Huacachina, Peru

Picture a desert oasis and you're probably envisioning the tiny tourist town of Huacachina. There are palm trees, a small lake, and massive, looming sand dunes on all sides. Needless to say, it's an extremely picturesque spot.

The main tourist activities here are dune buggy riding and sandboarding. Naturally, we did both. We started by hiking (struggling) to the top of a nearby dune for some sandboarding lessons (side note - Whit and I thought this dune was big but compared to what we boarded later, it was but a wee baby). After a few practice runs (including one where I used my face to decelerate) we started to get the hang of it. Basically, in comparison to snowboarding, you have to lean back further with fewer, less acute turns, especially near the bottom of the dunes. This is because sand is denser than snow and gets harder packed at the bottom of the slope making the front of your board feel like a constantly applied handbrake. To combat this, sandboards (modified snowboards) have a layer of Formica (compressed wood) on the bottom and you wax the board with a candle before every run. Following our practice, we were picked up by a dune buggy and zipped deep into the desert. The buggy basically acted like a rollercoaster chairlift, picking us up at the bottom of a massive dune, driving up, down, and around imposing mountains of sand, then depositing us at the top of another, bigger, dune. We had a blast but by the end of it, we were both absolutely covered in sand. I think I prefer snow.Read more