huacachina dunes

view from our room ------------pisco (local grape alcohol) fermentation jars

huacachina oasis ----------------------sandboarding at sunset

huacachina is an oasis town not far from ica. when i say it´s an oasis, i really mean it. one minute you are cruising along the panamerican ¨highway¨surrounded by sand dunes, the next you stumble across palm trees and a lake. the moment we landed in lima, we got onto a bus this side.

we stayed in the oasis (of course!!) with honey-coloured dunes surrounding us, that we befriended with a sand board. it was loads of fun riding but super tiring climbing back up. we spent a few hours messing around until the sun set and the night chill sent us packing.

believe it or not - there are also wine estates. ok, perhaps ¨estate¨is somewhat of an exaggeration. it was more of a farm, an 150 year old farm that still produces wine and pisco-induced wine, the artisanal way. the tour was extremely interesting and of course the tasting, not too bad either. although we were a tad disappointed that it was pisco that we were tasting and not the wine that the ¨estate¨ was ¨famous¨for...

i did not realise that central and south america would be so different. it does not only concern the landscapes but also the comedors. this must be the only place (so far) where customers actually can order 2.5l of coke, or other sugary soft drink, and drink it in the restaurant! so it is quite the norm to spot an over-sized plastic bottle on the table. not only did this amaze me, but also the price of a meal. often a full-on meal of a starter and main would cost the same as a packet of m&m´s! i´m not kidding!! something must be seriously wrong here...

needless to say, a fantastic introduction to peru!

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A peine arrivé sur Lima, on prend un bus en direction de huacachina, petite oasis perdue au milieu du désert. Quelle surprise en sortant de Lima de découvrir ces grandes étendues désertique le long de la cote pacifique !! De plus, je ne m´attendais vraiment pas a trouver un pays aux infracstructures si développées. En effet, le bus est vraiment comfortable, ce qui nous change radicalement du chicken bus du Guate...

Huacachina est une petite ville construite au milieu d´une oasis. Elle est entourée de dunes de sables et du haut de ces dunes, les désert s´étend sur des kilomètres. Pas grand chose a faire sinon de se reposer, de gouter a la cuisine locale qui s´avère assez différente du Guate : pas mal de fruits de mer, souvent accompagnés d´haricots blancs typique de la région.

Les dunes nous offrent l´occasion de s´adonner au sand boarding. Par contre, par opposition au snow boarding, il n´y a pas de remontées mécaniques, aussi, après deux ou trois remontées, l´enthousiasme initial en prend un coup et la session de sand boarding se transforme rapidement en séance d´observation du désert et du coucher de soleil sur les dunes tout en essayant tant bien que mal de récupérer son souffle.

De plus, on a pu visiter une vieille fabrique artisanale de pisco, alcool local a base de raisin fermenté. Apres la visite, on a meme droit a une degustation des differents types de pisco produits (pisco jeune, pisco vieux, pisco amer). Cette degustation ne me laissera pas indifferent, en effet, a midi sous un soleil de plomb, les effets du pisco sont plus ou moins immédiats, si bien que le reste de la journee consistera principalement en une grosse sieste.