WanderingWhy…

South of Lima, Peru is an oasis among the sand dunes. The area is called Huacachina, and it was a playground for the rich in years gone by. Huacachina is a few kilometers away from the main town of Ica, but it feels much further than that.

We arrived in Ica after dark with two new friends from South Africa. We met a cabbie in the bus station who took us to Huacachina. When we arrived in Huacachina, we checked into a hostel, had a snack, and went to bed without exploring the town.

In the morning we were amazed to see the landscape around us. It was like waking up in a surreal dream. This little town was tucked down within the sand dunes, with a lagoon in the middle. All around the lagoon were small hotels, restaurants and shops. The whole town could be walked in about 10 minutes, but it was one of the most amazing places I had ever seen.

Two of the main tourist activities in the town were sandboarding and dunebugging (is that a word?). We found a tour that encompassed both, and signed up. When we arrived for the tour, we were happy to see our friends from South Africa Lauren and Jo were going, too.

The tour started on the buggy. The driver raced out of town and into the dunes. You are strapped into the buggy child’s car seat style, with the straps over your shoulder and hooking between your knees. There are bars in front of you to hold on to as well. Which I did, while screaming my lungs out with Jo. The scary part of the ride was you never knew what was on the other side of the next dune. Was it a steep decline? Was it another hill? There was no way to get a good idea of where you were and where you were going. It was like a roller coaster on steroids, keeping you totally disoriented.

After racing around the dunes, the driver stopped on top of a hill. Here was where we were going to sandboard. The sandboards looked like pieces from the old formica table you had in your kitchen when you were a kid cut into snow board shape, with Velcro straps attached. They would wax the bottom like a surf board, you laid on the board on your stomach, held on to the Velcro straps, and off you went head first down the dune. The ride was so much fun, kind of like sledding when you were a kid, only warmer. When you got to the bottom, you were caked with sand. There was sand in your ears, your nose, your shoes, your bra. You brushed and dumped off what sand you could, plodded up to the top of the hill, and did it again.

And so our tour continued alternating dune buggy screaming and new hills to sandboard. At the end the driver took us to the top of a dune to watch the sun set. It was really beautiful seeing these rolling dunes with the sun dipping behind them. The landscape was like none I had ever experienced, and I was really blown away by it all. When we got back to town we dumped about two pounds of sand out of our shoes, and we are still cleaning the sand out of our ears. But it was totally worth it.

Bookmark To: