The desert surrounding Huacachina
4 km west of Ica there is a small lagoon which is dominated and surrounded by giant sand dunes. This place is called Huacachina and is inhabited by a small community who primarily cater to adrenaline seekers. The time we spent at the hotel sunbathing, swimming in the pool, and drinking cocktails at the bar was very pleasant but not exactly the main purpose for our visit.
At 4 pm we joined the rest of the group outside the hotel and took a seat onboard the “buggy”. The buggy is a 7-seater vehicle which looks like it was made for traveling on the moon. It had huge wheels, an exposed engine and a huge metal bubble-like frame which enclosed the entire thing. When this thing drove on the sand there was no stopping it. Our driver raced across the desert at stupid speeds, ascended huge dunes only to drop down over the other side. This nearly always caused screams from everyone onboard. It was so much fun. At times I found it difficult to breathe because we were going so fast. The ride was exhilarating and the views were equally as breathtaking. We could see nothing but 260 degrees of sand. It was incredible!
The sand buggy on the dune
The best part was when the driver drove up one of the biggest dunes then stopped right at the top to let us sand board all the way back down to the bottom. He did however make it very clear that we shouldn’t go down in a straight line as it would be very dangerous. The speeds you can reach going straight down, as supposed to diagonally, is really quite insane and if anything were to happen mid-way, you would most definitely break a few bones. Ali, of course not afraid of such threats, couldn’t have raced down the dune straighter or faster if she tried. Despite further warnings from our guide, she still preferred the more direct route down the dune claiming “the board wouldn’t let me go any other way”. I on the other hand lacked confidence to begin with (as would anyone else who has never touched a board of any kind, i.e. surf, skate, snow etc) but towards the end I started to get the hang of it and even quite fancied myself as a pro. We both had so much fun it was brilliant. And as if all that wasn’t enough to satisfy our hunger for incredible experiences, we even got to enjoy the sunset over the sand dunes.
Ali in action
