Farewell kiss from the municipality worker...

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We took a taxi from the Ica bus terminal out to the desert oasis of Huacachina. This oasis is surrounded by the highest sandunes in America. As we were arriving in the dark it was amazing to see the dunes once the sun had risen.

Our taxi delivered us to a hotel where he said we could find breakfast at 5 30 a.m. We were greeted by a man at reception who led us to the pool bar area and woke up the bartender who was sleeping under the bar with a pillow and sleeping bag. The bartender was very jovial upon being awoken at such an odd hour and agreed that he too would have coffee, that is, after he found a match to light the stove with.

We sat poolside for about an hour or two simply because there was nothing open and nothing to do. We eventually decided we had worn out our welcome and decided to take a walk around the town. Packs in tow we wandered through the tiny village. Our travel books told us that this was a party place, it was obvious everyone had partied all night because nobody was awake and nothing was open. Eventually we found a small cafe, where we had breakfast, more coffee and then tea, just to keep extending our welcome. We met three young evangelists from the U.S. who had been in Peru volunteering. One of them had been here before and he told us the sandboarding and sand buggy rides were really exciting. He told us a place where we could book one of these tours. Once the town started to pick up a little bit we walked to the other end of the oasis lagoon and booked an afternoon dune buggy tour. We were told that our price did not include the tax which had to be paid per passenger to the local municipality office.

Being the concientious Canadians that we are, we headed off to find the municipality office. We entered the building and repeatedly insisted that we were looking to pay our taxes. The spanish-speaking clerks had no idea what we were looking to do and at one point we had five people speaking to us in Spanish. Finally we got the idea that once we boarded the dune buggy we would be brought by the driver to a municipality worker who would collect the tax from everyone on the dune buggy. Upon this realization we all laughed and they wished us a good day and said they would see us later. We still had a lot of time to spare until our trip so we continued to walk and wander through the now busy lagoon village. We repeatedly met the same officer on patrol from the municipality office who gave us a friendly hola! and wave each time we passed.

Finally we headed off on our orange dune buggy with a Peruvian family of four girls and their mother and father, with Laura and Anne in the back seats.....we immediately drove over to the municipality office where we successfully paid our taxes. We have certainly learnt that Peru has tax for EVERYTHING, it seems we are always paying 1 sole or two soles every move we make.

The buggy started off with a roar and we were on our way up the sandune. We thought the climb up the first dune was very exciting but had no idea what was ahead. Once we were over the first dune from the Oasis, we had the most amazing desert views with sandunes as far as we could see. We stopped for a photo and it was absolutely breathtaking. We climbed back into the buggy and took off like a shot! Over dunes, flying down steep descents and bouncing all over the place. This was a fantastic adrenaline rush until as we bounced over a major bump Laura´s seatbelt broke!! We quickly screamed Pare! Pare! for the driver to stop and Anne tried her best to keep Laura in the buggy. The driver did not appear phased at the sight of the snapped metal bolts, he simply reached for a coat hanger and fastened the seat belt shut to the back of the seat. We then continued on and the ride became more and more wild and thrilling - maybe more so for Laura than anyone else knowing that her life was dependant on the strength of a coathanger.

For the sandboarding portion of the tour we stopped with another buggy group at the top of a moderate dune. We were each given a board and instructed to lie down, head first. The two buggy drivers pushed us down, screaming! It was a big like tobogganing but very strange going facefirst and getting a mouthful of sand. We progressed to steeper and steeper hills as the afternoon went on. Laura was very proud of Anne because she successfully boarded head first down all but the final hill. She did very well especially considering she was the oldest person on any of the buggies. Anne´s claim to fame is that the other much younger mother on the buggy did not even go down one! On the second hill Anne decided it would be easier to sit up toboggoning style and it turned out it was not easier, as she took a few summersaults down the hill. On her final hill, she was back to going facefirst and hit a series of severe bumps that sent her glasses flying and she narrowly missed running into all the other boarders at the bottom of the hill.

After the first hill, Laura decided it would be more of a challenge to try to stand on the board and surf down the hill. Laura successfully descended all of the hills while surfing on the board. The final hill is hard to describe but steeper than most skihills and extremely huge. Only a few of the people attempted to board down this hill. Only two people stood on their boards while going down the hills - Laura and a young guy. Laura´s claim to fame is that on one of the hills, the young guy who was showing off to the crowds below, had a major wipeout. Laura the last to descend the hill had a very smooth descent and received a round of applause by the other boarders. Laura loved this experience and can´t wait to do it again - maybe Sahara next time? haha...Watch for photos!

Eventually we returned to the village where we discovered we had brought most of the sand back with us in our clothing. We both felt as though we had never been dirtier in our lives, finding sand in places we didn´t know sand could get.

As we walked from the buggy station with our packs towards the main lagoon for dinner, we met the municipal officer once again. He asked us how we enjoyed our buggy ride and many questions about our time in Peru. We did our best to understand his speedy Spanish questions and hopefully answered the majority correctly. We do know that he asked us if we would return to Peru, to which we replied ¨Yes¨. He then wished us a good journey home and hugged and kissed both of us. As we walked away we could only laugh about how ridiculous we must have appeared when we were trying to pay taxes but appreciated how kind the workers were to us, especially this one gentleman.

We enjoyed an early dinner and a couple of cervezas to celebrate our xtreme sports thrill before heading on yet another bus, this time bound for Lima. We arrived in Lima late in the night, showered away the sand and slept soundly.

As we write this update, we are now in Lima and flying home tonight. It feels like we have been gone a long time as we have seen so many interesting things and met so many nice and interesting people. Peru has so much to offer that it is impossible to see it all in one trip and both of us agree that we must return soon.

We are looking forward to meeting Mike tomorrow at the airport and arriving home safely. Anne is looking forward to checking out her garden while Laura is going to have to pack a new suitcase for California with Mike on Friday.

We are going to spend the afternoon walking around Lima and hopefully visiting a few cultural sites before heading to the airport.

Thanks for reading our blog during our trip! We are looking forward to seeing everyone sometime soon!

Love to all,

Laura and Anne

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