Peru - A walk in the desert and return to Florida

On the 27th of March, I spent the whole day heading north by bus. I made it to Ica in the evening and took a taxi out to Huacachina. On the 28th, I went shopping for a little bit of food and a whole lot of water.

Fiona and I spent one night at Huacachina in November, and I have been looking forward to getting back there ever since. This is the place with the huge sand dunes. In the afternoon, once the sun was no longer directly overhead, I started my desert walk.

I found out that the ocean was only 33 kilometers from Huacachina, so that seemed to me like a good goal. There was a dirt track through the bone dry and shadeless desert and I followed it west. I met the owner of a calcium mine and he told me I was crazy. Then he let me hold his son and he took a picture of me. I guess no one would believe that he saw a wandering gringo in the desert without a photo. A few more trucks passed me heading to town from the mine. They all warned me about the dangers of the desert, although none were very specific. The only specific things I was warned against were theft and salamanders. The man who told me this agreed with me when I pointed out that it was unlikely that bandits were hiding out in the sand dunes, waiting for me. That left only salamanders to fear, and I didn't.

I quickly passed the mine and continued off into the night. I found a nice spot between some sand dunes and spent the night. I had only my sleeping bag, some food and a lot of water with me, so setting up camp was easy.

I woke up the next morning and was walking by 5:40 am. By now the road looked like it had not been used in a long time. At 10:00 am I sat down to rest. By 3:00 pm the sun had moved enough for me to continue. I walked until about 7:00 pm, but did not see the ocean. By now I had used up more than half of my 11 liters of water and had not yet glimpsed my goal. I had not seen a vehicle, or anyone, the whole day and decided to turn back. There was no point in walking all the way to the ocean, only to run out of water half way back to town.

I found a nice patch of sand to sleep in and went to bed. On the 30th, I got another 5:40 start. It was not very long at all before a truck carrying calcium and about six men came by. I hopped on the back and took the fast route back to civilization. The truck went a different way than I had come. I ended up on the Panamerican Highway. I took a bus to Paracas and had a ceviche lunch at a restaurant near the ocean. Then I took a bus back to Huacachina.

I met four nice Peruvians from Lima and the next day they gave me a lift back to Luis's place. I spent the weekend visiting with Luis and Karem. Even after six months, they are still the nicest people I know and it was nice to see them again. On Sunday, Julia and Miguel flew in and I visited with them for a day or two. Julia, whom I met in Utah and spent a month with in Nepal, became my 7th three continental friend.

On the 4th of April, I returned to my mother's place in Florida. I have spent the month visiting family and eating.