Huacachina oasis

Moving on, another day, another bus. Peruhop has a fleet of assorted buses, some no doubt newer than others.  Another foray into the desert en route. Paracas National Reserve is vast, 11 times the size of Malta, and stunning beautiful. It is a geological phenomenon, land pushed up above sea level by active fault lines, literally desert from under the sea.

Another day, Another bus

A few hours further south lies Huacachina oasis, a small pool of water surrounded by towering, glowing, golden yellow sand dunes. It's a unique experience for me, I've genuinely never seen a sight like this before.

Huacachina oasis

Having adjusted to the weird landscape of dominating sand mountains I took myself off to walk in them.  Turns out this is not as easy as it looks!  The drifting sands are incredibly unstable, shifting disconcertingly underfoot, making staying upright impossible. It's absolutely exhausting. But absolutely brilliant.

Impossible terrain on foot

I watched the sun go down over the luminescent dunes, listening to the drones of dune buggies giving people the adrenaline rush of their lives.

Oasis in the setting sun

Trekking back at sunset

There's a handful of hostels and one little, charming, old fashioned hotel. I am in this small, rather faded, quaint hotel  as the hostels here are definitely for party animals. Fireworks lit the night sky yesterday long after I had gone to bed.

Today I watched the sun rise whilst eating breakfast as life goes with the sun here not the clock. I set off to walk again before the sand got too hot which turned out to be much quicker than I realized. I literally ran down the final slope to the sanctuary of shade, my feet were burning with every step. Lesson learnt the hot way.

Later  I am going dune buggy riding! Why?  Because now I'm here it seems crazy not to, even though it looks terrifying. Watch this space....

Sand everywhere! Face bruising caused by bouncing sunglasses during rough speed boat ride out to ballestas isles!