Things to do from Huacachina Oasis, population 400

Huacachina at sunset.

Huacachina is one of the most awesome travel-bases in the world.

From this postcard perfect Oasis (literally) you are 10 feet from a cozy bar/restaurant/hotel in all directions and for a few dollars someone will take you into the dunes via buggy for a dizzying ride through mile high sand dunes. At the apex, the driver–with an odd confidence in the rider’s ability to perilously surf down a 5,000 foot dune, drops you off, gives you a board, and drives away leaving little choice other than to recklessly adventure downward. ($16)

For almost nothing the locals will provide transport to the Ica area wineries (yes, in a desert), and a hidden community of self-professed witches and shamans. ($6)

Peruvian wine tends to be very sweet. If you are not into wine you might enjoy the Pisco which every winery also boasts. Its the local firewater.

Land of witches, goblins, and mescaline.

For $8 a van will take you on an imminently scenic three hour ride to a harbor (in the village of Pisco) where a speed boat will jettison you passed dolphins and surfacing Killer Whales to the Ballesta Islands (the poor man’s Galapagos). There you can confront a blue-footed booby, a hundred thousand squawking sea lions, and a pungent odor that even a mortician will notice.

Thousands and thousands of seals and sea lions.

For $100, you can be taken to a nearby airport (well, perhaps four hours away, actually, and “strip” might be a better word for “port”) and experience a 45 minute flight over the ancient Nazca lines.

Not the Nazca Lines, but another ancient creation viewed on the way to the islands.

Any of Huacachina’s dozen eating establishments offers amazing and cheap food. The most expensive hyper-exotic cocktail in any bar is about $2 or $3.

Pork straight from the spit. ($2)

Steak in a cream sauce, rice, and huge potato fries. ($3)

20,000 lbs of chicken. ($3)

$1 — 2 for 1

It is awesome. You should go now. I’ll drive.

If you must wait, go in mid-March during the Ica Wine Festival. With huge complementary tasting tents it’s like a county fair–except instead of horses, they exhibit pumas and condors.

Logistical Note:

At the time of this writing there was only one ATM in Huacachina and it is broken. Get money from the one at the bus station in Ica, and take the $2 taxi ride 4 miles to Huacachina,

The Dakar Rally: “A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind.”

In 2012 and 2013, the new Dakar rally was routed through this Peruvian desert near Ica.

Adventure Lawyer’s cocktail party factoid of the day:

The Paris-Dakar Rally hasn’t originated in Paris since 2001 (and even before then the route often avoided France entirely) and hasn’t ended in the Senegalese capital since 2007 (at which point it originated in Lisbon). Political instability in Mauritania caused the 2008 rally to be canceled, and ever since, this amateur-everyman adventure connecting old Europe to colonial Africa has bypassed both continents altogether.

Beginning in 2009, the renamed Dakar Rally (which, in a celebration of irony, is also technically not a “rally” race) takes place exclusively in South America.

Nevertheless, I still want to try it out.

The geography may have changed, but the spirit of Thierry Sabine, who founded the Rally after getting lost in the Libyan desert in 1977, lives on: “A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind.”

Who wants to live this dream with me?

You can visit the official Dakar Rally website here.