sandboarding

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Huaychina is south of lima and i stopped off here to break the trip to arequipa. the little settlement is surrounded by sanddunes which are really tall. the attraction is to take these sand buggy tours which include sandboarding which is akin to snowboarding except there´s less control. signing up for a sanddune/sandboarding tour that was supposed to leave at 10 a.m., i was informed that it wouldn´t leave until noon because the authorities were investigating a pair of sandbuggy fatalities where an 18 year old driver and a 30 year old italian tourist had been killed when the sand rail rolled over as it was climbing a hill. well that news gave me pause but i figured that with such a mishap so recently in mind, the drivers would be all the more careful...right? so a group of seven went off on the tour to learn how to sandboard and it was anything but manageable. most of us found it easier to ride the boards laying down and the dunes were high enough to make that really fun and exciting...every descent was accompanied by sand infiltrating every crevice in your clothes.

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Photos

see those specks on the dunes
those spots are sandboarders on the dune behind the hostal. if it looks like the dune is pretty high, thats cuz it is really high

me and the dune buggy
notice the complacent look on my face. this cant be dangerous

yeehaw
the driver of the second buggy was a trainee...extra cautious

inspecting the downhill section
sitting atop the steepest dune, everyone waited while our group took off one at a time