Another early pickup (5am) to reach the next destination. This time Huacachina (pronounce whack a cheena). An oasis in the desert – a nine hour bus journey but not non stop, we’ll be stopping at Caracus on the way to visit a group of rocky islands off the Pacific coast.

We all piled into the bus, I managed to get a seat by the window and avoided everyone else’s glances that got on the bus because I wanted the two seats to myself 😬. Fortunately this was the way it turned out to be and I could spread my stuff out and relax.

Nothing g much to say about the 3hr 45min bus journey apart from the two girls reclining their seat to an almost horrizontal position and I could barely get my legs under the seat – thank goodness for the empty seats next to me. Earphones in, blanket on and fleece against the window as a pillow.

Arriving at the port in Paracas we boarded a little cruise ship to take us to and around the island.

Sun was shining and we were off on our 2 hr speedboat adventure to the National Reserve of Ballestas Islands.

As cruises go it was pleasant, good to be off the bus for a while.

The scenery was beautiful and there were plenty of seals and penguins to be seen on the rocks.

Back on shore, quickly passing the wee tourist stalls and back into the bus.

It was good to see that small towns were making the effort to reduce plastic waste reaching the ocean

It was only another hour and a bit to Huacachina. The closer we got, the higher the dunes became and it became quite obvious we were driving into a desert.

Thankfully we had arrived at the tiny oasis village which was surrounded by miriads of bars, dune buggies, hotels and restaurants – it was Saturday and something told me it was going to be a wild night.

Now all I had to do was find my hotel – Huacachina Sunset – sounds posh!

Being that wee bit older I had book (and always to book) a private ensuite room, my days of living in a dorm and sharing the toilet with 8 other travellers was well behind me.

So this is it:

This was all mine for the next 2 nights. Perfectly clean, shower and WC.

And this was the wee roof pool.

I had tried to book this hotel right next door but there were no vacancies for the Saturday night and it was quite painful to glance inside when I stroll past of an evening.

So, getting a sunset from the top of the dunes was high on my list. I had to be up at the top of a dune by 5pm so I quickly changed, grabbed my camera, put on my wee strappy sandles, packed my water, sun lotion on and I was off.

It was roasting, the sand was boiling hot but I persevered. Scanning the dunes and the direction of the sun I started my ascent and quickly found I was going to get nowhere fast. Each 2 foot step up descended to 1.5ft back down. The sand was so soft and I knew it was going to be a hard challenge.

After walk for almost an hour I looked across the dunes to see that everyone else was on another mountain – there was no-one on mine 😱. Guess I’d picked the wrong one 🤣

So rather than be an idividualist, I scurried down the slope and began the hike up the dune opposite to join the masses.

Needless to say I just couldn’t make it, I was peching like an old heffer so I chose the easy option and decided to sit half way up and at least get something, besides, all the people at the top were watching me struggle probably taking bets to whether I’d make it or not.

I took many selfies on the way up to catch my breath

It was beautiful and I’m glad I stopped where I did.

After the sun had disappeared, I returned to the comfort of my room and lay on the bed to recover and fell asleep.

Woke up to the many music parties coming from around the lake. It was 9pm and I hadn’t eaten so I went in search for a restaurant but they were all closed and my only option was a burger van – I was to discover later that that was the totally wrong decision .

Bed for 10pm – listening to the clubbers clubbing into the wee small hours.

Nite

😘