Days to Burn

My bus last night that was supposed to take me to Ayacucho got caught up in Lima as these Peruvian buses will, so I got an unexpected eight hours in Ica today after checking out at noon from Huacachina. But first, a little on Huacachina, our oasis paradise. As you know, we started our trip there, exactly 40 days before, and returning was sweet and relaxing. We had one whole day there, and some change, to do nothing but sit in hammocks, eat popsicles, swim in the pool, maybe have an ice-cold beer or three, walk around the desert, and play with this baby monkey in the front yard.

Meet Marwin the Monkey, 5 months old and orphaned, tiny and playful, here eating a leaf.

One of the better pictures of him rolling around on the ground. awww....

All you gotta do is walk up to his tree, and he´ll come bouncing over onto your head.

Trying to break into my camera pack, clever little curious george he was.

Catching a break in the shade

With his best friend Bobby the Turtle

A crazy shot of Bobby going for a fruit

When it seemed like he couldn´t stop moving, he found a cozy spot on my thigh and was out cold just like that.

I´m now positively buying a monkey once I can give it a good home, Marwin was so fun to hang out with, jumping all over the place, just being a mischievious little primate. We spent most of our down time sitting around his tree, chatting and playing. Huacachina has burrowed itself a wee nook in my heart and if you asked me to think of happiness right now, I´d close my eyes and see Marwin swingin in his tree, the dunes reaching for the deep blue sky in the background, feel the breeze dancing with the sunrays, and a cold Brahma in my hand. Never easy to leave a place like that.

Cam and I out for a walk and some popsizzles

The walkway into our hotel
The pond that makes this little paradise in the middle of nowhere possible

Our last stroll in the desert, footprints that will wash away...but last forever

And there you have it, people - HUACACHINA 2007

So after a heartbreaking goodbye to Marwin and the desert, we taxied into the clamorous neighboring Ica where Cameron was catching is bus at one. Another tough goodbye at the bus station, feeling and memories swirling all about. The last month wouldn´t have been what it was without Cameron to share it all with. But that´s getting into our beeswax, not yours.