Sandboarding in Huacachina

Paul had been keen to go sandboarding ever since Franco in Salta told us about it.  The place to do it is Huacachina - a tiny oasis 5km from Ica that's surrounded by huge sand dunes.  

It was so nice, we ended up staying three nights.  It was particularly hard to leave because we'd found a hostel with a pool that let us park in their car park, right next to the pool (and sand buggies) and use their facilities for £2 a night each.

The first day we were in Huacachina, we climbed up the highest dune we could see!

The view was fantastic - tiny little Huacachina on one side and masses and masses of sand on the other.

Sandboarding itself could be done on either a traditional wooden board or a snowboard (boots, bindings and all).  The wooden boards were very rigid, so we paid extra for snowboards.  Paul was ok on the sand, but I had trouble even going straight down the dune as there was so much friction!  The guys on the wooden boards were all just going down on their stomachs, which looked like loads more fun, so Paul and I traded in our snowboards for a couple of the dunes (we went down about half a dozen in total).  

But the best thing about the sandboarding trip was our transport!

A crazy dune buggy with an even crazier driver called Jesus!  He took us up and down impossible-looking slopes, with big drops that made it feel like a rollercoaster - a bit like dune bashing in Doha but more rollercoaster-esque.

The funniest bit was the way Jesus parked - hanging precariously over the edge of the slopes we were boarding down.  I think next time we travel, Paul might want us to get a dune buggy...