Sand Boarding

We awoke with apprehension about going through Lima, a city of 8 million, but as it turned out, it was our smoothest capital yet. After that we had a fairly short drive to Ica, where we turned off the highway into the sand dunes towards Huacachina. The guide book said this little oasis was built for Peruvian elite long ago, and now it was a hotspot for travelers.

When we came down into the valley, we were surrounded by sand dunes, and a big lagoon was the center of town, with the small community of 200 people built around it. This is not what I had pictured Peru to be like. We had just driven three days straight through nothing but rugged desert and sand dunes. If you had blind folded me and dropped me off here in a helicopter, I would have guessed that I was in the Sahara! We found a nice little hotel just off the lagoon, and spent the afternoon lounging around the pool working on the computer.

As the sun started to set low on the horizon, the town seemed to come alive with the sound of souped up big bore engines firing up. It was time for all the tourists to jump into the caged sand buggies for an adrenaline packed ride around the dunes that surround the town. Noah and I opted instead to rent a couple of sand boards and hike up the biggest dune next to town. We figured we would pay homage to the first snows back in Colorado by strapping these instruments of death to our feet, and attempt to careen down the sand. As it turns out, we were given too small of boards, and they didn't provide enough flotation, so it was more of a slow crawl down the sand, but it was fun nonetheless...