What a shock to the system arriving in Huacachina was, a hot dry desert landscape, where a small town has sprung up around an oasis pool surrounded by miles of sand dunes.

After the chilly climate in Cusco, it still took some time to get used to not putting on a fleece, woolly hat, scarf and boots everyday..... out came the shorts and sandals!

Huacachina is a slightly odd place, it's mainly there for tourists to escape the city of Ica, and party at the weekend. It took us a little while to get used to it, but once we did, we found it hard to leave this relaxed place. Bee even did her first couple of runs of the trip, being back down at sea level after 6 weeks of high altitude living had some benefits...... Oxygen...... mmmmmm so much oxygen, we felt quite energetic!

We took a day trip out to Paracas to do a boat trip round the Isla Ballestas, huge pelicans just wandering along the beach, lots of sea lions, even watching the pups surf back onto shore. Penguins, blue footed boobies and guano birds (high value bird poo is collected and exported!) were sighted on the rock formations once all the sea mist had finally cleared.

The next day involved a hair raising roller coaster ride through the sand dunes in a dune buggy (read roll cage with engine on wheels) at sunset combined with exhilarating (and down right petrifying for Bee!) sand boarding down the steepest dunes. Tim boarded down snowboard style, where as Bee went face first lying down on the board, which turned out to be by far the fastest way down! See a video of our escapades here http://tinyurl.com/pbnhc88

The final day had us climbing the dunes with our own two feet. The hard work was worth it though, we were treated to a stunning sunset, followed by him going head first this time, down the side of the dune. This as it turned out was definitely the way to experience sand boarding at its best!