Ica, Peru

The main reason I visited the city of Ica was the sand dunes which are located behing the lagoon at Hucachina. I've heard two different stories about the background of the lagoon, but they both end with the belief that there are curing powers in the lagoon.

From the lagoon I could see the dunes and was already impressed by the massive amounts of sand. The plan for the afternoon was to take a dune buggy (I was not the driver) to really explore the dunes and to do a little sand dune surfing.

The dune bug was much larger than I expected, it sat 10 plus the driver. Seat belts and glasses were a must. We headed out past the lagoon and got our real first look at the dunes. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but sand. It was like we were teleported to the Sahara desert (not that I've been there, yet!). The city of Ica was not longer visible it was just the sand. At one point we did see part of the city again and there was a giant sand dune right in the middle of it. So if you wanted to go boarding on your lunch break no problem.

Our driver has a hard job. He gets group`s of tourist straps them in and takes off as fast as he can scaring the begeezers out of them. There were times when he would take off straight up a dune and you thought for sure this thing is going to flip, but of course it didn't (that would be bad for business). It was like a roller coaster and the sand was the tracks. All our faces are a little smoother from the sand facials we received and our teeth a little shinier from the sand polish as we couldn't stop smiling.

In between the joy riding we did a little sand dune surfing. Where I grew up in Newark (CA not NJ) there was a salt plant (Cargill) and there was rumors that high school kids would sneek in with cardboard and slide down the huge mountain of salt. I of course never participated in such activities, but imagined that sand dune surfing would be similar but was really not sure what to expect. The first dune we stopped at we were all a little shocked as it seemed we were starting with the black diamonds and not the bunny hills we were expecting. There was only 1 guy in the group so we made him go first. Rather than standing up we opted to lay on our boards on our bellys to get maximum speed. The driver had a little candle which at first I thought he would use for last rights for those that did not make it, but instead was used to wax our boards. Somehow I kept endin up with the skinniest board,but that didn't prevent me from shooting down that dune. It's amazing how fast you go. We stopped at a number of dunes, the scariest of which was the one where you couldn't see part of the run. I think this was everyone's favorite. I'm not sure if it would have been as much fun standing up.

We stayed up on the dunes and got to watcht he sunset, which I can't remember the last time I did this. Even though we were all from different places (Mexico, Holland, Australia, US) just sitting there enjoying the sunset together after and afternoon of fun was nice.

If anyone wants some sand from Peru just let me know as I'll probably still be finding it when I return the US at the end of the year.