Sanddunes and Penguins - 17th April 2009

We had 4 days before our tour to the jungle, Cuzco, and the south of Peru started, so we decided to get out of the city and head south down the coast. On a combination of buses and taxis we headed to our first choice hotel in Ica. I ran in to see if we could get a room and I was greeted by about 30 drop dead stunning south american girls milling about reception. This seemed the right hotel for me, but alas it was fully booked, for what I believe must have been some kind of beauty pageant.

Nevermind, back in the cab and after a little persuasive advice from the cabbie we headed off to oasis lagoon town, Huacachina. And we didn't regret it.

Huacachina was once the playground of the Peruvian elite, but has since morphed into a backpackers haven. This gives it quite a surreal feel; large grand buildings surround the lagoon, most of which are empty. Those that are still in action are budget hostels or bars. The whole setup is extremely relaxed. Tourists wonder about the lagoon, take out pedalos, or just chill in the surrounding bars. As we stepped in to the dry desert heat to explore the lagoon we managed to get about 50 yards before someone offered us a beer. Sold. We spend the next few hours chilling by the lagoon getting steadily more chilled on Peru's finest.

But the real highlight is the dune buggy tours.

Eight backpackers buckled into a big open topped (and open sides) buggy, and off you go. These guys that drive these buggies either know the sand dunes like the back of their hands or else they're just not right in the head. Shooting up and down near vertical sand dunes at crazy speeds, and traversing at angles that make avoiding a buggy roll seem impossible, this compares to the best rollercoaster possibly imaginable. However we weren't attached to any tracks so the fear of a 100 metre sideways roll in a sanddune buggy seemed extremely genuine.

It really was a hell of an experience and fortunately no one died on our trip. We also got the chance to do some sand boarding, although not quite as we had imagined. Basically lying belly down on a semi-planed plank of wood, you get pushed down a dune. Slowing down is only really possible by bending your knees into the sand, although with the burns this causes, its better to just ride it out as fast as the board wants to go.


From Huacachina we also got a chance to take a boat ride out to the Islas Ballestas, nicknamed and marketed the “Poor Man's Gallopogas”, although from speaking to few people who have been to the Gallopoas, that title seems a little grand.

Either way it was a good little excursion, cruising around the rocky islands checking out the wildlife: pelicans, penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and of course the not-quite-so-rare boat full of tourists popping up from behind every corner. Every island is naturally covered in copious amounts of bird droppings. Over thousands of years this Guano has built up to over 50m deep in some places, and because of its fertilising qualities it became Peru's largest export in the mid 19th century, and this continued well into the 20th century. In fact it became so pricey that after the Spanish invaded Peru they even fought a war with the nearby Chincha islands for control of the Guano trade.

Expensive shit to say the least.