Fun on the Dunes of Huacachina

Peru – July 19

Woke up after a wonderful night’s sleep….finally!  Made my way upstairs to breakfast and was nicely surprised.  Great coffee and  a large selection of items for our “desayuno”.  We take our time getting going and finally decide to head to the oasis, Huacachina, today to see what all the hype is about.  A short taxi ride and we are there.  This is pretty cool.  Small cobblestone walkways under the palm trees fringe a small lagoon.  There are a few hotels and lots of places to eat.  We amble around for a while enjoying the cool breezes underneath the shade of the palms.  We enjoy a popsicle and then find some nice vendors selling handicrafts that we browse through before opting to hit the dunes.  We find a driver that is willing to take us on a thrill ride to the top of the dunes.  We negotiate a deal and are off.  The kids are pretty ho-hum about our adventure until we get going.  This machine is the biggest, loudest, strongest, widest machine I have ever ridden in.  It cuts through the soft sand like butter and powers up and over some mountain size dunes…..this is awesome!!! We bounce around for a while and then the machine stops at the top of a large dune.  We get out and get ready to do some sand-boarding.  First Sam goes down the hill and then Annie…now its my turn.  Whoooo….I can’t believe I’m sailing down the dune head first.  This was an amazing ride…like sledding down an enormous hils face first.  We finish traipsing around the dunes, sometimes going totally vertically up a hill and then steeply down the other side in the dune buggy.  After the thrill ride, we head back to Ica a short 10 minute drive away.  Hang out for a while and then have a great lunch at a local diner where the daily menu is ceviche appetizer and then braised chicken, rice and salad with a drink all for the incredible price of $2.50!!  After lunch,   Annie, Paulie and I head out to seek out a market just off of the Plaza de Armas .  We make our way through the crowded and dusty streets to the market, but it is not what we had in mind.  Instead, we find the most wonderful oranges at a stand on the side of the road….we stock up.  As we continue walking through the Plaza de Armas, we find a travel agency…..not hard to find a travel agency as they are on every block! and get all the details to visit the Ballestas Islands tomorrow….our last big outing before returning to Lima. We get some pricing to go to the islands, but opt not to commit to the first offer we get.  Returning home, we rest up and then off to dinner.  Paulie and I return to the travel agency to secure the deal and we are scheduled to be picked up at 6:30am for our trip….UGH.