7. Beaches and Dunes
Day 129
I was up and ready to go quite early. To be honest, I can’t get out of Lima fast enough. Not my favourite place. Fortunately, most of the traffic was going into the city. It was still busy, but manageable. It started to ease off 60 km out of Lima. After that, there was only light traffic, mostly trucks. The road was great, nice tarmac. It was hazy from the marine fog. Sunshine did its best to poke through the layers, but no luck. I couldn’t even see the coastal mountain range. Mostly farm land around. And everywhere are selling lots. I mean everywhere. In the middle of nowhere. No houses but they all have a nice depiction how it might look like.
I am happily cruising along. The bike is nice and clean and happy. The Panamericana here is 4 lane toll freeway. Good thing about tolls in Peru (and most of Central and South America) bike do not pay any tolls. There is a special very narrow lane for motorcycles and you just ride through it. Makes me smile every time I am going through one of those.
My route takes me through town of Pisco. Well, it is a small detour. Pisco is best know for Peru national drink, Pisco Sour. Actually few other countries lay the claim to that title. Important thing is that Pisco is an awesome drink.
Nothing special about the town, dusty and in the middle of desert on the shores of the Pacific. But there are more tuk tuks then anywhere else. I am riding along the beach and I spot bunch of pink flamingoes in the shallow water. They were pretty cool so stay awhile and took bunch of pictures.
My next stop is a viewpoint on the shore. Very bad road leads me to it. A nice place on the top of the cliff with the wave crashing on the beach bellow. A very nice Kodak moment. I park my bike a walk around, taking lots of pictures. There is a lots of sun and it is deceiving. It feels it might be scorching hot but it is only about 22˚C. Perfect temps. There is also a guys with tandem paraglider there. They were just launching and I have great photos of them flying past me and around the cliffs.
It is time time to move on. I backtrack and get on Panamericana again. Not too far to my destination, Ica. Actually it is a small oasis Huacachina, west of Ica. I have my accommodation booked so I don’t have to look around and I ride straight there. It is a small ecocamp. You sleep in a huge tent. It is basically clamping. The compound is fenced off so all is secured. In the middle of oasis is a nice lagoon and all hotels are built around it. And all of it is surrounded by massive dunes several hundred feet tall. There is only one way in and out through a narrow entrance. Looks very cool.
I know about this place through Dakar Rally. When Peru was hosting the race, there were couple of stages starting and finishing here. And the race course were through those gigantic dunes. It was pretty impressive to see all those cars, bikes and truck climbing and edscending those steep dunes.
My tent is ready, there are not too many guests here. I settle in and head for the pool. It has a swim up bar. Awesome. It is early afternoon and the temp is 33˚C. Very hot. Dip in the pool is good. I have few beers with me which I didn’t managed to finish in Lima and I put them in my thermos. Very handy right now. It is too hot to explore now so I chill for a bit.
The sun is coming down so I pack my camera gear and head up to climb one of the dunes around. This is very touristy place, people are everywhere. They have off-road buggies here, but you don’t drive. You just sit there. That’s boring. I’ll pass. I am climbing on the ridge of this huge dune and it is a HARD workout. The sand is very fine and I go one step up and two steps down. But with every step I can see more of the surroundings. Beautiful views, miles and miles of sand dunes. It would be awesome to have a light bike and rip around.
After awhile I reach the summit. Like Everest 🤭. Unbelievable views. I take many pictures and chat with people around. Many different nationalities, France, Dutch, more Canadians. Very cool. The sun is coming down and the desert takes on a goldfish colour. Looks beautiful. Again, this reminds me of Sahara Desert. I stayed at the top for a couple of hours, enjoying the scenery. Pretty magical spot. The dunes are so steep and tall that you can rent a snowboard or skis and ride the dunes. I saw few guys trying to do that with not much luck … I stayed a bit longer after the sunset taking more pictures. The wind has picked up and I am getting sandblasted. I don’t like that feeling and neither does my camera. It is time to pack my gear and head down. It is completely dark and all the crowds are gone. I have the whole place to myself. Very nice, I like it.
Back in my compound, I get some Piña Coladas and Piscos and the life is good. I think I will extend my stay here for one more day. It is a very cool place here and I like to chill here for a bit. And I have to process more then 200 pictures I took today. It is nice and quiet now and it is getting cold. The nights in a desert are usually very cold. I am sitting in a hammock outside of my tent and writing this blog. I don’t miss work at all …
Lets see what tomorrow will bring.