Huacachina Oasis, Peru

Huacachina is a little city in southern Peru, one hour from the Pacific coastline. The city is basically an accumulation of hotels and restaurants around a blue-green laguna enclosed by huge sand dunes. An antique picture for the city is featured on Peru´s 50 bottoms bill. Its interest to tourists is three-fold: the novelty and beauty of a dry desert with huge sand dunes, as well as the opportunity to sand board and also to drive in four-wheel-drive dune buggies that cruise up and down the dunes at break-neck rates. Town depends completely on tourism; since many visitors tend to be foreigner tourists.

Legend promises each year a mermaid residing in the laguna takes one man. The shortcoming of particular Peruvians to swim seems a more most likely description of yearly drownings. People speculate that the cause of the frequent drownings is swimmers muscles cramp when the heated water at the top of the oasis blends with cooler liquid below.

There are now new direct buses to Huacachina from Cusco, Arequipa, Nazca, Paracas and Lima labeled as Peru Hop. They may be able enable you to get straight to Huacachina, and tend to be really the only coach company that can do this, various other bus companies take you to definitely their particular terminals in Ica. Peru Hop includes hotel/hostel pick-ups and drop-offs.

You could arrange a shared shuttle/bus from other locations such as Paracas, generally through your hostel or a traveler agency.

Dealing with Ica from Lima, many coach businesses including Cruz del Sur and Soyuz have actually frequent trips along the way.

This oasis is various kilometers from the bustling town of Ica. There are not any longer municipal bus routes to Huacachina, but it is possible locate taxis throughout the day (8/10 bottoms a good way) as well as night (10/12 soles one of the ways) although be warned that many taxi motorists benefit payment using the hostels and certainly will usually tell you hostels are full whenever indeed this is simply not true, and they will try to sell you every tour possible on this trip from Ica. Use the registered authoritative taxis assure your safety.

If coming into Ica from Nazca, Arequipa or Cusco, ask the driver to let you off at "desvió Huacachina" or "cruce Huacachina" - the switch off is before the center of city/bus channels and getting off here could save you money and time.

Get around[edit]

The town is incredibly small, and site visitors can walk in one end to a different within a few minutes.

Taxis are widely used to travel from Huacachina to internet sites in Ica, and moto-taxis may be used within Ica to affordably visit areas being too much also go. Most taxis charge 2.5 or 3 bottoms for trips from a single area inside town to another. Many taxi-motos charge 1.50 bottoms, making it a very cheap way to circumvent.

View the sunset through the rim of dunes. Amazing colours and views. You can easily walk up the sunrise but be cautious as there are not any marked routes.

Sandboarding and dune buggy rides are the main destinations in Huacachina.

In Ica:

Tours of this Bodegas and Wineries: in Ica you will find about a zillion various bodegas and vineyards that produce pisco and nice burgandy or merlot wine. These bodegas range from the little family-run "artesanal" bodegas to huge industrial bodegas supplying the complete country with pisco and export to Europe in addition to US. Perhaps the best artesanal bodega is "Catador" in addition to best manufacturing bodegas are likely "Tacama" and "Vista Alegre"-

Galleries:

There's two galleries in nearby Ica, although one that's of many interest to visitors is probably the archaeology museum, el MUSEO LOCAL DE ICA. The museum is filled with clay pottery, mummies, and trepanned person skulls (skulls that have had holes drilled into them for medical factors, whilst person ended up being live) and fabrics from various indigenous groups which have lived in the Ica area for many thousands of years. The dried out sand through the desert preserves the bodies and materials in impressive problem. The museum costs 10 soles, and it is well worth a visit although superior galleries are available in Lima, Arequipa, plus the north of Peru.

Another museum is hardly ever open since the building it really is situated in, and its own displays, in which heavily damaged during a 2007 quake. It is the Museo de Piedras Grabadas, the museum of recorded stones. It really is a big assortment of round, smooth stones with images of seafood, dinosaurs, and folks carved to them. The creator for the museum claims these are typically thousands of years old, but almost all experts hold a skeptical opinion associated with the stones and strongly think they truly are contemporary hoaxes. It is really not recommended to see this museum because to do this aids systematic hoaxes and it is a waste of income.

• The Lagoon - during the lagoon it is possible to employ paddle ships or row boats. Its additionally feasible to swim inside lagoon.

• Walking toward the surface of the dunes - Soak up the views at top of the sand dunes for a rewarding, however tiring experience. It will take as much as one hour, dependent on physical fitness (and which dune you decide on!). The views of both lagoon and city itself tend to be spectacular, and of course the moving sand dunes on the horizon. Simply take a camera, many liquid and a scarf or something like that to guard eyes/camera equipment from the wind swept sand at the top. Particulary gorgeous at sunset.

Here activities are best done as part of a systematic tour. There are several reputable agencies in Huacachina.

• Dune buggy trips - Considered by many is many interesting activity in Huacachina, followers of adventure activities and rollercoasters will find that taking a dune buggy ride is a vital part of a trip to south Peru. Rides can be obtained...