La Paz to Lima: Inca culture, adrenalin thrills and dressing up as Spider-Man
22nd Oct 2013 1:21am | By Andrew Westbrook
Travelling from Bolivia's capital to Peru's counterpart in two weeks, via Lake Titicaca, Cusco and Huacachina.
Standing on a soft-footed pyramid of sand, I gawp at the scene that surrounds me. On all sides, like an undulating mountain range, the seemingly endless landscape of sand dunes rises from the desert. In the near distance lies the tiny Peruvian town of Huacachina, a postcard-perfect bubble of exotic greenery centred on a desert lagoon. Squinting through the heat haze, I spot people paddling their way across the lake, surreally crossing one of the world’s driest deserts in a rickety old pedalo. To say it’s beautiful simply doesn’t do justice to this stop on the South American Gringo Trail, and indeed, whoever first coined the phrase ‘an oasis of calm’ was, I’d like to think, inspired in some way by this hidden enclave of southern Peru.