The day after Miraflores we took a 5 hour bus ride down the Pan-American highway to Ica and then to a small suburb of Huacachina. I doubt it even qualifies as a suburb, it is more of a lagoon surrounded by some hostels (ours had a chicken I guess) and restaurants. It is nestled in the middle of a desert with dunes towering over all sides of the town. After another delicious meal we explored around the lagoon and then went on a dune buggy ride to do some sand boarding. If you are curious sand boarding is a sure fire way to cram sand into every cranny of your body. You have two choices to get down the dunes: 1) Careen down head first with the board on your stomach 2) Strap yourself in and board down on your feet. While the latter takes more skill the former gets you much more speed since sand boarding usually brings a lot of sand up over your board and slows you down. I chose to board down and after a couple of runs you can get the hang of it though turning is next to impossible. I am proud to say I did not wipe out at all but somehow still managed to be completely covered in sand.
Strangely enough the previous peruvian driving rules did not apply to the dune buggy, though I guess the sand dunes don't have any rules either so it is tough to break them. Our driver did manage to get stuck on the top of a dune with his wheels hanging off the edge. So all the guys had to push him out and somehow I managed to get stuck being the one to push from behind the buddy right next to the engine. As he hit the gas all I could do was shut my eyes and mouth as tight as possible and push, I'm sure a picture would have been hillarious. After our last sand board our guide took us to a nice desert oasis that had some goats (I think) and then we were off to watch the sunset over the dunes.
Upon returning to the hostel we went for a swim in their pool to get rid of (most) of the sand and then head off for dinner. Huacachina is an awesome little town and definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip.
I also got a chance to see some interesting birds in Peru and for Tori I really tried to photograph as many as possible. In Huacachina I got two pretty good photos. Above you can see a Guanay Cormorant sitting on a rowboat with a large dune and sand boarders behind the lagoon. Next we have a Vermilion Flycatcher. This little guy is an attractively coloured male.
