Learning To Sandboard

When we first heard about the huge sand dunes in Huacachina we were a little skeptical about them. In Vietnam, we’d visited the pretty but underwhelming dunes at Mui Ne the year before. Fellow backpackers and bloggers assured us that sandboarding in Peru was something we had to try. All buses from Cusco to Lima go via Ica so there was lots of choice on buses, as it was 14 hours overnight we decided to treat ourselves to the 'Cama Total' seats downstairs. 

Unfortunately, we chose a rubbish company and when we boarded the bus all we could smell was wee, the toilet had leaked. Great. We reluctantly took our seats and within minutes were almost blown away by a mariachi band. Were we in Mexico? For some reason the dvd of choice was a mariachi concert and they were playing it full whack out of the speakers. "The people on buses face said WTF!”. We looked at each other and laughed, it was going to be one of those journeys.

Little did we know at the time that this bus route is known as the worst in Peru. The road is incredibly windy as it works it way down from over 3,000m ASL to practically sea level. It was impossible to sleep as we were being tossed from left to right, thankfully nobody was sick which is often the case on this route. We made it to sunny Ica completely knackered and shared a cab for the ten minute drive to Huacachina right next to the mighty sand dunes.

"Nice wheels!"

We chose to stay at the Banana Adventure Hostel as you get your sand buggy and sand boarding activity in your room rate. Our long journey had worn us out so we took a strategic power nap. A few hours later we were feeling refreshed and ready to surf the enormous sand dunes that surrounded us. We climbed into the middle row of a very cool, bright green sand buggy with ten others from our hostel. The seat belts were like the harnesses you wear on roller coasters and we had no idea what we had just strapped ourselves in for.

"Sand buggy #SELFIE"

The entrance to the sand dunes was less than two minutes away so, it wasn’t long until we were speeding through the sand desert. The sand dunes were huge and the sides were super steep, all we could see was  golden sand. Our driver was great fun. We sped to the top of a dune where we were blind to the height of it, slowed down a little at the edge, and, when we saw the 25 metre near vertical drop we were going to drive down we’d all scream. It was hilarious! Amazingly our buggy never rolled and we loved every minute on this sandy rollercoaster.

After admiring the view at our first stop we were each given a wooden board to match our size. And that was it.

We were left to our own devices at the warm up dune, which was only 10 metres and not that steep. Ideal training conditions for amateurs like us.

Steve ‘confidently’ went first.

"Watch and learn!"

After a successful first run, Steve was now a qualified instructor.

Lesson one for Vicky. Stand up.

Lesson two. Raise your hand if you have any questions.

"#FAIL."

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

"Looking good!"

"At least its a soft landing!"

Training lasted about 10 minutes and then we followed our driver to the top of a much larger dune. This dune was at least 30m and much steeper. 

"He's got it!"

It was clear Vicky would not be able to stand up, so, along with rest of the girls chose to board on her stomach. 

There was a little more advice given here, elbows in and feet in the air. No mention of feet to brake though! It was sooo much faster than standing. More screams and giggles for Vicky! #WIN

The best bit was that was that our buggy was waiting for us at the bottom of each dune. Then we would whizz to the top of another huge dune and do it all again! Brilliant!

"Just head straight over that curve. Gulp!"

"Done."

Our final sand dune was quite intimidating, very steep and about 70m long. We watched another group brave this one before we made our move. Some other guys had tried to do it standing and ended up cartwheeling down the bank on their heads which looked pretty painful. So, most guys in our group including Steve decided to adopt the girls method and go down on their stomachs. 

Naturally there was a competition to see who could go the furthest. Vicky now almost at pro level came second! At the bottom of the dune the sand was very bumpy and it was really difficult to hold on as you sped across at 40/kmph.

"The final dune..."

It was Steve’s first foray at the belly approach and he disastrously fell of his board metres from the end of his run. Unfortunately his favourite t-shirt didn’t survive the tumble, the sand had burned a big hole down the middle. He also got a few burns on his arms but nothing serious. Clumsy Steve.

The sun had almost set by this time which sadly meant home time for us. We still had a delicious barbecue to look forward to at our hostel that evening though! A few cocktails and the tastiest, stickiest buffalo wings we’d ever had rounded off our day perfectly. The next morning we took a local bus up to Lima and contemplated adding sand boarding to our CV’s…

"Sticky loves Sandboarding!"