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Sandboarding to the extreame + Happy Birthday Nic!

Huacachina was to prove to be the most bizarre and surreal place that we have stayed in so far on our travels. Imagine that you are in the desert surrounded by sand dunes 100 metres tall that stretch as far as the eye can see, and that in the centre of this is an oasis with loads of palm trees around the edge. Sometimes it was hard to believe that we had not somehow been transported to Egypt or somewhere with similar characteristic features, but this was definately Peru, and a great 4 days was had here with the company of my fellow travellers.

The main aim for us here was to indulge in a bit of relaxation by the swimming pool of our hostal. I believe that this task was successfully completed with many hours spent lazing about catching the rays, trying desperatly to work on what has so far become a very British tan (T shirt lines galour!).

Straight away the hostal struck us as fairly different from others we have stayed in. The first sign was an Israel flag flying proudly above the door to the hostal. Second was the fact that the menu in the restaurant had a special Israeli breakfast and other dishes. Third was the fact that the huge majority of the people staying in this hostal didn`t seem to speak much English, something we had yet to experience, as so far, every other person we have met seems to be from good ole Blighty. We were quick to realise that we were in the minority, and a small group of us found ourselves in an "Us Vs Them" situation. Now don`t get me wrong, I have met some fantastic Israeli`s along the way, however here it seemed that the words "clique" and "alienate" were strongly on the minds of our co hostal residents, as they proceeded to act as if they in fact owned the hostal and that we clearly shouldn`t be there.

Despite this minor dispute, we threw ourselves eagerly into some of the others activities that Huacachina had to offer. The clear winner of this has to be dune buggying and sandboarding. As Nic`s 23rd (getting old eh!!) fell whilst we were here, we decided that there would be no better way to spend it than to experience a pure adrenaline rush, with the possible chance of flipping over in the sand whilst driving at some manic speeds. Clearly we haven`t learnt our lesson from the Bolivia jeep experience, so we eagerly jumped in the 8 seater open top jeep, with the craziest driver in town and set off at rip roaring speeds into the midst of the Peruvian desert. The 4 of us, joined by two Canadians we met here, Simon and Katie, had the best 2 1/2 hours flying along and up the sides of the steepest dunes you can imagine. Right from the start we were all sure that this guy was completly off his head, and he clearly wanted us to experience these dunes to the max.

At various points we stopped to try our luck with a sandboard. Now there were two ways in which to sandboard, the classic standing up position, or what I felt to be the more extreame, lying head first on the board and plummeting it down the hills at full speed. Naturally, I was immediately taken by the later option, and proceeded to throw myself head first down the sand dunes with little regard for my own safety. On the last attempt that we had, our driver instructed me to take two dunes together, riding down one before gliding off to the right and down the next one. Now, being at the top of the dune, its deceptive how steep they actually were, so it took me by surprise when I found myself flying at god knows what speed down the steepest dune with little hope of stopping myself. The only thing to do was to ride it out, and I can tell you that it happened to be quite a painful experience, but ultimately the funniest thing that I`ve done so far whilst away. With Chris and a group of other people who had sandboarded down before me waiting at the bottom of the hill, they apparantly watched and exclaimed `who the hell is this lunatic?`as I took to the sand. To me they were just a blur of colours as I zoomed past them at full pelt. I must have looked quite a spectacle and have been moving at some speed as I received a huge cheer when I finally came to a halt a good 50 metres from the bottom of the hill. All I can say is that I fully recommend that if you get the chance to have a go, do it, you won`t regret it. It`s definately worth that small risk of a few broken bones! Without a doubt the best extreame sport I`ve done since I`ve been away.

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