Day 20

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Huacachina

So we got up at about 8:30 so I can go more sandboarding. Dad didn´t want to go, so he took a vineyard tour instead. So he left and about a half hour later, I left for the dune buggy/sandboarding tour. Before going into the dessert, we all have to sign a manifest, as I looked down the list, there were 2 Americans, 2 spaniards, 1 french, 1 german, and 1 dude from Japan! I was so impressed I said ¨Hola! Bejour! Gutentag! Konichiwa! Hey whats up?¨

The tour before was pretty nice, but this guy knew how to use a dune buggy! I want a helping of whatever his mom fed him that morning! He was going up giant dunes, grabbing air, and popping donuts in the sand! The dunes we sandboarded today were MUCH bigger than the ones yesterday. You can either slide down the board on your stomach or on your feet. I wanted to master the art of standing on your feet. Yes, I became friends with the sand a few times, but I got a hang of the smaller dunes. Then it came time for me to be the hero of the day on the mother of all dunes. About 5 or 6 stories at about an 80 degree angle. Sounds bigger than it reads as you can imagine. So I strapped in and just went for it. I was doing fine at first, keeping my balance and then it got faster. As I approached a bump in the sand, I began to have second thoughts....come to think of it, I hadn´t any first thoughts. If you were watching the scene from a distance, you would see a tiny ragdoll being flung into the air followed my girly screams of terror. I managed to land on the only piece of trash in the entire dessert and cut my face a little.

After my little episode, I had to climb up the sand dune I just fell down so I can get back in the dune buggie. It was farther then I thought, so you could picture that cliche movie scene of an exhausted tourist walking through the dessert. I wanted to stop at the ice cream bar/wet t-shirt contest in the middle of the dessert, but there was no guarantee on that image. After the thrill ride through the dunes back into town, I went to have a nice lunch at a small-time restaraunt by the oasis. Came back to the hostal and surfed the internet room they had for the cost of 33 cents american. Dad came back and had lunch. afterwards we climbed onto a cheap local bus back to Lima. Half way through the ride we realized we were short on money. Oh well, the bank was close by. That was yesterday, today we go to the zoo!

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