Fun in the Sand...

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Boy are we glad we stayed in Huacachina…we had a blast—this was more like a vacation from our vacation! Huacachina is 10 minutes outside of Ica; it is a small oasis amidst the sand dunes….HUGE sand dunes. We had already selected the hostel where we would stay, but our cab driver recommended otherwise. At first we were reluctant to take his advice as these guys are all connected and work off commission, but in the end, it was a good for all. We got a 3 bed dormitorio with a small view and agua caliente all to ourselves and for a good price. There was pool, a small bar, lots of sun and no honking horns…ahhh...a place where we could let our guard down for just a moment. So what do you do when you are staying in a city of sand dunes?….go sand boarding of course! It was so much fun and a little nuts at the same time. The hotel set up the dune buggy or ´boogy´ as they call it and the sand boards. There were six of us together and before they drive you out to the dunes, they drive you to the courthouse where an official waiting with paperwork for you to sign—a disclaimer completely in Spanish, I’m not really sure what I signed…aye-yay-yay. Oh, and of course, they also collected your tax—there are taxes for every thing here, the airports, the ruins, etc. It was here I discovered our driver-Walter from Venezuela- was a bit crazy; another buggy driver came over told him he needs to take it easy.

He first took us to the bunny slopes, three small little dunes in a row. Fun. Each sand dune got progressively bigger, until the last sand dune was about a 200 ft drop. No one volunteered to go first so Walter flipped a coin between the two guys saying “Ingles or Americano”….basically it was between the Brit, David and Chad….Chad got lucky and David went first. We all ended up with some kind of topical injury. The sand boards were really plastic coated pieces of plywood cut into the shape of a snowboard with Velcro bindings screwed on…usually with a ¼ inch if screw protruding. Going down on your belly means you have to wrap the Velcro around your hands and rest your hands where the screws are….you get the picture. I’m just glad I got my tetanus shot ( : Did I mention he coated the bottom of each board with a liquid floor wax for each run….then I caught him trying to put some wax on the buggy’s tires…I told him he was crazy. After about 2 hours of complimentary microderm abrasion, we got to watch the sunset over the sand dunes, t´was lovely. We headed back to our ´resort´ where they had a great BBQ and finally a comfortable bed. Too bad we can’t stay longer, this morning we are going to Nazca to fly over the Nazca lines.

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Photos

Chad was brave enough to sit shotgun
...no one fought him for it.