Heaven Is A Sand Dune
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2007
1
58
139
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Huacachina,
Peru
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Jumping in the nearest buggy our crazy driver put his foot down and we roared into the sandy heaven in search of mountains to throw ourselves down with nothing but a plank of wood strapped to our feet. Board waxed I got straight in there getting more than a little speed on my first run I naively thought the bigger dunes would be more of the same but of course eventually I got a face full of sand as I bailed and rolled down to the bottom of one of the biggies. Still a truly exhilarating experience but I feel maybe the need for a little training on the whole idea of braking and turning might be in order
01 Sandscape
. Suffice to say I chickened out on the 9th run down an Everest of a dune and opted for the almost scary fast on the belly option down a near vertical slope that ran for a whopping 1000meters! As I looked up to the top everyone still waiting were mere ants on the horizon, believe me it looked a lot smaller from above.The nearby town of Ica is famous for its Bodegas or wineries producing all manner of wines from sweet to dry and the national liquor Pisco. Not wanting to miss a free tasting the crew (sand in every orifice!) moved to Bodega El Catador to try some sweet wines. While waiting for our lunch we were taken on a free tour and showed the wine making process which culminates in a distill to retrieve Pisco in excess of 45 %. The locals were hanging by the grape mound ready for the evenings crushing by foot and plied us all with the first stage of the process which is straight from the fermenting tank after 8 days. They call this stuff Kachina and it was both tasty and potent so we all bought a bottle each for 5 soles (about 80p!).
As the guide(and our taxi driver) was explaining to us while we stood next to the still that Pisco straight from here is extremely dangerous and we aren't allowed to drink it. One of the Bodega workers of course already had a cup in his hand and was pouring Pisco. A tiny sip was more than enough of this firewater and produced the warm feeling all over and stinging of my lips still raw from eating sand earlier (woo good stuff). Then on to try the other wines after they have been filtered and packaged for consumption and of course to try some aged Pisco... After skipping breakfast I was starting to feel a little tipsy and happy to have lunch.
In the evening the lads and I wanted to watch the sunset over the desert so scaled the biggest closest dune we could find and after the effort were not disappointed in the slightest.
