Back To Ica And Huacachina

Ok, I know it seems like its been years. It was long. About 2 months since our last entry. Many reasons, many excuses. But the main one being laziness of course. Sorry. But we're Back and ready to tell all. So here it goes...

We jumped on the "Flores Bus" (our company of choice, cheap) down to Ica. As you may not be be aware, Ica and the surrounding area was devasted by the earthquake just about a month before. So while most of the structures had little damage done upon them, there was still much rubble on the streets sweeped up in giant piles by the curbs, lots of dust in the air, people walking around with those little white masks over the nose and mouth and tents set up along the highways to house the newly homeless. It sucks. Unlike in the land of the free, there's no disaster relief. Not even bad relief that comes weeks later. People are just stranded, left to survive and make their way again. But most don't cry and dwell on their misfortune. In the morning, they get up and try to go out to support the family. Its a rough life.

It left a guilty feeling about being here on vacation. But in a way, we were helping by just being here, buying fruit and chicken and a bottle of the local wine (which was not very good by the way, not a big fan of sweet wine) and of course, we came here for the dunes. Our place was in a little oasis, Huacachina. Litterally an oasis set in the midst of giant sand dunes with a lake in the middle of it. I can't make this stuff up. Peru's diversity is so incredible with the Amazon jungle, towering mountains, beaches, ancient ruins, and now this... sand dunes. Wow! We relaxed by the pool with our attention seeking women. Can't live without them. The mornings began with either mom or Rich knocking on our door and waking us up. So everyday, we were forced to wake up at like 8 or 9 am. Can you believe it? After quick showers, we would walk to our breakfast spot and fill up on fruit, eggs, pancakes and coffee and converstion, jokes and laughter. Beautiful! And on our 2nd day, we set off on the buggy. The dune buggy that is. The awesome thing about the parents is that they still get down and sandy. Without hesitation, mom and Rich jumped on the boards and flew down the dunes.

Life is beautiful! in so many ways...

It was 2 hours of fun, being thrown from side to side in the buggy as we climbed and jumped dunes, sand boarded them, tumbled down them, and then with sand stuck within our cavities, we laughed and then tumbled some more.

Our time there was short. So that same day, we packed our stuff and went to the bus station for our 8 pm overnight bus to Arequipa. OK, what a surprise, the bus was late. 3 hours later it still wasn't, so we had some drinks and laughed about it. The bus got there eventually. But the night wasn't over until mom had to fight for our rightful seats with the bus attendant.

Finally frutrated and broken down by my mom, he gave in and gave us the sweet seats on the bottom of the bus where we finally fell asleep to wake up the following morning in "White City", Arequipa.Stay tuned.