Huacachina, Peru

At the end of April we did another weekend trip from Lima to Huacachina, a small desert oasis around four hours south of Lima. We rented a car to make the drive but actually had to postpone the trip one weekend since on our first attempt we were told that we could not take the rental car out of Lima. This was also a holiday weekend in Peru, so all the rental car agencies closed early and the buses were all full. We were eventually able to book another car that would let us leave the city and were fortunately able to make the trip the following weekend.

Huacachina is a strange but beautiful town that centers around a small lake in the middle of the desert. We say strange because the town seems to primarily function for tourism. It’s right next to a city called Ica, which is a pretty large city that appears to have significant poverty and very few tourists. People go to Huacachina to go sandboarding in the dunes surrounding the town or go on dune buggy rides. We were rebel tourists who did neither activity because we didn’t want to keep having to walk up sand dunes and felt the dune buggies were too loud (we’re very cool and young, we swear).

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We stayed at a fun hotel that basically had a bunch of big tents with beds in them. The hotel also had a pool with a swim-up bar, so we very much enjoyed just relaxing at the pool.

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On our first evening we made the trek up one of the big dunes nearby to enjoy the beautiful view for sunset and then had dinner at one of the restaurants lining the lake.

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On our first full day we drove to the nearby coastal town of Paracas to check out the Ballestas Islands, also known as the “poor man’s Galapagos.” The main attraction here was penguins (as well as sea lions, birds, etc., which were all secondary to the penguins in our book). We went on a fairly crowded boat ride to explore the islands, which were very pretty.

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Unfortunately we kept waiting to see the penguins and never did. Shari was particularly devastated and did some serious investigation surrounding the penguin situation, which included asking the waitress at lunch and asking another tour provider. The other tour provider said that there are indeed penguins, but they are on top of the rocks and so the the guide has to point them out specifically or you won’t see them. We were tempted to book another tour to try to see them, but alas we decided to leave (after going through the photos for this blog we did actually spot some lil penguins).

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Afterwards we stopped by a nearby national park called Paracas National Reserve then headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the day crying about penguins and hanging out at the pool.

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On our last day, we went to a nearby winery called Tacama. As we were driving there through fairly destitute and dry land, we were skeptical about this winery and how great it could be. However when we arrived we were surprised to find a beautiful old winery and acres of lovely vineyards. Tacama is actually the oldest vineyard in South America and dates back to the 1540’s. We did a tour and learned more about their wines and piscos (a liquor made from grapes that is very famous in Peru). Afterwards we had a nice lunch at the vineyard restaurant and drove back to Lima.

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During the drive we got pulled over by the police and had a very interesting first experience dealing with the police. The rental car agency warned us that police will try to pull you over for anything (particularly your lights being off) and had told us not to bribe them. Indeed, on the way to Huacachina we got stopped at a checkpoint and the police tried to tell us our lights were off even though they were very clearly on. This time we got pulled over for speeding, but interestingly we were the only ones pulled over when everyone around us was speeding. The police officer told us we would have to pay a fine and get points against our license or we could pay the officer half the fee and avoid getting points against our license. He was surprised when we said we would pay the full fee and accept the points, and he then went to talk to his fellow cop. When he came back he asked if we wanted to provide a “tip,” but then when we asked too many questions he just let us go with no fine, no “tip,” and no ticket. All in all it was a very strange experience, but from what we understand it is not an uncommon experience in the area.

Although Huacachina was quite touristy, we enjoyed our time there and had a nice weekend away!

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SPICY BONUS PICS

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