The Oasis of Huacachina and Pisco Beyond

Casa de Arenas. Where we stayed our first visit to the oasis.

Well after some great times in the high altitude of Cusco, we set out to the desert town of Huacachina. The small oasis is a five minute drive from the large city of Ica, but the rising dunes all around the lagoon make it feel all the more remote. There are probably about 40 buildings in the community and at least half have pools. Our hostel was no exception and had a definite resort hotel feel to it with a pool side bar and a open air bar at the back with pool and foozeball tables. The only disappointment with the hostel was the staff who were rude, rarely smiling and seemed to make a point of not being accomodating. Not the best idea when you are in the accomodation business, but who are we to judge? All we know is that we would never go there again nor recommend it to anyone.

High velocity sand sledding.

Sandboarding!

The surrounding dunes were nothing shy of incredible and Mitch and I could not get enough of them. There was not a single evening that the dunes were not covered with silhouettes of tourists hiking the dune for the sunset and we definitely opted to enjoy the sight a night or two as well. From the top of the dunes you can see vast expanses of rolling sand mountains that not only served as a breath taking, picture perfect view but as a giant playground for dune buggies and quads and most hostels offered a dune buggie experience combined with sand boarding. Such a good time! The dune buggie ride is like a roller coaster and then it makes various stops at the tops of giant dunes for you to try your luck on a sand board. Mitch was a pro from his snow boarding experience where as I was much more so the neophyte. After smacking my head on the much-less-forgiving-than-snow sand on the small hills, I opted to ride down on my stomach like a toboggan and got to some intense speeds which I definitely prefered to the head ache. While fun, I still think I prefer sledding on snow.

Our driver and buggy looking over Haucachina.

A little sand in the shoes...

After four great days in Huacachina we decided to head off to the city of Pisco where we hoped to volunteer with an organization devoted to helping those affected by an earthquake two years back. The drive into Pisco shocked both Mitch and I and was evidence enough that a lot of work was needed to help repair the damage done. We are not too sure as to why Pisco received such little funding, but we have a feeling that the larger cities like Ica may have gotten the majority while Pisco was left unnoticed. We checked into the first hostel we found and after a short nap set out to find the volunteer organization called Pisco Sin Fronteras or PSF (roughly, Pisco without borders). We ended up finding a tourist agency that played soccer with them that very night and were invited to play against our soon to be co-workers. PSF is super laid back and it was extremely easy to get signed on with them and we started the very next day. After working one and a half days, it turned out the whole PSF crew was heading to Huacachina for the birthday of the director, Harold. Well as it turned out it was Mitch's birthday the day before Harold's so we decided what better place to celebrate than a wonderous desert oasis. It also turned out the PSF crew loves our hated hostel, so we stuck to our guns and did not stay with them. Another bonus was meeting us with our friend Brad from the Lost City Trek and our friend Jake from Montañita. It was a great weekend of reminiscing, dancing and more dune buggying and sand boarding, then back to the grind stone.

Sandboarding, Take 2.

Two weeks of hard and extremely rewarding work in which we worked to repair a playground, pour concrete for building wall foundations or floors, remove garbage from beaches, digging trenches and removing old walls, participating in a parade, and more just flew by. It was particularly easy to work hard when you are removing glass from a playground as you watch the cute kids run in bare foot, or when you are digging a trench for a family's new house when they are living in a tent on the site. I had intentions of visiting a gym not far from our housing, but definitely did not need it with all the manual labour I was putting in each day. Sadly, I had to leave today to make my way down to Chile briefly and then Argentina. After a busy morning in which Mitch and I cooked breakfast for everyone (a french toast special), I said my many many many good-byes and then packed my bags. It was particularly sad and decidedly weird leaving Mitch behind. While it is exciting and new to be traveling on my own, I sure am going to miss traveling with my buddy. We traveled five months together to the day and had an amazing adventure. From here on out you will be reading two separate stories as he continues to do amazing work in Pisco and I make my way south to Buenos Aires. We'll keep you posted, thanks for reading!