Sandboarding!

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After the tropical jungle of Ecuador, the desert scenery of Peru has come as a real surprise, but we put it to great use in Sand boarding and dune buggying in Huachachina.

Huachachina is a handful of fancy colonial hotels and restaurants clustered around a secluded oasis (complete with palm trees and a lagoon) in the middle of the desert, seven hours south of Lima. It was apparently created as a get-away hideout for South America´s rich and famous, and features on the back of their fifty sole note. But the rich and famous no longer come, and the backpackers have moved in - forcing beautiful hotels to become budget hostels just to stay afloat!

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The dune buggying was really exhilarating. The buggy had helicopter-style two-shoulder seat belts and roll-bars, which to be fair should have been our first clue as to what to expect! So after an awesome roller coaster ride over the stunning sand dunes, during which I´m not sure we ever had four wheels on the ground, we stopped atop a dune to sandboard - think snowboarding, but with Velcro straps and no concept of safety. And my gosh, sand got everywhere! Especially when we swapped from sandboarding to sledging on the boards headfirst!

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So after watching the sunset over the desert we skimmed back to the oasis over the dunes. It´s not a bad life is it!

Next stop, either Nazca to see the famous lines, or if that´s too expensive, down to Canyon County!