Alison: Following our trip to the Ballestas Islands we set off for Huacachina which is a tiny place built around a small lagoon nestled amongst huge sand dunes in the dessert. It is composed of only 3 small streets and a path around the lagoon but despite the size it is very popular with both Peruvians and foreigners as the dunes are not only very spectacular to look at but are also perfect for sand boarding.

As part of Peru Hop service, if you don't have any accommodation booked in the next destination, they help you out by organising something for you. We had heard that Huacachina is a bit of a party destination so we asked if we could stay somewhere quiet.....we figured if we want to party we can go to the party hostel and then sleep at our nice quiet hostel! I'm not sure if our request was lost in translation but we ended up staying at the biggest party hostel that Huacachina has to offer - it had a massive nightclub! In fairness to our guide, he did warn us that it could be very noisy at the weekend when the nightclub was open but as it was midweek the club was closed and it should be quiet. He also requested a quiet room for us. Unfortunately we still didn't get much sleep because although our room was probably the furthest from the nightclub (that wasn't open anyway) it was right above the bar which was playing thumping music....until 5am! We ear plugged up and decided to grin and bear it because we thought it was our fellow Peru Hop passengers who were letting their hair down and having a good time but we found out the next day that they had all gone back to their nice quiet rooms next to the nightclub and it was actually just the bar staff and some of their local friends that were making all the noise! As long as they had a good night, that's the main thing!

Nigel: This place was a strange one as it looked like an oasis in the desert. You could imagine many years ago when they came across this place that they would have passed it as they would have thought their eyes were playing tricks on them...like in the movies. Although the hostel may have been the loudest place in town, it did have good views of the very steep sand dunes. The sand dunes are good for 2 things. The first is to see the sunset or rise (if you can get up that early) and the second is for sand boarding. To do either, you have to first get up to the top and that is not easy. In the middle of the dune, it is almost a 90 degree slope and to climb up there (and a few did) you have to almost go on your hands and knees and crawl up. We did hear that taking your flip flops off and using them as claws helps as well. We opted for the less harder but still as knackering route. This consists of approaching the top via the side which is less steep. After several stops and arguments, we made the top just in time for sunrise. The agony was well worth it as you could see for miles around.

The place wasn't massive and as we were there in the off season, not all the places were open and it was a little deserted but still good to visit.