Memoirs of a Loner Traveler: Ica, Peru

15 August, 7am
I stayed in a hostel at Huacachina, located on the outskirts of Ica city. Huacachina, which advertises itself as being "America´s Greatest Oasis," indeed strictly follows the definition of "oasis": it is smack in the middle of a desert! Now, I had never stepped into a desert landscape until today, so the great sand dunes were a marvelous sight to me. I declined the hostel´s offer to take me into the desert for some sand-boarding fun, but did manage to hike up the nearest sand dune. My feet kept sinking into the sand, and I desperately hoped that my solo-escapade did not end up launching a sand-avalanche to swallow up America´s greatest oasis. Fortunately, my fears were not manifested into reality... at least for that moment.

After taking some breathtaking pictures of the desert, I explored the mini-town of Huacachina. It was basically a tourist resort location. The roads and paths leading up to the smelly, green lagoon were completely paved, and some major landscaping work had been done all throughout; this was slightly disappointing, although I can understand that America´s greatest oasis could not possibly be left untouched while it bore such a title.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading Anna Karenina, and munching on Gummy Bears Aya had given me in a ziploc bag at Puno. I decided to settle on one of those instant noodle bowls for dinner, as I reckoned my stomach needed something familiar and soft, after the malicious bite into some deadly hot pepper nearly killed my poor stomach at the lunch buffet in Chivay. Tomorrow: Lima

15 August, 7:30pm
HUGE earthquake. Never felt anything like it in my life, even while in Japan. It´s about 11am in Tokyo, and my parents are probably freaking out. But there are no means of communication available; the first thing to do when I get access to a phone is call the Japanese Embassy.

At the moment we are outside. I´m with an English couple, from Bristol: Tom and Elly. We grabbed our stuff from the hostel once things settled down a bit; the earth still shakes every now and then. When it first shook, I thought it might be over quickly, but I was VERY wrong - it continued and escalated into one that cut out the lights and slid my bed from wall to wall. I knew then that being inside the building was probably not a good idea, and I ran out the door without even bothering to get my shoes on.

The shaking continued once I made it outside, and I congregated with the others who had already been outside from the beginning. The earth shook, and shook, and shook. When finally it stopped, I went inside the building - which up to now had already survived two large earthquakes and this fact I did not know whether to take in relief or panic - and gathered my things.

The rest of the night shook with the remnants of the earthquake, as the plates underneath us tried to settle into its new positions. We were, however, under the stars, an entire sky full of the smallest ones ever invisibile in Tokyo, plus the Milky Way. Although we woke up with a startle every time there was a low rumble and the ground shifted under our sleeping bags, I will and can still remember the sky that was almost entirely white with stars.