These might just be the two days of the trip that surprised me the most. Huacachina was my favorite stop of the trip by far and somewhere I’d go back to in a heartbeat.
While 2 days was enough do fit in everything we could have stayed for far longer and never got bored. Here’s how to make the most of your visit…
Experience mad max in real life in a dune buggy tour of the desert. These dune buggies are huge with about 15 people in each and they’re driven by locals with an absolute death wish. Whether its by driving full speed down dunes up to 500 meters high, drifting around them like a skater around a bowl or even playing at bumper cars and missing each other by no more than a few feet; these drivers take joy from hearing their passengers scream in fear!
To make the tour even better they stop a couple of times to get out body boards so you can fly down the dunes head first! You can even rent snowboards to go down on which I chose to do and it was an absolute blast. They chose to start with smaller dunes to get you warmed up and slowly progress to bigger and bigger ones until it feels like it is a sand mountain that you’re flying down (or tumbling down in my case).
If going down the dunes on a bodyboard isn’t enough to quench the need for adrenaline you can book full day tours specifically to spend sandboarding or even skiing down the biggest dunes they can find. With our restricted time, and the feeling I would have been way out of my depth with no prior sand or snowboarding experience, I didn’t go on this dedicated tour but anyone I met who had gone came back with great reviews and it its something I will definitely try if I ever get to go back.
During our time in Peru we stayed at Viajero hostels quite a lot and they were always great quality and this one in Huacachina was no different. Our second day we spent hours in the pool making the most of the happy hour cocktails, good music and typical desert sunshine during the day before heading out for the evening.
As you’d expect there no better place to watch the sunset than from the very top of the dune right next to Huacachina town. Believe me when I say this is one of the harder walks of the trip. While its only a 20 minute climb (or crawl) up to the top, for every 2 feet you step forward you sink one foot back and end up with feet submerged in sand any time you stop.
Once at the top you have an incredible view out over the oasis, desert and even all the way to the Andes in the distance. Its a great place to relax with a beer and watch as the sun goes down and all of the dune buggy tours come racing back to the town.
The evening doesn’t stop there however. Walking back down the dune the way you come up would be a far to normal and boring way of getting back to the hostel. Running down the steepest part is far more interesting.
We all lined up along the top like the beginning of the 100 meter final; waiting for the gun. My mistake was then treating this as a race and pelting it as fast as I could. I got half the way down before realising my feet could barely keep up with my body until it reached a point they couldn’t any longer. I rolled for the next few meters before coming to an abrupt halt, complete with a plume of sand, much to the amusement of those taking a more cautious approach behind. This turned out to be a blessing though as I could stand to turn and look back on the incredible views of the sky behind.
Once back in Huacachina there’s plenty of options during the evening. We went out for dinner, tried out one of the party hostels but then decided for a quieter evening back at the Viajero. We got back in time to watch the end of the beer pong tournament, grab a couple of drinks and then get taught some Irish card games.
