This Friday, I snuck out of Lima for a long weekend and hopped on a bus about five hours southwest of Lima to Ica, a small city known (most unfortunately) for its 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 2007 that killed over 500 in the region. There is still noticeable damage throughout the city but the people seem determined to rebuild.
After some time relaxing at the pool (unlike in Lima, there's tons of sun here!) and touring two local wineries where the local alcoholic drink pisco is produced, I headed out to a town of just 115 residents called Huacachina. Huacachina is a small oasis in the middle of dozens of square miles of desert. Its biggest attraction are the handful of operators offering sand dune buggy and sand boarding excursions.
While I expected the sand boarding to be a bit extreme, I figured the trip there in the buggy would be gentle. Was I wrong. We headed down the straight parts at speeds of 70 miles an hour, before suddenly going up sand cliffs at a nearly 90 degree angle, then nearly flipping over, and turning back down for the trip back to the bottom. This was much more of an adrenalin rush than any roller coaster I've ever been on!
To see more pictures from this trip, click here.
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