Huacachina (September 11th - 13th, 2013)

Huacachina is a desert oasis, a village that's home to about four families. After our fun sand boarding experience near Nazca, we were looking forward to some more action in the sand. In addition to sand boarding, one other traveler had recommended that we try a dune buggy ride in Huacachina. Thus, on the day of arrival, we went on an afternoon ride with a buggie. Honestly, it was the best fun I've had in South America! It was a bit like a roller coaster ride, but just so much better. Some Colombians on the same buggy were laughing the whole time, and I nearly as much.

We'll never forget that dune buggie

Once we had been taken up to the dunes, we would sand board down. This time, we tried going down standing and sitting too, but at the longest slope, our guide told us once again to lie down for safety reasons. Our fantastic afternoon ended with a beautiful sunset at the dunes.

Perhaps this gives you a vague idea of the sunset we saw

The next day, we went sand boarding again, but without the help of the buggy. Radek sand boarded the whole morning, and I a little in the afternoon. As we had to carry our sand boards up ourselves, we only went up small slopes and focused more on the standing technique. It was not easy, but still fun.

For lunch, we went to Ica - a much larger town close to Huacachina, because we needed to withdraw some cash. Moreover, food was substantially cheaper in Ica.

We also went swimming in the pool at our hostel. It was nice and refreshing, and we had some great company. We met Edgar and Verena, a German couple who had been working in Austria for several years, and talked with them the whole morning about life, the universe and everything.  

Some more pictures of the sand can be seen here.