Adrenline and Pisco Sours in Afro Peru

If you have ever been on a runaway roller coaster then you will know how it feels to go sandbuggying. Anyone who comes to this beautiful country has to experience this gut wrenching escapade in the middle of nowhere. Followed by a Pisco Sour or two by on the shore of Lake Huacachina.

I came to Huacachina specifically for this. I had spoken to a traveler about their experience and his description was,`mate, it was awesome`( he was Autrailian).-So I put my faith in him,hopped on a bus and a taxi later I was in this paradise that is supposedly the only real oasis in the world. I don`t believe this, by the way.

I got to my hostel, El Huacachinero and discovered that it was stunning. It has a pool, a tranquil bar and it´s back garden is a huge sand dune. It has three resident parrots that shout `hola`at you whilst you lounge around under the palm trees. It is everything that an oasis should be - peaceful. That is until a huge group of people arrived from a certain country that people in South America automatically recognise as annoying and arrogant, sadly. Anyway, the price of my dorm automatically dropped by five sols if I booked a sand buggying tour with the hostel. So,at 4.30 p.m. that night ,I embarked on what would be my new found love.

I have to say that I was quite worried about the tour. I tried to reason with myself that if this was a dangerous sport then surely it would be illegal,no? But then someone pointed out to me that we are in Peru. Whiplash isn´t that bad either ,I was told, even if my insurance policy doesn`t cover it. I clambered into the sand mobile and with a lunatic screech, the driver sped off in what I thought should have been the direction of the nearest loony bin. I thought I could see steam coming off the tires but it was just the sand, thankfully. I am making myself out to be a big whimp but you would be worried too.

You would be especially worried when you arrive at the first almost vertical drop. At one point I tried to reason with the driver that the law of physics is such that you cannot drive to down a vertical drop. He pretended not to understand me and ignored all further communication. Great, me and my big gob. The problem was that  you cannot tell when a drop is coming! There you are driving along at full speed when all of a sudden you are thrown into oblivion! All that can be heard for miles around in the middle of this sandy wasteland is `ahhhhhh my god!!!!Ohhh my god!!!!we are all going to die!!!`and the driver`s crazy laugh.

Then the adrenaline kicked in and I screamed my head off the whole way.I think it was the emotion of the wind in my hair and the fact that you are in the desert. Once I started screaming,I couldn´t stop. The best was arriving at a dune which was about 250meters high and the driver telling us to get out and sand board. You then have the option to stand up on a board and slide all the way down or to go on your belly. I chose the latter and slid down to the abyss screaming and laughing all the way down at a speed of approximately 80miles an hour. I was hooked. I couldn´t wait to do it again!!! It was like an explosion of adrenaline injected into my veins and I needed more and more of it.

Finally, we were driven to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. It is so dramatic over the desert and this is why I love it so much. The sun appeared as a ball ,like a giant glowing orange in the middle of a golden sky, sinking further and further every second beneath the sand. After this, as if by way of introduction, the stars shone through so brightly as if to out do its rival, the day. It is an experience you just shouldn´t miss.

Huacachina itself is just outside of Ica, a town about four hours South of Lima. There`s not much to say about it except what all Peruvians seem to warn you about cities:it`s dangerous. Huacachina is where you will want to stay. It is basically a lake at the foot of some of the hugest sand dunes around. They say that two lovers used to walk through the desert so as not to be found out by their parents. One day, the male component of the couple mysteriously died. The girlfriend carried on walking the same route after his death,crying all the way. Her tears culminated in the lake. One day, an evil spirit tried to rape her and so she jumped in the lake and drowned. She apparently appears every so often to drag someone into the middle of the lake as an offering to her protector.

There is little else to say about the place. It is very expensive for Peru and there is no other form of entertainment but the pool which is great as it is boiling in this part of the world.

Ica is also famous for its production of Pisco and wine. It is quite bizarre to see vines in the desert. It is a piece of nostalgia in what is otherwise a totally surreal landscape. I decided to visit a wine cellar to see how Pisco is made and of course to sample the produce.I told the guide that I also love chocolate and so we went to a chocolate factory along the way.I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. Chocolate upon chocolate was laid out before me and the order `try this one`was given. The speciality is chocolate covered pecans with manjar (like caramel).Oh my god. These must be tried.

We got to the cantina which is just outside Ica and the whole place stank of the familiar smell of brewing wine. Its the smell that every alcoholic dreams of. Alternatively,the smell of my grandma`s kitchen on Sundays. There is a huge vat the size of a swimming pool in the middle of the courtyard. The guide told me that once the grapes are picked they are thrown into this pool where only the women are allowed to trample the juice out of the grapes. I only wish I was there at harvest time, three weeks ago! I can only imagine the drunken antics!

We went through to the cellar where the grape juice is left to ferment in huge clay pots. To make wine, Pisco is added to the juice. This makes it really sweet, more like sherry than wine. I obviously had to taste every variety of alcohol in the joint and finally decided that Pisco Italia was the best variety, all patriotic sentiments aside. By the way, if a Peruvian says that Pisco is from Peru, don`t argue. It could lead to sudden death as I found out when I questioned whether it was Chilean.

Hacienda San Jose, El Carmen,Chincha. 

I was quite upset to leave Huacachina. I was so relaxed there and I had met Sophie and Jane who were really cool. I had however decided to go to the heart of Afro Peru. It is here that slaves from Senegal were taken to work mainly on the sugar cane and the cotton plantations. They built the hacienda itself and today it acts as a museum for you to see what it was like to be a slave there. Unfortunately, I had missed the annual festival which is famous for its outlandish dancing and folklore. One dance I really wanted to see was one which involves trying to set a woman`s dress on fire. One to try in Liquid, I think.

The hacienda itself is unbelievably beautiful. It has a pool, miles and miles of land ,a church,horses, tennis courts and hundreds of artifacts from the era. It was so amazing I had to stay the night. After an afternoon by the pool in the blistering heat, I was taken on a tour of the house. The slaves were led to an underground labyrinth of tunnels and secret rooms where they were kept in the dark without food or water for two days. We walked with a candle to the room where the slaves were kept and to show us how it felt, we blew out the candle. It was very scary,to say the least. When slavery was abolished,the tunnels led to the nearby port and to the other haciendas in the area so that slavery was kept alive. What is fascinating about all this is that a visit here gives you an insight into a different Peru. Looking at the cotton fields and the black faces working away, we could have been in any Southern state in the USA over a century ago.It is also interesting to see how they have shaped Peruvian culture and music.

Even if you don`t stay the night ( you should as the rooms are beautiful) this is definitely an interesting aspect of Peru that shouldn`t be missed.