Sandboarding in Peru

I had gone sandboarding in Florianopolis, Brazil, but that was nothing compared to the dunes in Huacachina. While traveling through Peru with Tucan Travel, we took a day tour to the city of Huacachina in the south of Peru. The city is basically an oasis in the middle of endless sand dunes. The city itself really doesn’t have anything, but sandboarding put it on the map.

We paid an extra $20 for a sandboarding/dune buggy tour in addition to the Tucan Travel tour. After given an hour to explore the city our tour group embarked the exhilarating excursion. We all strapped into the dune buggy armed with a roll cage and a powerful engine and drove towards the dunes.

The buggy hadn’t even gotten out of the city when I knew that this was going to be a crazy experience. If our driver would accelerate then slam on brakes while on the road, then what would he do on the dunes?

Our green open air buggy flew across the dunes at around 40 mph. The driver would drive up incredibly steep dunes, and then went down even faster. It seemed like we would roll over at any second – thankfully we didn’t. The drops would give me a weightlessness felling, almost like a rollercoaster, except more fun and less scary.

After about 20 minutes of driving, we made it to our first sandboarding dune. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to stand up while boarding down, because they claimed that you could get hurt and it was only for pros. I had gone sandboarding before, but apparently I still couldn’t. We all had to go down the dunes on our bellies. I’m not sure how that’s any safer than going standing up, because when you are on your belly you are basically going headfirst.

Though we couldn’t stand, it was still really fun to go down the dunes. All of the dunes that we boarded down were over 100 feet tall. At first, I admit, I was a bit scared, but then I got used to it. It was probably the most fun that I had during the entire overland tour in the whole South America. In total we sandboarded down only 3 dunes. After each dune, the buggy would drive down to pick us up and take us to the next one.

On the top of the dunes it was extremely windy, so I was really glad that I brought my sunglasses. Sand got all over my body, even in my ears. At the end of the trip, I had to dump sand out of my shoes and pockets.

While going down one of the dunes, I completely slid off of the board while going super fast. I completely lost control and ended up swallowing a bit of sand. Thankfully, I made it to the bottom safely.

The experience was great, and I think that the dune buggy ride was more fun than the sandboarding. I would have liked it more if we boarded over more dunes. I was a bit disappointed about not being able to dune while standing up. I’m sure I could have done it without dying, but overall, it was one of the best experiences in South America.

What is your favorite travel experience? Leave your comment below.