Huacacina - an oasis

the less said about the Inca equinox festival, the better. The run up was nice in its parades and general air of festivity, but the celebration itself was just sheer pagaentry , super touristic with no sense of tradition. It was a badly acted, directed and produced play. they even faked a lama sacrifice!!

We took off the next say for ICA and Huacachina, the sand boarding capital of south America. This time we took the bst bus and it was good except for me and Nu getting a bout off altitude sickness! Anyway, we reached ICA in the morning and immediately took a taxi to Huacachina.
Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of the desert with the biggest dunes I've ever encountered. These dunes are huge, and the small like in the middle of the village with palm trees surrounding it make a pretty picture.The food in haucacina was great. We ate Cebiche and other really nice sea food.

That evening we took the tour to the dune. Dune bashing in a open buggy with a put together engine was crazy! I think I pulled a neck muscle as we climbed and dropped down what looked like impossible to navigate dunes! Yannick was being thrown around because of his size.

Soon we stopped , and our driver guide pulled out the sand boards. These boardsa re basically wooden planks with two velco straps for you feet and hands! The slope he started us off on was a small one in comparison to the others. His instructions bagan and ended with BE CAREFUL...DON'T FALL OFF! Yannick and I decided to try standing on the board and pretty much succeded in going down more than halway down the slope at one go! Nu did it on her belly. It seemed like the belly style was more fun so we swiched to it ! The next slope was huge, andd crazy! the last was a monster! I'm dying to sandboard again!