Huacachina Desierto

While on the street in La Paz our first day there, three Canadian girls approached Susannah and I, asking about the exchange rate. We told them what we knew, and moved on. About a week later we happened to be sitting next to them on a bus and chit-chatted about travels. One girl said to us, ¨Have you ever been to a desert?¨ Sure, probablly, I mean, lots of things are called deserts, right. ¨No, no,¨ she said, ¨Like, a REAL desert. Look.¨ She showed us a picture on her camera, and then I understood what she meant---- full on sahara style desert with curvy sand in every direction for miles on end.

My last stop before parting ways with Susannah to make my way back to Chile was Huacachina, a small town in the middle of a sand desert (cause, well, deserts usually are sand and all...) 10 minutes outside of the city of Ica, Peru. It was amazing, to say the least. We went in a ¨car¨ (like the one below) to head out for our hr. of sandboarding... which entailed a lot more than just sandboarding.



First, we stoped at a police check point and our driver (one of the sons of the the family who ran our hotel) argues with the police for a good 20 minutes. As Susannah, the 3 English boys in the back and I try to figure out what is going on we realize (mostly from hand gestures and the tone of the yelling) that he doesn´t have a proper license. Suddenly, peace is made... oh, whats this, the police man and his friend are getting in the car with us---- should I feel releaved that I get to go or unsure of the fact that I´m in a car with an un-licensed driver that just bribbed the police with a ride? Thats Peru for ya! We then head at a REALLY fast rate straight up these gi-normous hills of sand, and quickly figured out that sandboarding also included a Disney Amusement Park-esque ride up and down and in circles on the sand. At one point we went straight up, and then straight down, and when I say straight I mean a good 90 degrees down, in this car. Susannah was freaking just a little (rightly so!) but I (surprisingly) loved it. We stopped a few times at the top of big hills to go sandboarding... basically snowboarding but on sand. Since I´ve never snowboarded before, I instead did more of a sledding on the sand, but on my stomach. I went soooo fast I can´t even tell you. It was scary, but so fun. And then of corse we made our stop for the police guys to create their own shooting range in the desert sand.... shady say what?????

We went for another ride that night where we saw the sun setting over the desert, and this time I mean it for real when I say this was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. My favortite place in South America no doubt. It must be like seeing the ocean for the first time as an adult---- just being blown away by the beauty of something natural, so much bigger than anything you can ever imagine. And the solitude of it was part of the experience, feeling like you are the only person in the world. It was great. Dangerous, but great.