Dune Buggies
A slow news day here today (or as Angela likes to remind me, a normal day for people on vacation). This is our first hotel with a pool, so Sam wants to spend some time there, and I need to move one step closer to my goal of getting lobster skin on all seven continents (although I recall much too late that I already roasted myself years ago in Ecuador).
The big event for the day is a dune buggy/sandboarding trip into the desert. Sam has been talking bout this ever since he read about it back in Redmond, so when the time comes, he is raring to go. Unlike the sporty version you see on TV, these buggies are big, nine person things, and to save people like me from themselves, they don’t let tourists drive, so the experience feels a lot like the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland.
About five miles of back roads from town, we finally get into the actual dunes. It feels a bit strange to be in Peru and looking at a landscape that could have come straight out of Egypt. I suppose I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am (after all, the trip is dune buggying and sandboarding), but I guess I envisioned something more Oregonesque.
Sam is having a blast, and despite the shrieking in my left ear, the video shows Mom with a pretty big grin in her face, so she’ll have to confess to enjoying it as well. After about 15 minutes, we come to a stop at the top of a dune and break out the boards. To start, they have us just sit on the board and slide down, but the slope is steep enough that Sam is still not quite sure. The guide just pushes him over the edge though, and a few seconds later, he’s talking smack about how easy it is.
Walking back up the dune is less fun, but Sam and I make the circuit a bunch of times, alternating between sliding down on our butts, on our bellies, and finally standing up snowboard style. With a bit of cajoling, we even get Mom to go, before loading back up in the buggy for a few more dunes.
When we booked the trip, we chose the later departure in order to see the sun set in the desert. We seem to skip that part though, as about a half hour earlier than expected, we appear to be wrapping up and heading back into town. Given that we paid for two hours, it’s a bit of a disappointment, but all the bouncing has taken a toll on Mom, so we just roll with it. Sam still give the whole thing two enthusiastic thumbs up, ranking it as one of his favorites (after Machu Picchu).