2017 Huacachina-Cusco

May 19, 2017 in Peru ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

We got to Huacachina after a short, one hour, bus journey from Paracas and jumped straight onto a dune buggy!

We were given two options from our guide, who spoke limited English, "rapido" or "despacito"... as if he needed to ask!

The dune buggies were a lot of fun and felt like a rollercoaster. We got taken to some dunes, where we got to experience sand boarding for the first time. Imagine sledging head first on a snowboard, with sand going everywhere.... it was a lot of fun!!

It was during sandboarding that Tom got to experience Alex's adrenaline junky nature, when he set up his board to go down a dune, and she walked straight past with her board saying "you can go from there if you want but I am going to go as high as possible". Of course he had to join her and go to the top too.

We walked up a dune ourselves the following day to watch the sunset, this was much easier said than done, but a lovely experience. From here we could see all of Huacacina, a small desert village surrounding a beautiful oasis.

We wanted to get up the following day to do the same for sunrise, but as the alarm went off realised that this was a silly idea, and went back to sleep. Although did manage to make it up again after breakfast, and were followed the whole way up and down the dune by a stray dog, I think he smelt the bacon from breakfast.

Speaking of which, our hostel did incredible food, including proper English bacon. I don't think Tom has ever been so excited for breakfast. The evening meals were equally as good, with lots of fresh veg, which is pretty scarce in Peru!

On our way out of Huacachina we visited the Nazca lines. Which involved climbing a very rickety tower in strong winds.

Despite singing their praises in the previous post, Peru Hop over booked their bus from Huacachina which meant their was no room for us and 6 other people. However they paid for a VIP bus, which not only got us into Cusco 5 hours earlier than planned, but had very comfortable reclining seats. They also paid for dinner and bar tab for the extra 2 hours we had to wait for the bus. Being a group of 8 Brits, we made sure we got our money's worth with desserts all round and international beers. Overall it all worked out massively in our favour!Read more