Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Arequipa
50-144
12
Ayacucho
40
8
Cañete
12-15
3
Chincha
7-10
2
Lima
22-76
4½
Nazca
7-35
2½
Pisco
4-15
1½-2
Huacachina
056 / POP 200
Imagine…. It's 6pm and you're sitting atop a giant wind-sculpted sand dune watching the
sun set psychedelically over a landscape of golden yellows and rusty reds. Two hundred
meters below you lays a dreamy desert lagoon ringed by exotic palm trees, and furnished
with a clutch of rustic yet suitably elegant hotels. It took you 20 exhausting minutes to
climb up to this lofty vantage point, but with a well-waxed sand-board wedged beneath
your belly you'll be down in less than one.
While not as famous as Nazca to the south, Huacachina, an aesthetically perfect desert
oasis 4km west of Ica, is a firmly established stopover on Southern Peru's well-trampled
Gringo Trail, and with good reason. Sand-boarding, dune buggie rides and good-old ro-
mantic idling are the orders of the day here. Not surprisingly, you'll find backpacker-dom
and all its attendant paraphernalia on full display - dreadlocks, tie-die T-shirts, all-night
discos, and sinewy dudes with wispy beards clutching well-thumbed copies of
Shantaram
. Yet, despite the nightlife noise and the surfeit of banana pancake cafes, the spot remains
a sublime place to spend a day or three, and a dead cert to enhance your dune climbing
skills.
