!]).   [Following the sand buggy ride, we stopped to take some photos of our first view of the Andes that we could see from the top of the dunes.   It was really spectacular (I think No.2 in my favourite views).   We did sandboarding next, which was basically snowboarding except on the sand.   The less experienced (i.e. me and co.) went lying on our fronts headfirst down the slope, whilst those who were braver attempted to stand.   However, Sarah attempted to stand at one point and twisted her ankle and that put everyone, apart from Travis, off experimenting!]  “I can’t remember his name” was the first to brave sandboarding as he had experience snowboarding.   The Great Saundini went next [I didn't even pay her to say this, I am truly hardcore].   I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about sandboarding, but it turned out to be fun, if a little scary too [actually, I too was pretty scared at first].   We continued to board down slopes and our driver [or "draiver" as he had spelt it on a sign asking for tips] would meet us at the bottom, increasing in steepness and height as we went.   What happened when we reached the final dunes was hilarious!   There was a smallish dune followed by another which looked huge – it was so steep and long that we could only see people as specs at the bottom.   This didn’t stop Travis though, who went full speed down the first slope with the full intention of continuing down the second, which left us astonished.   It was also quite worrying because none of us knew if he was okay until we reached the bottom of the first slope [actually this is slightly wrong, I think I went down just the first slope first and Travis shouted down to me how the second slope looked before rocketing down both.   I was able to confirm to the others that he was fine, but anyway].   When we all eventually got down we saw the tiny figure of Travis making his way back up the slope [using his board to dig in]!   [We all waited at the top of the second slope, not knowing whether or not we should be going down, until we saw the small shape of the buggy emerge at the bottom of the second slope.   At this point there was a stand-off with no one fancying going down next.   In the end I went (to everyone's surprise as I am actually a wimp when it comes to heights) and everyone eventually plucked up the courage to plunge down the dune (apart from Sarah who was already in the buggy having hurt her ankle).

When we got back to the hotel, we had a lovely (which obviously means "warm") shower and then went to the edge of the oasis and enjoyed a refreshing drink next to the waters' edge.   At 5:30, the taxi driver we had seen earlier picked us up and whisked us back to Ica where we had the first of two dinners that evening in a little pizzeria [Ica was not unpleasant, somewhere in-between the business and vast depressiveness of Lima and the tranquility of Huacachina.   It had the feel of a hispanic town].   The waitress was lovely and gave us some Pisco [a special Peruvian liquor that was very pungent and vile to my senses] to try on the house [though she may have been simply trying to poison us so she could steal our luggage] and also protected us when some random guy [he looked pretty down on his luck] came in wanting to take our rucksacks [I was in the toilet when this happened - not that you wanted to know].

We returned to Cruz del Sur bus station to wait for our overnight bus to Cusco [I call it the Quechua capital of Peru and indeed it was the Inca capital.   The Spanish conquistadores changed the capital to a settlement somewhere near the coast as it was easier to get supplies to Lima].   The bus arrived late, but when we finally boarded we were promptly served dinner (which was mainly plain rice with a tiny portion of meat accompaniment we had chosen, but still), followed by a game of bingo [which we all struggled to follow as it was in Spanish and it was only our third day].   It was particularly funny when I asked the wife of the Great Saundini how she was doing and she showed me a blank card!   Luckily, I was sat next to a sweet girl from Cusco, Anika, who helped me fill in my card when the numbers were called.   [We had chosen to go straight to Cusco from Lima, which was supposed to be more scenic, but more dangerous - the more typical gringo route was going via Arequippa.   However, we needed to get to Cusco quickly and did not wish to rush our stay in Arequippa so did this and prayed the overworked bus driver didn't crash in the night.   He didn't fortunately, but things did not go to plan however, which you will see in a fortnight's time].

I’ll try to write my next blog, starting Wednesday and finish as soon as possible, but I may struggle to get it done as my life is fairly busy at the moment.   Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next part of Andean Explorers in a fortnight’s time (literally this time!).

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