Desert Oasis

After leaving Lima I rode deep into the desert bound for an oasis unlike anything I’d seen before. The ride wasn’t long about four hours and I was relieved that the bike was running flawlessly. The further I went, the more barren the landscape became, with endless stretches of sand and rock in every direction. I arrived late at night, and as I pulled into town, I was struck by the sheer number of foreigners. I hadn’t seen this many travellers in one place since the start of my trip. My hostel sat right in the heart of an oasis, surrounded by towering 400 foot sand dunes, the whole place felt surreal.

The next morning I set out to find a guide to take me into the desert. It didn’t take long to track down a solid company with cheap prices and that’s where I met three English travellers. We hit it off immediately, swapping travel stories and laughing over our past misadventures. That afternoon we joined a group of fifteen, all geared up with skis or snowboards. It felt strange walking through the scorching heat in ski boots, with skis slung over my shoulder. The contrast was comical, snow gear in the middle of the desert.

we loaded into a massive dune buggy and roared into the vast sea of sand. I’ve seen deserts before India, Israel, and even the Sahara in Morocco but this one was something else entirely. The dunes stretched as far as the eye could see, some towering over 800 hundred feet. The buggy ride was a thrill on its own. Our driver was an absolute maniac, launching us over ridges, skidding down steep slopes and tearing across the dunes like we were in some high-speed desert chase scene.

When we reached our first slope we strapped in and sent it down the sand. Skiing on sand is nothing like skiing on snow. There’s way more friction so if you don’t wax your skis before every run, you’ll come to a dead stop halfway down the hill. After a few warm-up runs, we started tackling bigger dunes, each one steeper and faster than the last. By the time we reached the tallest one the sun was beginning to set. We stood at the peak, taking it all in just endless dunes, shifting colours with the fading light.

After we rode back to the oasis, we all met up for drinks, the first proper night of partying I’d had in a while. Someone got the idea to start painting faces, and before I knew it we were all covered in neon paint, laughing and drinking like wed known each other for years. I finally crashed around 2 AM knowing I had a long ride ahead of me the next day. By afternoon, I was back on the road, heading north toward Cusco, leaving the desert behind.Læs mere