After a tiring week in Cusco we moved westwards towards Huacachina for some sandboarding fun! Having skipped this activity many times in Chile already we were keen to get on the boards. Huacachina is an interesting little town set in the middle of a desert of sanddunes with an oasis in the middle. There are literally sand dunes as far as the eyes can see and tiny little town plonked in the middle of it. We were definitely glad we waited for Huacachina for sandboarding. So we didn't waste much time. After another long busride we were picked up that afternoon in our hostel by a sand buggy and brought on a rollercoaster ride up and down the sanddunes (and I mean rollercoaster)! Everyone we've spoken to about sandboarding here failed to mention that the buggy ride is absolutely terrifying...well, for wimps like us anyway. We stopped at various locations to take our boards out and board down the dunes...starting out with a little 'un and then moving on to monstrous mountains...at least that's how they looked from the top when you're lying on your board. It's quite difficult to stand up on your board (snowboarding skills don't seem to help much) so we spent most of the time lying on our fronts racing down the slopes. With smiles on our faces and sand literally EVERYWHERE we pulled out a cold beer and watched the sunset before another rollercoaster ride back to the town. There's not much else to do in Huacachina so we moved on quickly the next morning to make our way to the coast...our first time on the beach since Brazil we were very excited!! Our plan was to rough it with a local bus 6 hours to Lima and change buses there for an overnight bus straight to Trujillo...but unfortunately I fell ill again so we had to fork out for the "fancy" bus to Lima which arrived there a lot earlier than expected! So I lay out in the bus station in pain with Mitch stroking my head to put me to sleep while other passengers staring at us strangely. Anyway, we made it through the night and eventually found a place to stay in Trujillo and took off to explore.
We quickly found out there is nothing to do in Trujillo and were glad we were moving on the next morning. A quick 15 minute ride the next morning and we arrived in Huanchaco - a little fishing/surfing village. We found an awesome little campsite looking onto the sea and bunked down for a few days...although we could have stayed for weeks. Huanchaco is definitely one our favourite places so far. Nothing spectacularly beautiful about the place it just had a buena onda (good vibe!). The next morning we grabbed boards and wetsuits and hit the beach...what a disaster that was! 2 very amateur surfers caught in very big waves...not cool! But we had fun anyway and it was certainly an experience. We spent the next couple of days filling our tummies with seafood and the most epic hamburgers we've ever had (from the cutest old lady in the world for 2 soles) and lounging around the beach until we reluctantly hopped on a bus to move northwards to warmer climates and more beaches!(pic 1: Sharon & Mitch on the sanddunes; pic 2: us with our surfboards in Huanchaco)
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