Surprizing newfound employment possibilities

The daily grind of being a professional losing poker player for me and a bookkeepper for Lycia has been too much for a while. While I tossed around ideas like becoming a bank president or an astronaut, and Lycia considered the field of overpaid consulting, we sadly realized that between her skills and my lack thereof, it would mean we never would be able to work together...untill we came to Huacachina, and our future became clear as sand.

Now we wanna be professional sandboarders. That would be rad.

See, Huacachina is an oasis...for you non-professional sandboarders reading this, that means there are dunes. Lots of them. And they are big. Ishtar big.

(Sidenote: The internet cafe I am typing this in is actually playing a dance remix of Eddie Murtphy´s cheese dance classic Party All The Time. There is no way to not love this country)

So what you do in this town is pay a nutcase hopped up on coca leaves to take you out in a dune buggy, scare you to death trying to flip the thing over and then drop you at the peak of a 200 foot sand cliff with your feet scotch taped to a two by four. (OK, it was actually a semishaped piece of wood with velcro bands, but it didn´t seem that far off)

Then you slide down. Fast. Or fall. Also fast.

Before we got the swing of it, Lycia had so much sand embedded in her face that 2 hours later, when she finally got it out, it looked like she had a $100 facial. By the time we finished, little Peruvian children were either massing around us begging for autographs, or more adorably, many were huddled together, giggling, wide eyed over our feats, but to shy to approach us.

Wait, strike that...Lycia just told me the throngs of kids surrounding us wanted money, and the ones that were gazing, all impressed, were just laughing at my unzipped fly.

For those of you hoping for the kind of useful travelblog we promised, I´m sure Lycia will chime in anytime soon. Bad case of cheap overnight bus hangover for her. Seats too small, and seatmate snoring way too loudly, so she is catching up on much needed sleep.
Off to a 2 day Colca Canyon tour tomorow, for those following with maps at home. It was supposed to leave at 7 AM, but moved up to the comfortable time of 2 AM, to avoid the traffic snarls of the striking bus drivers. I think they are still mad at the school teachers for blocking traffic last week so this is in protest of that. Or something.

And once again, soon, I swear, we will be smart enough to post pictures, we have some amazing ones. Pics of me coming out of the shower will be for paid subscribers only. See you all soon. Hearts and stuff.

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