Sandboarding above the oasis

At the moment I'm staying in the beautiful oasis village of Huacachina, which sits amidst towering sand dunes close to Ica, a major city on Peru's coastline south of Lima. I left Lima on Monday on my way through from Huaraz; meeting a bunch of nice people in my hostel along the way. This is the sort of building that characterizes Miraflores, the more modern part of Lima:



Huacachina is a popular tourist destination for Peruvians living nearby, but its idyllic loation is attracting more and more foreigners too. I didn't know such beautiful oases existed.



Lots of locals go swimming in the pool, in which it is reputed a mermaid has her abode.



Yesterday a few of us from my hostel went on an excellent buggy trip into the desert, where we drove at high speed across the extraordinary landscape, and had a go at sandboarding too. All the hotels run these trips at the same time, in the late afternoon. Any earlier than about 4pm, it is too hot to go sandboarding. I tried to walk up a sand dune at about 1pm on the day I arrived, and after about ten metres I was running and squealing like a little girl into the nearest bit of shade, the sun was so hot!









Sandboarding turns out to be much harder than snowboarding (or that was our excuse). The sand isn't very responsive and when you land on it, it's a lot harder than powder. But it's still great fun! After a couple of disastrous foot attempts, most of us decided the stomach option was preferable.





I'm next going to head to Nazca, the location of the famous and enigmatic Nazca Lines. Whether my budget will stretch to a flight over the lines waits to be seen. Either way, I'll probably spend one night in Nazca before getting on the very long bus journey to Cuzco.