Somewhere between Arequipa and Lima on the west coast, lies "Hauchachina", an oasis town surrounded by countless 'mountain sized' sand dunes, of which can only be described as a ´sandboarders´ paradise; and that's exactly what many travelling gringos visit for.
Having done a fair bit of snowboarding in the past, I was keen to try out this newer extreme sport, however had been warned that 'sand' was much harder to lean into to make turns whilst heading downhill, and nothing prepared me for the 60+ meter sized dune slopes out there in the desert.
How did I fair? Well I strapped my damaged right knee with 2 bandages and a brace before attempting this one, which worked pretty well, however my mobility was seriously impeded, so there was 'no way' I was going to look cool in any photos. As the dunes got higher and steeper (resembling those death-defying water-park slides), more people went down on their bellies instead, which I'll have to say was far scarier than standing up because there was only 2 ways to stop, and one insane Kiwi guy ended up concussed for the whole next day having experienced the worse option.
In order to get out there, 8 of us were piled into huge, noise making dune-buggies with some serious horsepower onboard. Not soon into the trip I was convinced that our driver possibly had the best job on the continent, as he continued to speed up, around, over and down the steep sloped dunes like a madman, all while his passengers screamed in delight.
I can best describe the whole experience for novice sandboarders as a serious novelty akin to some of the best rollercoasters I´ve been on, so regardless of whether people actually boarded or not, the buggy riding in itself was TOTALLY worth the experience alone.AWESOME STUFF ;P
