Incredible First Impressions

Within the first week of our trip, we did several fun activities travelling around different Peruvian cities. One thing we did was visit the desert to go sandboarding and ride the dunes. While there, we saw an oasis. The oasis completely fascinated and confounded me. Looking at the lake in the middle of the desert was like having a lucid dream. I couldn’t believe it was real. I had never seen a desert before, and when we first entered the dunes, I noticed a few trees growing in the sand. I was already surprised by that, nut seeing so much water in the middle of a real desert was out of this world for me. I had to go up to the water and let it run through my fingers, and even then it was incredible. The guide told us a legend about a woman who was bathing and looking at herself in the mirror. Suddenly in the reflection, she saw a thief who was about to rob her, so she transformed into the water, and her robe/towel, blown by the wind transformed into the dunes. It was a cool story, even though I’m not putting it quite as eloquently, and if I had been among the ancient people who lived there, I definitely would have believed it. Even now, with a pretty solid understanding of modern science, this oasis was inexplicable.