The oasis that used to be a secret

This small oasis, ringed by towering desert dunes, takes its name from a Quechua legend about a weeping woman who cried a lagoon into being and then, fleeing a hunter, transformed herself into a mermaid to escape into its waters.

Long before it became the backpacker stop it is today, it was something quieter. Roughly sixty years ago, Huacachina was a private retreat for Lima's wealthy, who believed the lagoon's waters carried healing powers and travelled down specifically to cleanse and rest. Scientists put the oasis down to an underground water current rather than any legend, though there's a less happy postscript. The lagoon has been slowly shrinking in recent years, thinner each season, as nearby drilling and increased evaporation take their toll on a place that was never especially large to begin with.

I painted Huacachina in watercolour and ink, those pale dunes ringing green water. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Huacachina, Peru · Travel Poster