Huacachina, Peru
We decided to stay another day here. We heard that the “buggy ride” through the dunes was something that shouldn’t be missed, and after hiking a dune yesterday for about 30 minutes, then sliding down it for about 15seconds, I liked the idea of a dune buggy working as my chair lift. So we woke up late, took advantage of the pool, played some Frisbee with a british couple on a year long around the world trip (no moto however), read our books (I finished Don Q, at 1000 pages the longest book I’ve ever read, but also one of the best, thanks Uncle Dave for encouraging us to pack literature!) and all and all felt like we were on vacation again.
We can’t seem to get a decent meal since Huanchaco. Pizza here is white bread with sauce and cheese on top. The local dishes, the ones we’ve tried at least, are terrible. One of the Peruvian specialties is Cuy, or guinea pig. We’ve passed on that every time. Internet is also a bit of a struggle. There are a few places, but everyone seems to be afraid of us unplugging the Ethernet from the computer and plugging in our laptop. No one lets us (hence no blog updates in awhile). One redeeming quality the Peruvians have over the latin American countries we’ve been to is they take good care of dogs, and animals in general.
4:00 couldn’t come soon enough for me. Our buggy was the best in town, that’s what we’d been told, and from my inspection I would have to agree. Its not the VW powered sandrail you might expect. No sir. Ours is powered by a small block chevy 350 with 320HP! Headers, Edelbrock intake, MSD, etc—the real deal. For some reason, Amie thought the dune buggy ride was a leisure cruise of the dunes. When she heard the engine rumbling, she got a little nervous, when the buggy got sideways ripping down the town street she turned white, and when we shot up and then down a mountain of sand at 50mph I thought she might black out.
The driver stopped after about 5 minutes of heart thumping, adrenaline rushing, dune racing. We got out and noticed we were at the top of a good sized dune. He pulled out the sand boards and waxed the bottoms for us. The boards looked good, but were nothing special. They had the shape of a snowboard, but were made from 3 layers of plywood with Velcro straps for bindings. A real snowboard with real bindings would work much better, but these were cheap to make and that’s what we were stuck with.
I went first, and made it down no sweat. You don’t really get going to fast, even if you point it straight down the hill, but its fun, and its a lot like snowboarding, only warmer, and harder to turn (I blame the bindings and tennis shoes). Amie had a couple of falls, but made it down too. I think the fact that she survived the first five minutes of intense dune buggy riding, and then successfully made it down on the sand board, her confidence was up, she got some color back, and I think I saw a smile. J
The buggy picked us up at the bottom of the dune and whisked us off. We raced through valleys, twisting, turning and sliding our way to the next peak. This one was much steeper. I got out and vigorously strapped in, pointed the board straight down, and got going with some good speed. Wow, I thought, you really can get moving! About halfway down the face of the dune something happened, what exactly I do not know. I flipped over the nose of the board, landed flat on my back, somehow bounced into the air for another full flip/cartwheel, and then put my head in the sand like an ostrich. I was taken for dead on the scene, but luckily the only pain I felt was in my wrist. Sand was in every orifice, but I was ok. Too bad Amie didn’t get a foto of that one, it was a serious wipeout!
Some of the others in our group, believe it our not, were worse off than I was and took to sledding instead. I kept at it, in spite of Amie’s concern for my well being. From now on I go down the steep ones at an angle. After a few more dunes, Amie and I were getting the hang of it. We stopped for the sunset in a very picturesque spot, but before the sun completely set, we were bored and wanted more dune buggy! Amie included! So we jumped back in and raced towards one of the tallest mountains. We got up way further than any of the other dune buggy tracks, testament to the power of our ride. Coming down the same side we picked up tons of speed, hit a plateau, then dropped down an increasingly steep angle, seemingly passed vertical, really almost impossibly steep, screaming with glee all the way. Una mas senor! We had to do that one again.
We can’t seem to get a decent meal since Huanchaco. Pizza here is white bread with sauce and cheese on top. The local dishes, the ones we’ve tried at least, are terrible. One of the Peruvian specialties is Cuy, or guinea pig. We’ve passed on that every time. Internet is also a bit of a struggle. There are a few places, but everyone seems to be afraid of us unplugging the Ethernet from the computer and plugging in our laptop. No one lets us (hence no blog updates in awhile). One redeeming quality the Peruvians have over the latin American countries we’ve been to is they take good care of dogs, and animals in general.
4:00 couldn’t come soon enough for me. Our buggy was the best in town, that’s what we’d been told, and from my inspection I would have to agree. Its not the VW powered sandrail you might expect. No sir. Ours is powered by a small block chevy 350 with 320HP! Headers, Edelbrock intake, MSD, etc—the real deal. For some reason, Amie thought the dune buggy ride was a leisure cruise of the dunes. When she heard the engine rumbling, she got a little nervous, when the buggy got sideways ripping down the town street she turned white, and when we shot up and then down a mountain of sand at 50mph I thought she might black out.
The driver stopped after about 5 minutes of heart thumping, adrenaline rushing, dune racing. We got out and noticed we were at the top of a good sized dune. He pulled out the sand boards and waxed the bottoms for us. The boards looked good, but were nothing special. They had the shape of a snowboard, but were made from 3 layers of plywood with Velcro straps for bindings. A real snowboard with real bindings would work much better, but these were cheap to make and that’s what we were stuck with.
I went first, and made it down no sweat. You don’t really get going to fast, even if you point it straight down the hill, but its fun, and its a lot like snowboarding, only warmer, and harder to turn (I blame the bindings and tennis shoes). Amie had a couple of falls, but made it down too. I think the fact that she survived the first five minutes of intense dune buggy riding, and then successfully made it down on the sand board, her confidence was up, she got some color back, and I think I saw a smile. J
The buggy picked us up at the bottom of the dune and whisked us off. We raced through valleys, twisting, turning and sliding our way to the next peak. This one was much steeper. I got out and vigorously strapped in, pointed the board straight down, and got going with some good speed. Wow, I thought, you really can get moving! About halfway down the face of the dune something happened, what exactly I do not know. I flipped over the nose of the board, landed flat on my back, somehow bounced into the air for another full flip/cartwheel, and then put my head in the sand like an ostrich. I was taken for dead on the scene, but luckily the only pain I felt was in my wrist. Sand was in every orifice, but I was ok. Too bad Amie didn’t get a foto of that one, it was a serious wipeout!
Some of the others in our group, believe it our not, were worse off than I was and took to sledding instead. I kept at it, in spite of Amie’s concern for my well being. From now on I go down the steep ones at an angle. After a few more dunes, Amie and I were getting the hang of it. We stopped for the sunset in a very picturesque spot, but before the sun completely set, we were bored and wanted more dune buggy! Amie included! So we jumped back in and raced towards one of the tallest mountains. We got up way further than any of the other dune buggy tracks, testament to the power of our ride. Coming down the same side we picked up tons of speed, hit a plateau, then dropped down an increasingly steep angle, seemingly passed vertical, really almost impossibly steep, screaming with glee all the way. Una mas senor! We had to do that one again.
Yeah he looks cute...but this little bastard kept us up all night!
How I spent my day
Could I look more dorky?
The rig
The poser
The dunes
The fun
The fear!
Sandboarding...slowly
Don't worry fans...I'm working on some new stuff
Is that a dune I see in the distance?
All smiles, even after I crapped my pants
See! It really is an oasis!
Fun day
posted by Pedro and Maria at 2:50 PM
2 Comments:
ive got to get there,, bring me home sweet sweet peru.. chepe
"Sand in ever orifice" OUCH!
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