Huacachina

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This place should be on the ´top places to visit in Peru´ if it isn´t already. Huacachina´s charm, weather and attitude have been just a few of the reasons for my extended stay. Here I sleep in, eat a hearty american breakfast by the pool in my bathing suit, tuck in and check emails, etc when the sun is at it´s hottest (around 10-11am given the proximity to the equator), and in the afternoon lie in the hammocks, read and write in my journal. It´s been 4 days of this, and likely another few before I catch a 4 hour bus to Lima from where I fly home 6 days from now. Huacachina is close to the city of Ica, a town of 200,000 on the southern peruvian coast. Huacachina itself is a full-fledged desert oasis complete with a large ´lake´, nice hotels and the best espegeti bolognese that i have had in 2 months. The other day I opted for some activity, and decided on the main local attraction--sandboarding. It´s nothing like snowboarding, other than the board you use, and despite many attempts I was never successful at navigating down a dune without a spectacular (and quite soft) crash at the bottom. You have to lean way back, contrary to everything taught in ski or snowboard schools, and turning is almost impossible. Your options are to go straight down, they wax the boards with gasoline or some other petroleum product, and you can get going really fast, and your other option is to go on edge, where you risk catching the other edge and rolling down the dune.
The best part of the day was buggying, and the 40sol it all cost was more than worth it. Meanwhile, I´ll be here in Huacachina, relaxing and getting excited about all Canada, and Kingston has to offer.
Good news, I have passed all my courses and my major project was accepted. Graduation...October 27th. yeeeeeah!

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Photos

view of the dunes from my bed
quite pretty, and it was from here that I watched and prepared myself for sandboarding.

the huacachina oasis
from high up on a sandune above my hotel (visible, bottom right, yellow)
quite the place.

just so you remember what i look like
what a peaceful place, way up on a dune at dusk.

upside-down moon
a lovely happening in south america, i don´t recall ever seeing the moon like this in canada..

dune buggying...
what a rush, the g-forces were in full effect as we roller-coastered up down and across the desert. a thrilling ride.

sand boarding...
wooden, with fiberglass bottoms. they use a petroleum product to ´wax´ for each ride down, and they would pick you up at the bottom in the buggy. deceptively difficult.

2 dunes
my time spent on ski hills made this all a very surreal experience

double black diamond
yes, that´s another person center-right of the photo.