Huacachina, a far off land where the sun is always shining and the drinks are always triples.
It's a must see stop on the way from Lima to the Andes and we were promised 3 things here: Sandboarding, dune buggies, and sunsets so pretty they'll make you feel like you're on another planet.
Check. Check. Check.
We got straight off the bus and hopped into a dune buggy to head out to the sand dunes for some boarding. To say we went 'sandboarding' may or may not be a massive overstatement, I for one have ZERO boarding skills of any kind (apart from a very drunken snowboarding attempt in Jasper that included me being driven down the hill at dusk by a stranger on a snowmobile). I know that probably makes me a shitty Canadian, which our New Zealander dune buggy partners informed me of when I told them this. Jas is actually a decent snowboarder so none of this applies to her, I'm the only shitty one here.
Regardless of skill level, sand boarding was a fricken blast, our buggy driver took us 20 minutes into the desert, gave us a board and a piece of broken candle (presumably for waxing our boards or maybe to light as a signal if we got lost, he didn't speak much english so not 100% on which) and left. He may have used some hand signals and broken english to indicate that we were supposed to board down several hills and meet him yonder (I think) but either way he drove away with our bags and snacks so I was gonna find him.
We 'boarded' 3 big ass hills, mostly on our butts and stomachs, while the Kiwis showed us up, one of which was a fricken snowboard instructor, like thats fair. Suffice to say even boarding on my butt I managed to royally screw it up the first time (see crash video below).
I like to think I got better as the day went on, I think I only fell that once, professional Jas didn't at all. We were allowed to board down and walk up as many times as we liked, the whole thing was pretty amazing considering we paid about $25 for this whole experience and we were out in the desert for about 3 hours. They take you out, let you rip around, wait until the sun goes down so you can witness the magic and then pack you up (our guide did eventually return) for the fast, but fun trip back to Huacachina. One of the guys we spoke to out in the dunes was totally freaked out by the dune buggies and did not seem pleased by the level of jumping, hill climbing and generally reckless driving that was occurring on his ride up. We were definitely nervous starting out but once we got going it was 110% fun and 0% scary. Not calling that guy a baby or anything, but he was being a baby. Or maybe growing up in the Cariboo and four bying every weekend had qualified us for this a lot more than his childhood had. Call us hicks but we come prepared.
Check out my Instagram for more Huacachina photos @pcolemaan
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