The journey here was great, burning through the desert in our Chevvy!! We saw some damage on the outskirts of Ica, some houses and streets had been completely levelled, really very sad to see but also very difficult to help with the now limited time we have left in South America, only 9 days!

As we came into Huacachina on the only road into the town we were struck by how beautiful the place is, it could be somewhere in the middle-east or a Disney movie!! We found a cool hostel with a pool. Since the earthquake 2 weeks ago we were only the 3rd set of guests they have had, unfortunately because of this the bar was unstocked and the disco closed. The only damage we could see that the hostel had got was a smashed glass door in the restaurant.

As we walked around the town though we could see that a few walls had collapsed and there was some damage to other buildings, other than that the town was fine for visitors. They need the tourist money so much more now as they must have lost so much money sine the earthquake as many people, particularly in Lima, have been told it is off limits! We chilled by the pool for the whole afternoon, Sarah had been long in need of some sun to top up her tan and try to shift the cold she got on the Inca Trail!!

The following day we went sandboarding in the morning which was great fun, although very tiring walking up the dunes in order to go down, there are no ski lifts here!! We then had a few hours by the pool before going dune buggying, which was a 6-8 seater vehicle with a rollcage, when you sat in it you fell very exposed!! We went up into the dunes straight from the town, these buggies go up and down the steepest sand slopes you could think of. They go extremely quickly over the flat too, at one point we went over a jump and took off, the girls were screaming!!

Unfortunately only 30 mins into our trip our engine started misfiring and we had to change the buggy, we were given another 2 hours because of this, an extra half hour of fun!! We got taken to the top of a few very steep slopes to board down. Having never sand or snowboarded Sarah went on her belly!! I decided to do a mix of both depending on the slope, although this did backfire!When we were at the top of a steep 200m slope I went down headfirst trying to catch Sarah which I did quickly then trying to be cool I put my arms out aka flying then my body overshot the board and I was sent tumbling head over heels down the slope, if you are going to crash you should at least do it spectacularly!!

We sandboarded a few more dunes and on the way back the bloke drove incredibly fast, we were thrown about like rag dolls sat in the back, it was so much fun, almost like a rollercoaster!! When we got back we both had to shower as there was sand everywhere (Im still finding it out now!!) we then went out for a few drinks as it was our last night with Grant and Debbie. We got on with them very well and they have offered to put us up for while when we get to Oz - even though we are whinging poms!! '

We had a few beers with dinner then had a search about the town for some booze, all we could find was a litre bottle of lemon rum, apparently there is a shortage of beer since the earthquake!! The rum served its purpose and we had a great night, although woke up this morning with somewhat of a hangover that was cured with my burger for breakfast!!

We leave here tonight heading for Arequipa, the start of our long journey to Santiago (over 40 hours on buses) that will have to be completed in the next week!! Oh I do love buses!!

Be in touch soon, Lots of love A & S xxx