So three days have gone by in a blur!

We left Lima on the 4th and spent 5 hours on a lovely bus - air con and a little clingfilmed sandwich handed out half way. Cracking. Once you left central Lima the landscape to my right turned incredibly barren and desert-like. Some of the little towns we went through were fascinating and some I was glad to be on a one-way mirrored window bus haha. The landscape to my left turned into the pacific sea (as we were trundling along the coast).

When we got to Ica bus station it was about 7.30 and already dark. Slightly concerned that we didnt want to be stuck in a dodgey situation, we ended up meeting a taxi driver called William. He was awesome. He was a tour guide as well so was able to tell us all about Ica and the neighbouring tiny oasis that is Huacachina. He also nicknamed me Jerry so he could call us "tom and jerry" because thats what his young son loved to watch (he had 5 children and only one was a boy - he said girls were too much toruble haha).

Desert Nights was to be our hostel of choice. We wandered through the busy veranda-come-resturant and shown to our room. Basic but clean and bathroom right next to it. Had some dinner, played some cards, had a beer and walked around Huacachina......which took all of 10 mins at an amble, its that small!

The next day we booked onto a sandboarding and dune buggy tour for the evening so you catch the sunset (and boy what a sunset that was). As we were waiting to get going, Tom got chatting to an American lady and English guy. The american lady wisely advised me to wear longer shorts otherwise you end up with sandburn, man I was glad she told me that.

We jumped into the buggy and zoomed off into the dunes. The drivers are so skilled and know the dunes so well that their need for speed was epic. You knew something big was coming when you were thrust back in your seat, slowly going up a massive hill......you hit the tip of the dune.....and FLEW down the other side!!!!!! amazing.

We stopped at the top of another huge hill and I expected us to go flying down it......but no, the driver stopped and started to get the sandboards out......I thought to myself "no, surely we´re going down a different hill....this one is way too massive and steep......". I was wrong.

Everyone seemed quite hesitant to get going and wanted to watch other people, just to make sure you could get to the bottom still alive. Tom was brave and decided to do it standing on his board and he pottered off down the hill looking quite professional. I stood there clutching my board wondering if anyone would notice if I hid in the buggy! Anyway I siddled over to two german girls (who looked just as nervous as I felt) and our driver. As I tired to ask my driver in brken spanish if there was a smaller hill, he doubled over laughing, took my board and indicated I should lay on it and go down face first......couldnt back out now.

I laid on the board, held onto the straps for dear life and he pushed me off down the slopes (nicely saying "Small girl go Bye Bye"....reassuring). Jesus you didnt half fly down that hill! We then did 3 more hills after that which got bigger and bigger. The last hill was so steep you couldnt see the bottom of it! The driver then did some adrenaline-happy buggying over hills and stopped to let us watch the sun-set. It was unbelievable.

The next day was so relaxing. Full of food, reading, chilling, more eating, and Tom and I decided to climb the massive sandune facing our hostel. Dude its masssssssiveeee. When you get to the top you have an amazing view of Huacachina, the shanty town on the other side of the dune, the dessert stretching into the sunset and lastly the view of Ica and the mountains behind it.

Tom convinced me to run down the side of the dune, seriously. I very daintily ran down with little steps and suddenly this whirlwind of sand came flying past me and a crazy voice "I´M COMING I´M COMING!" - it was Tom. I couldn´t stop laughing, he looked like a cartoon character!

It is now the 7th and after 3 days here I´ve fallen in love with it. The people are friendly, its pretty safe, there are lots of locals, the food is great, you get to play in the sand and apart from the occasional waft of toilet, its up there in best places to visit.

Off on a bus at 6.30, 18 hours and we´ll be in Cuzco!

Lots of love xxxxxxx