Peru Day 20: Las Dunas Resort

Breakfast wasn't the best with no cereal at all but our gloomy mood soon picked up for our sand-buggying experience at 10:30am. Carlos led us to the buggy garage at the back of the resort and equipped us with helmets and goggles. The first part of the journey was across a barren, dusty scrubland and I almost thought this would be the track. Instead we headed through a gate and towards the proper desert dunes.

From here on the dunes got bigger and the ride wilder like a rollercoaster. Pretty soon with the speed and distance we were surrounded by desert. Our second stop was to see an oasis of ...asparagus! In the desert! Then at the top of a dune I tried sandboarding. It took some wax and the board looked like it had seen better days with two small fins for stability but the ride was easy with good balance. No chance of turning unfortunately like with snowboarding.

Back in the buggy for some more sliding, climbing dunes, flooring over ridges and a surprise of reversing up the hill completed one of the best moments of the holiday as we were both grinning from ear to ear. Best N$90 spent yet.

The hotel swimming pool was quiet and relaxed (disturbed later by sewer maintenance engineering noise) until lunch, which we shared company with a group of Japanese tourists (one guy wore a full-on parker coat with hood). I think it was their guide who was surprised with a birthday cake, balloons and a jester hat to wear. The rest of their party acted quited reservedly as expected.

We walked around the resort coming across a family of turkeys, chickens, horses and llamas. Returning to the main complex we played ping pong then moaned about the noise. More swimming pool exercise with some volleyball, a couple of pina coladas and a view from the large dune behind the hotel for a sunset photo opportunity.

For N$21 we attended the Nazca Lines planetorium. After the pina coladas it nearly sent us to sleep as it was so dull and the visuals a little blurred. A quality buffet, check of the email and a small reminder to the reception that we could still hear the builders at work. A radio call quietened them but they still shouted at each other - not sure if our phonecall did anything but with a 5:20am wake up, we insisted they shut-the-f*ck-up!