I always thought deserts were the worst place on Earth because sand gets all over, it’s dry, and it looks the same everywhere you look. However, 6 years ago my perspective changed completely. My family took a trip to Huacachina, Ica, Peru. I am originally from Peru, so it was a 4-hour car ride south to the beautiful oasis that I didn’t expect to be so marvelous.

We got there by lunch time, so we ate delicious traditional food like arroz con pato and sopa seca. After walking around in the small city for a while, my family decided to go to the actual desert. I was kind of annoyed because I knew my shoes and hair were going to get full of sand. My dad rented a dune buggy and we were on our way to the desert. After seeing tons of movies where people got lost in the desert, I was scared we weren’t going to be able to find our way back. As we got surrounded by sand from everywhere you looked, I started to panic a little, but I forgot all about it when the sand buggy started going fast over the dunes.

The adrenaline you get from going up and down the dunes swiftly is crazy. The driver stopped occasionally so we could do some sandboarding. My entire family and I slid down the big dunes yelling at the top of our lungs. Being in the middle of the desert surrounded by dunes without being able to see any buildings was very peaceful and it made me happy.

When we got back to the oasis, we walked around enjoying the views of the sunset and trees enclosing the lagoon. Back in the 1940s, wealthy people used to live by the Huacachina because they believed that the water had medicinal properties. When my mom was little, she went to the Huacachina with her family and they all bathed in the waters. A lot of tourists think it’s the water that has the curative properties, but it’s actually the mud at the bottom.

I think it’s disappointing that the oasis is drying up with the years passing by due to normal evaporation but also because of the people that live there. There’re 2 old legends about the oasis. The first one says that an Incan princess was bathing and was later discovered by a hunter; when she escaped, the water left behind became the oasis. There’s another legend that says that an Incan princess was cast a spell and became a mermaid. She cried to much because she couldn’t never go back to how she was before and her tears filled the oasis. Some locals say that she lives at the bottom of the oasis and comes back every full moon to sing to all the single men luring them into the lagoon.

The Huacachina oasis and its surrounding dunes make an astonishing scene. I can’t wait to go back to visit again and sandboard.dunes make an astonishing scene. I can’t wait to go back to visit again and sandboard.