Huacachina is a tiny town in southern Peru, an hour away from the Pacific coast. The town is basically a collection of resorts and restaurants around a blue-green laguna surrounded by huge sand dunes. An antique image of the town is featured on Peru´s 50 soles bill. Its interest to tourists is three-fold: the novelty and beauty of a dry desert with huge sand dunes, plus the opportunity to sand board and to ride in four-wheel-drive dune buggies that cruise up and down the dunes at break-neck speeds. The town depends entirely on tourism; as most visitors are foreigner tourists.
Legend claims every year a mermaid living in the laguna takes one man. The inability of certain Peruvians to swim seems a more likely explanation of the yearly drownings. Other people speculate that the cause of the frequent drownings is swimmers muscles cramp when the warm water on the top of the oasis mixes with cooler water below.
