Finally making our way south of Lima! In order to break up our journey to Cusco, we opted to stop in Ica for a couple of days. The bus ride from Lima was one of the most unappealing rides I have ever been on - it all seemed like a vast wasteland full of shacks, garbage and dirty dunes. As we approached Ica, the wasteland was beginning to turn to Oasis. There were signs for local wine bodegas and roadside boxes of giant mangos.... we knew that we would be satisfied for atleast a little while:) Our final destination for the day was Huacachina, an oasis just outside of Ica. We grabbed a few mangos and then hopped on a motor taxi out past the sand dunes. Huacachina is a strange little tourist trap, but undeniably beautiful. Going with the flow of the scene - we signed up for a Buggy tour of the dunes. I feel the same way towards buggies as I do snowmobiles..... I hate the look, sound and smell of them in beautiful outdoor environments - but, I have to admit, they are incredibly fun... It is truly a love/hate relationship. Anyway, the dune buggies were just like a roller coaster without the tracks - we both had a white knuckle grip on the handle bars as we flew up and down the white sandy dunes.
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| These mangos were AMAZING... it makes me sigh just thinking about them:) |
On top of the dune tour, we were able to try out 'sand boarding'. I was particularly excited for this since I was missing out on the snowboarding season. There are some people that take sand boarding pretty seriously and they have the exact equipment as an avid snowboarder would (minus the winter gear of course). But the group we went with were on the cheap side so they gave us wood boards with velcro straps. I was pretty confident at the beginning - thinking that I was the only one with any snowboarding experience, it should be a breeze. As everyone else used their boards as sleds down the first dune, I strapped in my feet and hoped for the best. Sure enough, it was hard as hell to turn with the board in the sand and I had a beautiful wipe-out. Sand was in every crevice for quite some time!! With a few practice rounds I got the hang of it!
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| Emily perfected the 'luge' technique and was by far the fastest one down the dunes! |
After a bit of convincing from eachother, we pushed ourselves out of our sun-dazed Huacachina scene and went with a group to celebrate the wine festival at a local Bodega in Ica. We were hesitant because the way it was advertised, it seemed like it was just going to be a bunch of tourists. But, we were happily surprised to find that our small group of 6 were the only outsiders. The evening was full of dancing, grape stomping, wine & pisco (distilled wine) tasting. They even fed us all a dinner at the end of the night (around midnight), which was much appreciated after a belly full of sweet young wine and stiff pisco.
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| The anticipation built for what seemed like hours as we waited for the Harvest Festival Queen to come out and begin the grape stomping. The young girls and boys were in dazzling outfits and had a little Shakira shake in all of them. After the stomping, everyone showed of their skills in a large dance circle - it was the highlight of the evening! |
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| Finally our turn! |
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| Supposedly if you were able to blow the horn you had royal blood..... Both Em & I had great performances and wowed the locals :) |
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| The tasting room was like an old museum with random artifacts scattered throughout - each one a tempting toy! |
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| To taste each wine, they dipped in a bamboo shoot that had one section cut out |
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| The wine and pisco were stored in large clay vessels - a centuries old practice. |
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