Waking up in Lima we planned to spend hours on the bus and make it to Nazca in one day. I however was a little fed up of buses having done a lot of journeys in a relatively short space of time. I decided to consult the book and see if there was anywhere on route we could stop instead for a night to break up the tedium of hours on a bus. I chanced upon a place named Ica in the book which was a rather unspectacular town, however, about 5km outside was a tiny village built around a lagoon called Huacachina. The lagoon is actually pictured on the reverse of the 50 Soles note so if nothing else we thought it would be nice for a picture. Thankfully when we arrived in Huacachina we realised we had stumbled upon a little gem. Huacachina is built in a horseshoe shape around the lagoon and is towered over by stunning sand dunes. Our hostel was also a real treat as it had a lawn area with a swimming pool where we could lazily spend our time. The major attraction of Huacachina is the sand boarding which is available from all hostels. We booked on to a tour for the afternoon so we grabbed lunch before heading back to be taken in to the desert. We were picked up in 9 man dune buggies which crashed their way over the dunes leaving our hearts firmly in our mouths. After a short while scaring the whit's out of us our guide took us to the top of a dune and gave us the option of either going down on our stomachs or standing up in a snowboarding style. Sue and I both opted for the easier and quicker stomach method. We did a couple of practice hills and were then driven at the same manic speed over the dunes for the next couple of hours where we would be able to get off every few minutes and slide down some mammoth slopes. Sue opted for the cautious approach whereas I took the 'I have travel insurance' attitude and raced down as fast as I could go. On the way back in to the village one of the guys on the buggy mentioned that the opposite hostel was having an eat and drink as much as you like/can evening for a very reasonable 20 soles. The whole buggy off people and some others in the hostel decided we would all head over at about 7pm. Our first task was to hit the shower and try and rid ourselves of all the sand we had collected and then try and bash the sand out of our clothes and shoes. At 7pm we wandered over the other hostel and all got stuck in to the provided drinks, the options were Rum and Coke or Pisco Sour. I went for the Rum and Coke as I discovered Pisco Sour is made with Pisco Wine, Lemonade and egg white. After a short delay (they had to go and get more food as we had over whelmed them with people) the food came out and after the food the dance moves came out. We threw ourselves around the dance floor for a good few hours and managed to make good friends with a Dutch couple called Maarten and Linda. Maarten was actually the guy who suggested going to the party. We went to bed in the early hours with Sue having to persuade me that there was no truth in the rumours (which I started) that everyone was going down to the pool to continue partying. I flopped in to bed to awake the next day with a mild hangover which was best treated by hanging around by the pool for the morning. In the afternoon Maarten, Linda, Sue and I took a rowing boat out on the lagoon with a couple of bags of crisps and a few beers to enjoy the afternoon sun. After our rowing excursion we went to a local chocolate makers where we were given a demonstration by the owner of how she hand makes all her chocolates. She was a lovely little lady who worked tirelessly throughout the year making the gorgeous chocolates. She allowed us to taste some ingredients including grapes soaked in Pisco, straight Pisco and the Pisco left over after the grapes had been soaked. Maybe due to all the Pisco I had enjoyed we went outside and bought ourselves a box of Pecan and Fudge chocolates. That evening a group of us from the hostel went out for dinner where we had a few drinks and met a couple of Canadians. We all went back to our hostel where I was tipsy enough to get out my Ukulele along with a girl who had a guitar and we had a bit of an evening sing song. After chatting away in to the night we decided it was time to hit the sack as the next day we had decided to complete our journey down to Nazca.

John