Rafting and Sandboarding

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After arriving in Arequipa, we got ourselves organised and found a supermarket. Found the essentials like peanut butter, avocados and tuna!! Trying to keep the budget down we make full use of the kitchen at the hostels even if sometimes the chef doesn´t like us in there much!

We organised a rafting trip, both of us being whitewater virgins, it was loads of fun. I suppose to a hard core rafter, they were very gentle grade II and III raids, with a heaps fun grade IV thrown in for a short distance. After the grade IV, the rest was pretty sedate compared to it, but it was defintily lots of fun! Even finally got to crack out the ´waterproof´feature on the camera!!

The next few days in Arequipa were very lazy indeed, wandering the whitewashed buildings, lazing in front of the DVD with other travellers and the Peruvian family that run the place. Our last night in Arequipa was good fun with some drinking games and a few dangerous mojitos made by the dreadlocked Isreali barman that had definitly spent far too long in South America, over 2.5 years to be exact!

We spent a very boring day, waiting for our 10pm bus to Ica, the buses in Peru definitly leave the Bolivian buses behind. Waiting rooms, check in lounges, free internet, and finally we got a movie and in English, but as it was so late, we fell asleep for a very uncomfortable, 11 hours to Ica. At least it was our last overnight bus in South America!!

Got to Ica and straight into the taxi to Huacachina. A tiny little place around a lagoon, just outside Ica surrouned by massive sand dunes.

In the afternoon, we went dune buggying and sand boarding. The dune buggies were definitly purpose built and totally out of the control. The drivers obviously get a kick out of giving the gringos a fright, some of the dunes are nearing 90 degrees, up and down, going up all you can see is sky and coming down, just weightlessness! Better than a show ride!

The sandboarding is nothing like snowboarding, but just laying on your tummy after the driver waxes yor bard with candle wax, you work up some serious speed flying down the dunes! As we returned back to the tiny Huacachina, the G banger looked decidedly green!! A little motion sickness maybe...
The buggying being a definte on the highlight reel of the past 6 weeks!! Only in South Aerica would it even be legal!

Tomorrow we are back on the bus headed for the grey metropolis that is Lima.

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