A Sandy Adventure

I feel that a large portion of the class would agree with me when I say that our day trip to Huacachina and the sand dunes was one of the most enjoyable days of our three week stay in Peru. Legend has it that, one day, a beautiful princess of ancient times was bathing in a pool of water and was startled to see a young man watching her. Upon seeing this man, she dropped a handheld mirror she was holding to become the lagoon, threw her towel to become the mountainous sand dunes, and became a mermaid. We had the opportunity to visit these dunes, one of the driest areas in all of the world, in an extremely interactive way by riding in dune buggies and sandboarding down the sand slopes. Most of the class slid down the sand dunes on their bellies, but a few tried riding down in a manner similar to snowboarding, which led to some entertaining results. Our tour guide, Fernando, was quite a character and encouraged all of us to enjoy the area and all it had to offer. Being in the middle of the sand dunes, it really felt and looked like we were in the Sahara! This adventure was on one of the last days of the entire trip, which allowed the group to end the trip on a high note and I know that, personally, I would love to try sandboarding again.