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So from the coastal suburbs of Miraflores in Peru's capital, Lima, we headed south by way of a 4 hour bus journey to the city of Ica.
From here, we took a 5 minute taxi journey to the desert town of Huacachina. To say the taxis in this part of the country are small would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure they are exact replicas of Simon's car from The Inbetweeners - yellow and skin tight. Multiple oversized non nationals plus their oversized baggage do not go easily into to these little motors, primarily built for the purpose of diving through seemly nonexistent gaps in the traffic, invisible to the non-trained western eye.
Huacachina is the definition of a one horse town. With a population of around 200, the desert town is built around an oasis and is surrounded by huge sand dunes on every side. And it's these dunes that explain the somewhat inexplicable existence of this town which is literally in the middle of nothing. The one horse that everyone has come to bet on is sand boarding.
But before we got down to that, we decided it was time to see what the local nightlife had to offer....lots!
I got my first taste of the local jungle juice - pisco sours and chiclanos. I don't even know how to describe these drinks, suffice to say they've got pisco (the most popular of the local liquors), egg white, lemon juice and a whole lot of other crazy - you guys will just have to come sample them for yourselves someday!
The only thing stranger than the drinks were the looks from the local girls. Unlike the reluctance of the westerner to make even the briefest of eye contact, the girls here will quite happily look you straight on the eye, point, laugh, smile, dance and even ask to get their picture taken with you. It was bizarre yet refreshing.
So to the sand - our sand buggy seated about 12 and can only be described as a beast. We heard it before we saw it. Made up of 4 big rubber wheels with a little air let out for increased grip on the dunes, a substantial roll cage, bucket seats and belts all built around a large engine block the beast made an awesome noise. The driver knew only 2 speeds - fast and faster. He proceeded to bully all of the lesser vehicles off the road and we were quickly on the dunes. The journey across the dunes was like a roller coaster on steroids - great craic!
The panoramic views from the top the massive dunes were breath taking - I only hope my camera can do them some justice. Next we got down to the boarding. We waxed up our boards before Lowercase lead the charge down the first of about 10 large, steep slopes. It was a great buzz and we were travelling at quite a rate before we reached the bottom.
The cold set in fast as the sun disappeared so our driver fast tracked it back to base on full beams but thankfully with no less speed than the out lap.
So, with a head full of sand we packed up our gear and headed for the bus station. And I don't think any of us regretted paying a little extra for our fully reclining super comfortable seats for the 12 hour overnight bus south to our next stop Arequipa.
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