My first trip to Ica this year was with my brother back in April, and we took the opportunity to do something super fun.

Sandboarding.

Early in the morning we headed to the small town of Huacachina, a short drive from Ica, which is literally the living definition of a mirage in the middle of the desert. It’s a town situated around a lake surrounded by palm trees and sand dunes!

Legend has it that a princess created the lagoon whilst escaping from a hunter (the story varies on how this happened) and that even now she still resides there as a mermaid.

Although I never saw her whilst I was there, keep your eyes open and you could be lucky!

Surrounding the lake are many restaurants, lodgings, and market stalls that you can browse at your leisure before or after your buggy trip.

After organising ourselves a private tour, we hopped into our buggy and headed up into the dunes….

They are just never ending and you start to feel like you’re on another planet.

Incredible.

 

The driver takes you up and down hills, along the side of steep slopes and super fast down dips in the sand.

It’s like a mini rollercoaster in those dunes!

Once he had found a good place to stop, with no one around, out came the sand boards.

We started with a smallish slope and proceeded to do 2 more at different heights.

So, this is going up on the blog later today…… #sandboarding #Huacachina #sanddunes #Peru #travel #SouthAmerica pic.twitter.com/6nALIHjEO8

— Emma Louise (@asliceofperu) October 26, 2016

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It was so much fun and not as scary as I thought it might be, hurtling down a slope into the sandy abyss!

We also had time to take a lot of photos, which was perfect, as this landscape is like nowhere else I have ever been.

 

It just begs to be photographed.

We found that the earlier in the morning you can have your tour (or later in the afternoon), the better, as the sand starts to get hotter as the sun rises.

I don’t think the sand boarding would have been as amazing on scalding hot sand!

Also, I recommend wearing comfortable clothing that you don’t mind getting sandy…

I rate this experience as one of the best I’ve had in Peru and would definitely do it again if I had the opportunity! I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the country or even to locals looking for something fun or different to do on a long weekend.