So where was I.. oh thats right, let me tell you about Huacachina, because my goodness what a place. This is the place that so far I have been the saddest to leave. The naturally occuring oasis surrounded by hostels and resturants with an awesome sand dune back drop is also home to some of the downright most friendly and fun people I have ever met.

On our second day there we got ourselves onto the Sandboarding/Dunebuggy trip it doesn´t leave till 4pm and takes two hours and comes back right after you watch an exhausted sunset in the desert. As we all got in the Dunebuggy it was obvious that everyone had a little of the jitters. The buggy is seats, shoulder straps, a engine that literally Roars and a roll cage. That last detail left everyone silently questioning how often that might have come in useful.. coz these Dunes are steep!!

Our driver a very nice man it turns out with infinate driving skills, had a kinda manic grin and sunglasses that stop you from being able to read his eyes all of which did not give an awesome first impression. However let me say it now Dunebuggys are straight up the BEST FUN ever.. I was grinning my head off and clapping like a special needs kid.. so so awesome. It´s like a roller coaster but without the security of being stuck to a track, we flew up and down and round.. and I´m pretty sure we all got whiplash but soo worth it. Eventually we all stopped at the top of a dune for the sandboarding experience, this Dune was so steep that even the experienced sandboarders looked at it with some trepidation and for the most part they went down on their butts and took some pretty hard falls, I took one look down to the very distant bottom of the dune and soundly and roundly stated that ´you can f*** off if you think I´m doing that´ however for those who do not board the idea is to go down on your belly, which I still wasn´t keen on but eventually under much peer pressure (I´m so weak when it comes to peer pressure .. honestly!) had a go at.. and it was fun, and the speed you get up is awesome, so the first couple of times I did board but soon discovered that if I didn´t board I got to do more Dunebuggy.. and I think I have made it clear that I LOVE the buggy.. and I want one!! (huhem DuneBuggy - 30th Birthday pending...)

When we got back to the hostel I emptied half a sand dune out of my shoes and washed the other half out of my hair in the shower. We chilaxed, got dinner went to a bar with our new friends Emma and Calypso (also known as Sheryl) where Emma promptly got behind the bar to learn how to make cocktails (Walter the manager/owner not sure which, has a pretty relaxed attitude about people wandering behind his bar) and Toby and I promptly got s***faced (turns out I´m a Cuba Libre girl if you use fresh limes!) with the help of our new local friends Julio, Jamin and Jefferson... and for the record Jamin, if your reading this.. Piscila is not a drink..its a form of torture, bloody awful! (the rest of you don´t ask, seriously.. because I´m a little bit sick in my mouth just thinking about it)

The next morning with a desert heat type of hangover we got ourselves into gear and at 12 went on a wine tour. (Just what I needed I´m sure you can imagine) we went to two vinyards learned how they make the wine and Pisco (they still do it the hard way by dancing in the grapes!) and then we tried some wine (very sweet) some more wine (possibly even sweeter) then some italian pisco, some not Italian pisco and some other type of pisco (.. feeling a bit sick now, they all taste the bloody same and that, to my mind is bloody awful) at the second place after the tour there were more wines that tasted like alcoholic skittles, followed by.. you guessed it.. more Pisco.. this time there was Pisco creme and Lemon pisco mixed with honey!! now when you start a day like that what you need to do is have a stonking big meal, inc. chocci brownie and ice cream and then another big piss up.. which is exactly what the four of us did with again our new local friends and a plate of barbequed cow heart and intestine! (not really down my street that. you know I have a rule about eating filtering organs) At the end of the night Toby, Emma and Clapsyo headed to the desert to sleep, with Julio, Jefferson and Jamin looking out for them (who by the way were all very awesome) and I bade them goodnight .. coz there was a cat in hells chance I was giving up my bed to get more sand in my boots!

Our last full day there was a slow starter, we dozed, read books, ate and played Uno, which actually ended up getting a little personal and probably a little rowdy. The next morning we left and were all really really sad to be leaving Huacachina was properly an Oasis, by name and by nature and I´d go back in a second!

Emma and Calypso - thankyou very much we had a great time with you guys and hopefully will catch you up in Cusco coz this visa thing is gonna take a bit longer that we thought so not going to make Nazca quite yet. (Toby and I are now back in Lima)

And Julio, if you ever get to facebooking and see this then you are a love and we will miss you and thankyou for taking us under your wing. And Jamin and Jefferson.. it was so good to meet you, you guys are great and thankyou for the wristband and the Piscila (even though I think it is a bit evil) and if any of you ever make it to the UK let us know and then we can take you drinking!