The Legend of Huacachina

See back page 50 is the only account and you will see the picturesque lagoon. Did you know that you can visit this beautiful spectacle in person? Just a few hours south of Lima, on the way to the Nazca lines, Huacachina is a small Peruvian village built around a beautiful natural oasis in the desert. Once a playground for the Peruvian elite, this village is now ruled by travelers looking to relax and get the thrill of the surrounding sand dinama.Grad is the center around a small natural spring fed lagoon framed by the green and leafy palms.

The legend says that arose when Huacachina pretty girl is wandering through the desert near his home, holding a mirror. When he picked up a mirror to her face she realized the man was seen from behind. Amazed dropped his mirror and turns into water. Here is where the legend gets fuzzy, girl or fled the scene, and her hair has created dunes surrounding the oasis or she is still living as a mermaid in the lagoon.

Another, more tragic legend says that the young woman and her lover to spend an afternoon stroll in the village of Ica. Shortly before the wedding, her love fell dead. She was overcome with terrible grief and cried so much that her tears formed a lake. As she sat by the lake one day, an evil spirit in the form of a man tried to rape her. She jumped into the lake and the water gods protected her mantle white snow. She became trapped under snow and drowned, and now every full moon she hovers over the oasis, dressed in sparkling white light. Locals say that every year she drowns a swimmer as the sacrifices of the lake that protects it.

Whatever the story behind the "weeping woman" (Huacachina in Quechua), the oasis is a great place to vacation. Try your hand at sand boarding down massive dunes, the party of the backpackers who come through town, or explore the nearby Paracas National Park.