Ica, Huacachina: Gringoland now playing everywhere

We wondered where all the gringos were when we were in North Peru, and again when we were in Ecuador, now we know.. they are all in Southern Peru.

Our bus from Lima to Ica had more gringos than locals. (Could have just been a Cruz del Sur thing because it is more pricey). But nonetheless, the movies now are all of a sudden in english with subtitles. Boom, people speak english, or about as much english as we speak spanish.

We offloaded in Ica and made for Huacachina, a small oasis a couple of km into the desert. Boom, we walk into our hotel and there are GRINGOS EVERYWHERE. It is like we walked into the set of some fabulous movie. Our hostal had a central pool with a bar beside it. Gringos are sitting around sipping drinks, swimming, eating, laughing, listening to music and talking about a days hard travel sandboarding and swimming.

Music thumped until late in the night. We were pooped so we pretty much went to bed. We were awaken at about 3am to the bed shaking...and no, not like that. We were hit by a minor earthquake that lasted for about 40 seconds.

The next morning we too sunned ourselves by the pool. Then to add to the movie flavour, we decided to go dune buggy touring and sandboarding. Within minutes we were Mission Impossible stars flying around dunes, being driven full speed up dunes to hit the top and go hurtling, all wheels in the air down cliff sides. It was like some kind of motion simulator of a movie at Canada´s Wonderland, except this was real. And the more the ladies screamed the crazier our driver got (Trotter, we know you can relate). It was wild.

Follow that up by some sandboarding down progressively steeper dunes. The boards are nothing more than planks of wood with lamination and some greese. They strap them on with velcro and away you go. Pretty fun and a lot less painful than snow, surprisingly. Sand gets everywhere, and we mean everywhere.

At night we decided to be somewhat social and join the rat race at the bar. As it turned out it must have been a few groups converging on the hostal by chance the night before. But regardless there were many people eager to swap stories about great BLT´s or fish and chips they found at gringo restaurants in Cusco or wherever.

Reverse Culture Shock. We could say we didn´t feel like we had that much culture shock when we first got here in Casma and headed north (although I think everyone goes through it in some form or another). But it was definitely Culture Shock having to be surrounded by english voices. Definitely a completely different circuit.

Welcome to the Gringo Trail.

We moved today to Ica which is definitely less gringo populated. It is busy and a little less safe feeling (no gringos but us around, they are all in Huacachina). We spent the day touring a few pisco-wine vineyards, enjoying a few free tastings and taking in the hot dry surroundings.

Tomorrow we want to get out of here ASAP. Now in the south a lot of locals know a bit more english and coupled with more gringos means it feels sketchier because people want to take advantage as well. We will head to Nazca tomorrow.