Sand Boarding in the Desert

I have grown up in Alaska all my life so I have become accustomed to cold and dark winters with endless possibilities when it comes to outdoor sports.  That being said I have never been big into snowboarding but I can hold my own when hitting the slopes.  Although I am not generally a boarder, I jumped at the opportunity to try out my skills in a whole new arena, one with the same venture of going down a hill with a board, but rather than having a wintery wonderland as the backdrop of this excursion, I was boarding down a sand dune.  

To hash out more of the experience I want to add a bit more detail about the trip.  I started out the day waking up way too early to get on a bus at 7 AM to head toward La Huacachina, which is a common area outside of Ica where people go to try out sand boarding.  After roughly 4 hours in the bus we arrived at the dunes and we were all itching with anticipation to try our luck at sand boarding.  When we headed out in the dune buggies all I could think about was strapping on a board and risking my life boarding in the desert, but I quickly realized that there was way more in store for me. 

Being a die hard adventurist I love to try new things and risk looking ridiculous and getting a few bumps or bruises while doing so, all of which I expected on this outing, but I was not anticipating having the best "roller coaster" ride of my entire life.... The moment we hit the dunes our driver reved his engine, throttled up, and we were off on a thrilling ride through the sand dunes!  For those weary of roller coasters you may not thoroughly enjoy riding in a dune buggy, but for those of you who like a thrill this is definitely a  must if you are traveling in Peru!   

Once we got to the first photo spot there was a group of girls that couldn't hold back their need to run down the dunes so they not only got the thrill of running down them but they also got to warm up the legs a bit by running back up them!  When we arrived at our first location to try out the boards our guides were not wanting us to standup so we all went down on our stomachs to get a feel of what we were doing.  One of our lovely leaders, Kelly, is shown here rocking the dunes with style!

After getting the thrill of going down on our frontside my friend Olivia and myself couldn't take it any longer and we decided it was time to try out our skills and go down standing up.  While the instructors were not too excited about the idea, we were persistant and as you can see we were able to convince them that we could do it.  While I was a bit skeptic of how well a board would slide down a sand dune I was pleasantly surprised with the thrill of the ride!  Although my board was pretty crappy and not meant to cruise around the dunes, I definitely got a taste of what the extensive desert dunes have to offer for the extreme sport enthusiasts out there!  

To top off a great afternoon at the dunes we ate a delicious meal of lomo saltado and lemonade while overlooking the lagoon in La Huacachina.  

All in all I would highly suggest that you go to La Huacachina and give sand boarding a try for yourself!  To get a better look at what La Huacachina has to offer take a look at this website!

• La Huacachina