Oasis in Huacachina, Peru

About a 3 hours drive south of Lima is Huacachina! If you don’t know what Huacachina is, you’re in for a real treat! Come along as I share our adventures on a dune buggy and sandboarding.

Huacachina is a few hours drive south of Lima and just outside of Ica. It’s a unique desert oasis located in a country known for the Andean mountains. In the center of town is Laguna Huacachina which is a spring feed lagoon. There’s only one road in so it’s easy to spot everything as you ride through the town. It’s full of leafy palms, hotels, restaurants, and discos.

The main attraction are the amazing dunes surrounding the town. Dune buggy rides and sand boarding is where the fun is! It’s simple to hop on a dune buggy by walking to the entrance of the park and finding a guide….trust me they’re everywhere trying to sell you a ride! We found one for our group of 8 and we were off! We rode around the dunes into the sunset and marveled at how the sky constantly changed colors, reflecting off the sand. It was a beautiful way to end the evening. Buggy tours are around 20 soles per person ($5USD).

We stayed in El Huacachinero hotel. It was a relaxing hotel with a nice pool and free breakfast in the morning. Each room had air conditioning which is a blessing in a desert town because it was hot! The rooms were clean, and the beds were comfy. Checkout was at noon, so we scheduled a late checkout with one of our rooms for us to store our bags. This allowed us to venture into the dunes once again the next morning and shower when we returned. (Click pic for link to hotel)

The next morning, we hailed another dune buggy to tour around and finally get some sand boarding in! I was the only person in our group that had sand boarded before so I was super excited for the others to join in on the fun! Our guide raced up and down the dunes in the buggy; it was like an epic roller coaster ride! We started our sand boarding at a medium level dune to let everyone try it out. We all decided to slide down on our stomachs, headfirst! We got some major speed going and because we are all adventurous, we headed for a bigger dune!

We made our way to a large dune and screamed on our way down, trying to see who could go the farthest! I was close...but no chicken dinner. I scrapped up my knee on the way down the larger dune, but it did not stop me from loving every minute of it. We went to one final dune where everyone raced down and had a great time. 2 of the guys attempted and succeeded at standup boarding, although they didn’t go very far.

Our tour lasted around 2 hours. We got back to our hotel covered in sand, where we showered and enjoyed a cool dip in the pool. After our break we headed back to Lima, stopping at a Pisco distillery and restaurant along the way. Get the pisco sours in Peru, it’s what they’re known for!!