We are warm! ......This oasis is the best...... we have to most beautiful hotel with a room that over looks the swimming pool. A quick look around the morning that we arrived resulted in some of the most beautiful scenery i have ever seen. The Oasis has pedaloes / canoes and row boats for hire. Surrounding this is a promenade with local market stalls - bars and restaurants, then you look up to see the tallest sand dunes that you can imagine. Sand boards are for hire everywhere and every so often you see and hear a dune buggy tearing off in the distance full of unsuspecting passengers.

Matt and i climbed the dune behind the hotel about four oclock. It was so steep it was virtually vertical and huge! We made it eventually to the top after many stops and much encouragement from Matt in time to see the sunset. For as far as you could see was desert, it seemed to go on for ever. As nice as it was, as soon as the sun went down it was freezing and we ran down in about 45 seconds.

The next day we had a very easy morning and went on the Dune Buggy tour in the afternoon. This was advertised as a way to see the desert and try sand boarding. (very similar to snow boarding - but with sand). We sat in the front of the buggy to ensure a good view.. Big Mistake! with a glint in his eye the driver departed at top speed in the direction of the desert. We then spent the next two hours driving at what felt like about 100 miles an hour over the dunes and at points driving down vertical drops, Matt actually left his seat a few times, he also told me that i was making the trip worse for the people at the back by screaming. I said that they were lucky they couldn't see what was ahead. We stopped a few times to try sand boarding. Matt who has snowboarded before, tried the first dune ( i chickened out of it) he was great and stayed on his feet the whole time, apart from a small gliche at the bottom where he face planted into the sand! It actually left a three foot mark in the sand and a few marks on his face!!

We stopped a few times on from that and the dunes got bigger and bigger. We were being told to go face down laying on the board, I gave this a go and it was great fun. (also it was either go down on the board or in the buggy with the mad driver....)

Again we saw the most beautiful sunset and evetually ended back at the hotel, full of sand and at the bar! what a brilliant place to find and one we both really loved.

Tomorrow we travel to Nazca.......