Ok so we just got back from a crazy fun trip through the dunes here. It was totally awesome. We all (7 of us plus our guide) climbed into a big dune buggy and took off down the main street. Two minutes later we were at the edge of the park and zooming off through the dunes. It was somewhat like being on a roller coaster ride with lots of screaming. The view was amazing. Mound after mound of white sand backed by blue blue sky. The guide stopped at a tiny hill and I thought ?ok, here is where we will start to learn how to sand board?. But no, that was just for pictures. Then we hopped back in our sweet ride and took off to the top of this massive dune and our guide whipped out what are essentially snowboards, waxed them up and passed them out. We were all like ooookay so this is the bunny hill...scary. Of course he grabbed Hil and made her go first. She was actually quite good and zigzagged across the hill only falling once or twice. It?s quite scary I thought and you get going fast with no effort. Also it is murder on the legs. Anyway we heaved ourselves back up the hill for another go (which was an incredable amount of effort). At that point I was thinking ok so far so good, minimal sand down the pants and shoes. Then our guide showed us how to lay on the board propped up on our forearms and go down face first. It looked scary but was actually easier and more fun and WAY faster. Then our guide took us to a bigger hill. We were all scared and it was very intense and fast. He asked us if we wanted to go to a bigger slope or go to a small one and practice going down standing. By that point we were all hooked and made him go take us to bigger and bigger hills while he looked on and muttered ?crazy, loco, loco?. It was all super fun but really intense and scary going down basically a sand cliff face first. Finally he took us to an oasis out in the middle of the dunes which was gorgeous. Fun fun fun all around.

In other news I am going tourist shopping crazy here. There is all sorts of gorgeous jewlery with huge turquiose (and other stones and fossils) pendants and it is all hand made and cheap. I am on a mission to spend the rest of my Soles before we get out of here...hopefully tomorrow if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Erika

Just have to add this - I was talking to one of the girls on our sandboarding trip, and when she heard that I was from Victoria, she asked if I knew a friend of hers there.  Of course, everyone always does this, and you´ve never heard of whoever their talking about - except that this time I recognized the name as one of Miran´s friends (I met her a few times, years ago) - what a small world, hey? 

I definitely have to second that sandboarding rocked - and while our guide thought we were crazy, he was the one telling usto lift up our feet to go faster!  He also took us to another oasis in the middle of nowhere - it´s so, so wierd to be surrounded by full-on desert, and then see this little pocket of greenery hidden by the dunes.  What an experience.  Really hot out there, too - gets very, very cold at night, and is really misty and cold until about noon, then starts heating up like crazy.  If this is what it´s like in winter, I´d hate to think how hot it is in summer!