A friendly reminder that you are a small, fragile monkey, living on an insignificant speck of dust, who has existed for less than 0.000001% of the history of the universe.

Better make the most of it!

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This has quickly become one of my favourite photos that I’ve taken. I’m calling it The Meditator on account of the contemplative human watching the sunset, contrasted with the enormity of Huacachina’s sand dunes. The deserts of Huacachina have the ability to make you feel fantastically small, and I’ve tried to encapsulate that feeling in this image.

Huacachina is South America’s only natural oasis, and a spectacular one at that.

Inca legend has it that a beautiful princess was walking through the desert, and decided to stop and bathe. As she removed her clothes, she looked at herself in a small mirror, and in the distance, she noticed a male hunter stalking her. The princess fled in terror, and dropped her mirror, which turned into the lagoon in the centre of Huacachina. Some believe that the princess still lives in the lagoon, trapped there as a mermaid.

Regardless of how it came into existence, Huacachina remains an incredibly unique destination.

Huacachina is difficult to put into a box. Originally developed as a getaway for Peru’s elites, the desert oasis has in recent decades become tourist trap and haven for younger backpackers, often towing the line between raucous and debaucherous. Think The Beach meets Mad Max (on account of all the souped-up dune buggies).

I was there for one of Peru’s vital world cup qualifiers, but while the rest of the country was going wild, Huacachina hardly seemed to realise there was a match on. It doesn’t feel like Peru, but rather some kind of nationalistic no mans land.

On the other hand, the dunes are utterly awe-inspiring. They’re like something out of, well, Dune I suppose. Climbing up to a peak and watching the sun set over the seemingly endless desert is absolutely breath-taking, and watching tiny humans forge paths through the sand makes you feel wonderfully small. This feeling, combined with the historical notion that oases are some kind of bountiful paradise to be taken advantage of for a short time, probably goes part of the way to explaining why Huacachina has become such a strangely enthralling destination.

Huacachina is definitely worth a visit, but be aware that every day there is Groundhog Day. It’s sandboarding, dune buggies, parties, repeat. However, if there’s one thing I can wholeheartedly recommend doing in Huacachina, it’s getting up for the sunrise.

I’m not usually a morning person, but making the effort to hike up the top of one of the tallest dunes as the first rays of light were beginning to touch the sky was absolutely magnificent.

The desert, typically overrun with noisy dune buggies at sunset, was eerily quiet and empty for the sunrise. And aside from a lone jogger who seemed to appear out of the sand itself, I had the dunes all to myself.

For a destination which is typically a hive of commotion and chaos, those few hours of early morning silence were truly special.

I must admit, most of the photos in this post required a bit of touching up, and when I was on the dunes, I found myself having to frame shots based on the areas with the least rubbish. For a location that has the potential to be a true natural wonder of the world, the amount of trash scattered across the dunes is genuinely depressing.

This is a common theme I’ve noticed in Peru. It’s a nation with a mindboggling abundance of natural beauty, but it’s also a relatively poor nation whose economy relies heavily on tourism. Consequently, many parts of the country are constantly trying to strike a balance between profit and preservation. Employing additional staff or setting capacity limits (something many destinations sorely need) hits hard at the bottom line of the local economy. But in letting tourists run wild, Peru risks destroying the very places those tourists are coming to see.

So to end this post, I thought I’d share a photo that better represents the real Huacachina – a breath-taking destination that has the potential to be so much more.

Huacachina is an enthralling destination, but one that you probably don’t want to spend too long in, lest you end up like the Incan princess, trapped in the depths of the oasis.

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Huacachina, Peru