Ica & Huacachina

I will never forget Huacachina, this tiny oasis surrounded by towering sand dunes that sits next to a picturesque and smelly lagoon which is featured on the back of Peru’s 50 Soles.  Its super landscape is surrounded by high sandbanks, palm tree groves and age old Huarango trees (Carob tree).

On Tuesday morning I watched students, Sra. Ensenat and Mr. Behr climb the enormous sand dunes, some 400m above sea level and around 50km from the ocean. Before lunch, 3 of us went to Ica grocery shopping.  We also visited a chocolate store of the famous and popular chocolatier “Helena” that manufactures and sells the best Chocolates, Tejas, and Chocotejas in Perú.  I thought that I had bought enough Tejas and Chocotejas to have for dessert after dinner, well; you never know when you have to feed 27 teenagers.

 In the afternoon we took a “relaxing” tour for the popular desert adventure. Three buggies picked us up at our hotel, and off we went to the desert! We rode the humongous sand dunes, up and down, right and left, slow – fast, fast – slow, over and over again. When I thought it was impossible to scream and laugh any longer, my lungs were about to explode, the sand buggies took us “sandboarding”! This sport has become popular on the sand dunes around Huacachina, an ideal area to take to the steep sandy slopes of the desert. No doubt that this was a sandy adventurous and fun fieldtrip over the driest region of Ica. As if this wasn’t enough, 17 students did it all over again an hour after we had gotten back to our beautiful hotel in Huacachina, this pleasant and sunny place with a friendly and curious population.

Dinner was a spectacular display of Peruvian cuisine. I don’t have the words to describe it, we all ate until we couldn’t move… or talk! A few minutes later we ate all the Tejas and Chocotejas from “Helena”. We went shopping at the little shops located around the lagoon, and we found beautiful arts and crafts from local artisans. Collegiate students had an opportunity to interact, chat and mingle with teenagers from a local high school.  I was very proud of them! It was fantastic watching them interact, exchange ideas, bargain with merchants for lower prices in Spanish, with total easy and confidence.  Spanish at Collegiate ROCKS!