Peru: Sandboarding in Huacachina
This was a stop we had been most looking forward to in South America. A tiny manmade town bang in the middle of the Peruvian desert where tourists go to spend a day sandboarding down the desert hills! We were heading here from Huaraz, which wasn't the simplest of journeys. One day bus to Lima, a few hours chilling in a cafe before another bus to Ica. All in all it was a long days travelling, and we arrived in Huacachina (only a short taxi ride from Ica) at 1am. We headed to Wild Olive hostel and went straight to sleep that night.
In the morning, we went to sit outside and enjoy the incredible free breaky offered by the hostel, only to discover that we had literally woken up in the middle of the desert! We knew this was where we were headed, but the stark contrast of the morning view to anything we had seen on this trip so far made it all the more magical. After breakfast we excitedly set off to explore the town. It really is tiny, so after wandering through the markets and stopping for a coffee en route, we had pretty much seen it all within a couple of hours. As we were walking, we passed a row of dune buggies and our eyes lit up. Within 5 minutes we were strapped into a 4-man dune buggy absolutely flying over the desert hills. The whole ride lasted an hour and from start to finish the 4 of us did not stop squealing and giggling, the driver probably thought we were crazy.
The sand boarding trip left at 6pm from the hostel, when we were picked up again by another dune buggy just like the one we'd been on that afternoon. We couldn't contain our excitement as we realised the sand boarding tour also involved another hour of dune buggies across the sand. The feeling of racing up the hills then flying over the top was insane, and as we turned round we had the most amazing view off the mountains in the back. The actual sandboarding was equally as thrilling, we opted for the less-professional option whereby you just lay on your front and fly down the hills face first. We each had 4 runs, each run the hill got even bigger. The last one was two separate hills in one, gathering momentum on the first then flying down the second. The tour finished off at sunset where we walked up to one of the highest points and watched the sun fall in the sky. All in all, probably the best tenner we've spent all trip!
