Haucachina, Peru (wah-kah-chee-nah)
A beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. There are 3 hotels and maybe 3 resturants including one down the boardwalk overlooking the oasis. Food here is quite good, pretty cheap (a few dollars a meal) and I must confess, late evening pancakes (closer to crepes) covered in chocolate and stuffed with fruit are oh so good! There also was a chicken and avacado salad at another resturaunt that was just killer, no... really, the avacado on this thing scared me it was so huge, but it was so tasty I could die. This town is a great party, Durring our stay we were two of the oldest visitors at the time, I believe the average age here is 25. We only planned on staying for the afternoon and ended up 4 days. Our bartender at the hotel was a girl from Australia who had the same idea and had been there 3 months! It really was a beautiful place to relax by day and party by night. The hotels will sometimes (about once a week) organize cookouts and it's all you can eat and drink (rum and coke) included for around $20. Like most of South America, the party lasts well into the morning and even if you didn't pay you can still come and hang out with all the others.
Funny enough, I met this girl in a shop in Cusco. We talked for a few minutes and parted ways because she was getting ready to leave town. Well, walking down the street in Haucachina I hear someone calling my name. There she was, across the street. Her and her new travel friend hung out with us for a few days and we all traveled to Lima together. Great fun! We drank the bar out of beer every night!
Things to do in Haucachina besides party all night? The sand dunes are a blast to climb up (be sure to watch the sunset from up there) and ride back down on your sandboard! They are for rent either at the hotel or down on the boardwalk by the oasis. There is also the boardwalk and little paddle boats or dingy's to rent and relax on the water. If you are in for some adventure you can gather some friends together and take a ride in a big dune buggy all over the desert. We didn't do it but one of the girls at the hotel did it every day, she said it was a BLAST, we were trying to save some money because there wasn't an ATM in this town and we needed our cash. (not many places take plastic)

At our hotel there is a pool, a little volleyball court, (oh yes we played) and some hammocks hanging in the palm trees for napping (we napped too), oh and of course a full bar complete with the little palm roof and no walls. It was a little paradise, especially since we had been in the mountains freezing for so long. Notice the nice tan lines, that's from falling asleep by the pool at our last hotel in Nazca just days before this photo was taken...but that is yet another story.