desert oasis

is where i am right now. huacachina. went sandboarding and dune buggying this afternoon which totally kicked ass. the sand dunes here are like the sahara - giant white mountains of sand. also, they are like a giant natural roller coaster. and i hate roller coasters, but i just decided to scream like a little bitch when we went down steep hills and have fun. so down these steep dunes, you´re expected to strap a board on your feet and make it down alive... which actually isn´t that hard apparently since i did it. a lot of people go down on their stomachs on the board, but of course i accidentally found myself hanging with the snow boarder kids who all went down on their feet so of course i couldn´t be the only one going down the easy way. i think i invented a new sport - ass boarding. i went down the largest dune half on my feet, half on my ass, and wiped out a few times. wiping out involves flipping over and over down the hill until you stop yourself and you come out with a mask of sand all over your face and everywhere else. i had a race with a few of the guys and i won. ha. i kind of want to try snow boarding now. you know, on a bunny slope.

there is a pool in my hostel which i spent the day lying by. i felt sort of guilty not moving or doing anything cultural but the palm trees and hammocks called and there was nothing i could do. this place is awesome. not all that peruvian, but a lot of fun with all the travelers converging in one place. i just got ripped off paying for an all you can eat buffet with not very good food but i´ve made up for it by drinking my money´s worth of pisco sours and cuba libres.

oh, and chala was strange. rather than sea kayaking, i went to visit the grounds of a gold mine two hours into the middle of the desert. people live way past where there is any available water or vegetation of any sort - the owner of the mine brings barrels of water out periodically - and outside one of the makeshift shacks someone had flowers growing. i thought that was amazing that they used their water to make flowers grow. other people had a few stalks of corn growing. i wonder what you can do with a few stalks of corn.

i think tomorrow i´m going on a wine and pisco tour. of course, i´m so far from my parents and i still go visit churches and wineries.