Huacachina, a small oasis in the middle of the desert
Continuing down south we couldn't help ourselves from stopping in the little oasis town of Huacachina .
The center of Huacachina is a lake surrounded by palm trees, around that there is a a circumference of small buildings, consisting of local houses, hotels and restaurants, and around that there is a desert of sand dunes.
The view around the lake with the dunes as background is very nice, but apart from that there is not much to do.
The main reason to come here is to enjoy the views of the sand dunes, try some sand boarding and riding the dunes inside a buggy.
And we sure tried that.
The sand boarding experience starts with choosing the board, a piece of wood cut with a shape of a snowboard with some Velcro handmade straps attached to it, where we are supposed to put our feet.
The next step is waxing the board. Unlike surfboards where the wax is put on the top surface to get more grip between the feet and the board, here the wax (coming from a lightning candle) is applied on the bottom surface and its supposed to help the board to slide better over the sand.
The last step is getting over the fear of the steep descent and GO.
It is a lot of fun, since after a few rides down the dunes people start to feel more confident and try to get as much speed as they can, thus adopting different positions on the board, the best being 'belly down on the board' and head first.
The other extreme activity is riding the dunes inside a buggy, specially when the driver seems to be a bit crazy, enjoying the screams of its passengers. It all resembles a huge roller-coaster, but without tracks. And it gets even better after the night falls!!!
It was great fun! Not only the extreme activities but also watching the beautiful landscapes forming steep waves in the desert, reminding of a tempestuous ocean, but very silent and static. Memorable.
The center of Huacachina is a lake surrounded by palm trees, around that there is a a circumference of small buildings, consisting of local houses, hotels and restaurants, and around that there is a desert of sand dunes.
The main reason to come here is to enjoy the views of the sand dunes, try some sand boarding and riding the dunes inside a buggy.
And we sure tried that.
The next step is waxing the board. Unlike surfboards where the wax is put on the top surface to get more grip between the feet and the board, here the wax (coming from a lightning candle) is applied on the bottom surface and its supposed to help the board to slide better over the sand.
It is a lot of fun, since after a few rides down the dunes people start to feel more confident and try to get as much speed as they can, thus adopting different positions on the board, the best being 'belly down on the board' and head first.
The other extreme activity is riding the dunes inside a buggy, specially when the driver seems to be a bit crazy, enjoying the screams of its passengers. It all resembles a huge roller-coaster, but without tracks. And it gets even better after the night falls!!!
It was great fun! Not only the extreme activities but also watching the beautiful landscapes forming steep waves in the desert, reminding of a tempestuous ocean, but very silent and static. Memorable.
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