El Carmelo Hotel and Hacienda Ica

... hill was too impressive to go down standing up on the sandboard (300 m high) so we challenged the hill by lying down on the sandboard. This was good fun. After this hill we went to another one which was twice as high. The dune-buggy ride was also an attraction on its own as we raced through the desert very roughly and was better than any rollercoaster. This was without a doubt a recommendation to do and not something for pussy's as paragliding ;-)<br><br>Hasta Luego!

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Woah! Gnarly dudes. It was time to chill out for a couple of days. We caught one of the buses from Nazca to Ica that run every 30 mins and a taxi for 3 soles to the desert oasis of Huacachina. <br><br>Huacachina is famous for it`s mentalist dune buggy rides with equally as crazed drivers and is also home to the popular sport of sandboarding, where gringos strap themselves to a 5ft piece of wood coated in plastic and ...

... might get. Still, sand is soft, so we "boarded up for some primo, radical down-duning". I think that makes sense. Renee insisted I go first, that way, if I was to snap a limb she would have a reason to forgo the sandboarding component. Now, I´m neither a skiier nor a snowboarder, so strapping a one meter bit of plank to my feet felt about as natural as having to personally use the washing machine back home in London i.e. completely new territory. This showed as I ...

So we are finally back in civilisation (if you can call it that when the @ or spacebar on the keyboard don{t work properly and I have just been served raw fish for lunch!). Unfortunately the hotel we wanted to stay at in Ica (with its own airstrip!) was full but we have an adequate,much cheaper option along the road.<br><br>Have come to Huacachina for the day where there is a palm fringed lake so have been having a little swim and sunbathe,a much needed rest after a few ...

... the pricey side, but had a pool and was very clean, so small loss) and a dune buggy tour. The tour was super fun. The ride was like a roller coaster, because he´s able to go up and down incredibly steep dunes. We also stopped here and there to so sandboarding, which is actually pretty hard, since there´s no real edge to speak of like a snowboard. Thankfully I made it out unscathed, but there were some nasty spills, highlighted by one particularly nasty one where Luke ate a ...

... I discovered that my camera was broken, evidently full of sand. I was not happy. This mood was further lowered by the hotel restaurant´s massive ineptitude. It´s already bad enough that the majority of Peruvian service takes no account of the fact you want to eat as a group, instead focusing on bringing out the meals when they are individually ready. Thus to begin, me and Nicki received our food, leaving Claire with nothing. Over five minutes later the waiter ...

... of course, but in the bright sunshine, it's anyone's guess if it will turn out. Then, the plane is banking again, pulling into a tigh counter-clockwise circle so those on the left side can see the whale.<br><br>We continue this for half an hour, looking at the astronaut, the monkey, the spider, the condor, the hummingbird, and many others. Manuelo is great at pointing out the lines (in English for me and two Belgians and in Japanese for two passengers ...

... and after fixing you with a slightly menacing sideways stare will start hopping towards you. Intriguing little bird.<br><br>Anyway, Huacachina. I´ve never been anywhere like this before. It´s a tiny little town set around an oasis in the middle of the desert and surrounded on all sides for miles and miles by huge sand dunes. In the daylight it looks amazing; the full terrain wasn´t immediately obvious when we arrived the previous evening because it was dark. When I ...

... Caryn how to lay on the board but we played up the ¨no hablo espanol¨ act, strapped our feet to the board, and headed downhill. It was SO much fun. Our guide wanted us to leave after a couple of rides but we were having no such thing. We kept telling him ¨uno mas! uno mas!¨ while handing him the camera and showing him how to videotape us. After realzing that walking back up the dune was not nearly as fun as riding down it, we called it quits ...