Another pleasant night bus sitting next to a mother and her small fidgetting, noisy child. Oh night buses. I listened to my instincts this time and went to the desert. The desert is where my heart is. I don´t know what it is about deserts but I love them. I really, really do. Maybe it's the vast open, mostly untouched space, the silence, the sand beneath my feet and all the vivid stars, even the milky way, in the midnight sky. And then there´s the powerful energy in the desert - it´s like the mounds of sand are holding ancient secrets, and they´ll hold yours too. When you trek into the desert and make it out, it´s like a right of passage, like you´ve been granted access by the earth. The same is true when hiking mountains and canyons, but I just have this fascination with the dunes.
So I hung out in the little oasis for a few days, reflecting and doing a sort of mental cleanse. On my last day, I was feeling weird and unsure of everything. I began writing page after page in my journal, which hasn´t happened the entire trip. I´ve been on some kind of writer´s block, and I just couldn´t get at my core. But sitting amongst all the sand, I was finally able to release something that wouldn´t budge for quite some time. It was theraputic. And then, a guy working at the hostel came and invited me on a long walk into the desert to see another oasis (a dry oasis) that most people don´t know about. Um, yes!
The walk took maybe 2 hours to the oasis, walking on dunes, sliding down downs, trudging through the sand barefoot. We were accompanied by two street dogs who were so sweet. They would run ahead and then wait for us to catch up. On the way back when it got dark, they would walk next to us and watch to make sure we were ok. Julio, my guide, told me stories about growing up in the jungle, moving to Cuzco, traveling around Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia and about settling in Huacachina for work. He knows the desert amazingly well - I would never have found the oasis on my own, let alone be able to get myself out without his stellar navigational skills. He has even done a two day trek to the ocean, camping along the way, and then back. He plans to travel again when he saves enough money. He is one of the most well traveled and interesting Peruvian (and South American) I have encountered on this trip. And he told me he only takes certain people on this trek - only people with the right energy. So I feel blessed that I got the opportunity to do this. It was a trek I will never forget, because it happened right when I needed it and it happened in the magical desert. Whatever is churning inside of me, the desert helped to smooth it over in it´s healing way. On the way out, we thanked Pachamama (Mother Earth), for letting us pass through unharmed, and as we stood on the last huge dune looking down over Huacachina we screamed into the air, releasing all the tension, and slid down back into the little oasis. This is the kind of therapy I can get into! Thank you universe, for showing me some of the isolated beauty that still exists. It feels good to be alive. It feels good to be a part of this earth. A part of this unbelievably, overwhelmingly huge universe. It´s incredible really, don´t you think?............................................................
