For starters the bus ride was a surprise..what we thought would be two hours turned out to be four, sopresa! Anywho we went with literally no plans of where to go or stay really, we ended up in Huacachina, a desert oasis about 4.3 minutes away from Ica. Friday we didn't do much because we got in late and everyone was tired. Saturday we woke up walked around the lagoon to go get some breakfast, took paddle boats out on the lagoon and lounged by the pool. Later we went sandboarding and in a dune-buggy. I think those drivers must loveeeeee their jobs. It was like a roller coaster gone wild..but not really. Sandboarding was fun, I like lying on the board more than going standing up, less sand in yo' pants! But en serio.... I probably don't want to go sandboarding again, it hurt and I think snow is way more fun.
After sandboarding we went on a winery tour..they called it ,in English, the Shit-faced tour. We went with some other foreigners to a bodega/ winery/ place where they make pisco. It was seriously like the Museo Nacional that I didn't go to last weekend when everyone else did; they had all this old armor, Incan weapons, swords from Simon Bolivar, and other old shit that they found. We "taste-tested" two different types of pisco..as in we took shots of two different types of pisco, and if you have never had pisco..it is nasty. Pachamama (mother earth Quechua style) needs a taxi was our joke because before you take a shot you pour some on the ground to praise Pachamama and some of us "accidently" poured out a little too much. So Pachamama got drunk. Also I have never seen this done before but the pisco and wine are stored in these strange clay vessels and they dip a bamboo stick in it that has a cutout and then they pour the little shots out of the bamboo stick...extrano. And then we had 3 different types of wine, all really sweet, which I liked. Then they brought us pitchers of our favorite wine and pisco and we stayed and danced/drank there til 12 and after we proceeded on to the one discoteca in Huacachina where our sandboarding instructor was there mixing drinks as a bartender.
Lost my watch, I guess I will be adapting to Peruvian time sooner than expected.
Ella has some cool pictures of us on the dunes that I will steal from her later and post.
sun sun sun
before we fell...and before we sandboarded
The only pyramid in this desert
Meghan and Indy
...after a few