Sand Roller Coaster

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Yesterday we took the bus from Nazca to Ica, our last destination on the way to Lima. The afternoon was spent in the pool. As we had two rooms, Ed and I were dorm mates and we played some chess. Hat had her first lesson and picked up the key concepts.
An early breakfast, to avoid the hottest part of the day, and we headed out to the oasis at Huacachina. A green pool fringed by date palms and surrounded on all sides by very high dunes.
We took a lap and had a chat with a local tour about sand bugging and dine surfing. We thought the buggy just got you to gorge tip of the huge dunes, but we were in for an adrenalin fuelled surprise. We should have guessed as we were all strapped in with racing harnesses. The buggy sped up and down dunes and took centrifugal banks at great speed. It really was very very fast! The shrieks of enjoyment from the kids (and Cas) was brilliant, Hat in particular made a great deal of noise for one so small and she summed it up as we raced along: 'it's a roller coaster on sand, frightening yet fun'.
The dunes go on for miles and you can begin to imagine how inhospitable a dessert would be.
We stopped at the top of a dune and got out to try our hand at dune surfing. Ed was a natural and he raced down in straight lines. I was rubbish, so reverted to sand sledging instead.
The route home had the biggest drop of them all and Cas and I had jelly legs by the time we returned to the oasis.
Both Ed and Hat thought it was the best day so far.
We catch the final bus of our Peruvian tour at 2pm and will be back in Lima for 7.

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