We got a taxi to our hotel on the outskirts of Ica in Huacachina, but it was dark, so we didn’t fully appreciate the size and majesty of the sand dunes till the morning. If you were asked to picture a erfect oasis in your mind, Huacachina wouldn’t be far off! The story goes that a princess stripped off her clothes to bathe and when she saw a male hunter watching her through her mirror, she dropped it and it became the lagoon. In the 1940’s it became a smart resort, but later the subterranean water source became more erratic. Now it is supplemented with water from artesian wells, and still retains its 1940’s charm and size.
We took a taxi to Ica and looked round the museum with its slightly gory displays of mummies which had been found buried in the sand and been preserved due to the dry climate. There were also elongated skulls from the Paracas and pre-Inca cultures which suggest ritual deformation and others skulls also showing trepanning, a kind of early brain surgery to relieve internal pressure. Much of the pottery and textiles have been removed from burial sites, including this Paracas mantle, with a typical motif of two opposed felines, with feet of birds and the body of a serpent. The dish also has similar motifs.
Afterwards we took a turn round the Plaza de Armas or main square, with a modern central memorial to their independence from the Spanish.
With the ochre walls and Spanish style, the square could just have easily been in Mexico! All around is the tooting of the little tico taxis, three-wheelers like tuk-tuks, and we took one away from the busy city back to the tranquility of the oasis.
The day had really warmed up, in fact Ica is the first town south of Lima where it can almost be guaranteed to be sunny every day, so we sat by the pool, watching the breeze lift sand from the top of the sand dune in eddies …
The tranquility was broken by the revving of dune buggies, ready for the afternoon run. We weren’t sure if this was quite for us, and opted to take a little buggy on our own rather than a shared one with a lot of over excited teenagers who are here for the thrill.
The engine was very noisy as the buggy climbed the dunes at the back of the lagoon and we stopped to take pictures.
The temptation is to run round in the virgin sand leaving footprints, just like in snow … so I did! We set off again, and it was very exciting driving down the dunes, like a roller coaster.
We stopped at the top of a dune and the driver got the sandboards out and showed us what to do. We went down on our tummies, and it starts slowly, but gets really fast! The buggy collects you at the bottom, then we went up for another go, and Chris was surprised when I managed to go a foot further than him, so I get to be Sandboard Champ!
The views across the dunes were quite stunning like an endless sea of sand and shadow as far as the eye could see, darkening as the sun set.
Next day, with just a few hours left, we went to Tacoma Bodega, the oldest vineyard in South America, beginning as an Augustine Monastery in 1540 and then owned privately since 1889 by the same family. Tacoma is a Quechua word meaning “black duck that walks from side to side”.
The vineyard is still irrigated by the Achirana Canal, which was built by the Inca Pachacutec as a gift to the daughter of a local chieftain. It took 40,000 men 10 days, and brings water 4000m from the Andes to transform the desert to a fertile valley. Clearly a romantic, Pachacutec named it Achirana or “that which flows cleanly towards that which is beautiful”. We were shown round and had a tasting, and came away with a bottle of Gran Tinto.
Back on the Cruz del Sur coach for another short hop, this time to Nasca.
Off Travelling Together 