Just outside of Nasca, Peru is a giant wall of sand known as ‘Cerro Blanco’, the largest sand dune in the world. What better place to sand board?

The day starts out with an early morning hike- we were picked up from our hostel a 4am -actually, we had to wake up our guide off the lobby couch after he had partied all night and passed out about 30 minutes prior, to which he then called a sardine can of a taxi to pick us up. Apparently there was a ro-sham-bo for which of the post-party ‘guides’ was going to take us, and the only guy who doesn’t speak English happened to lose.

We fit 6 people into what effectively was a gas powered golf cart because they don’t make cars that small in the US. The first stop was to the market for oranges and water. The trip planner told us the day before in pretty good English, that we should pack fruit, specifically oranges for the hike up the dune. We had picked up a few that day, so we felt like we were in good shape for that requirement (more about this later).

We drove lazily up a windy mountain road, road divider lines didn’t seem to be more than a suggestion, especially when passing large trucks around blind corners. What seemed like about a quarter of the way up the mountain, the car pulled into a dirt turnout and the guide hopped out and gave us each our boards to carry for the hike.

The lack of preparation became evident as we began traversing a steep rocky face in the pitch black of night with nothing more than a mini headlamp the guide would point back at us if he heard a rock landslide, which only made things worse by causing temporary blindness and vertigo.

After about an hour an a half of climbing, the sun came up- with a vengeance. Suddenly things started getting hot. To make matters worse, we had just transitioned to sand, which meant every three steps forward, we slid back two. As we approached the dune, we observed a circle of rocks at the base of the climb. Within the rock circle were several oranges, mostly dried out, but a few fresh ones. We assumed they were from previous sand-boarders and also served as a place to dump your orange peels. The guide sat us down at the circle and began to pull some oranges from his bag. We figured this was probably the halfway point, and thus the breakfast stop. We all pulled out our fruits and oranges and began peeling and eating them. We had thought this would be a good place to dump the peels from oranges we had already consumed, so we pulled them out as well.

This is around the time we noticed the guide was performing some sort of meditation or prayer. We all looked at each other a little confused and embarrassed at our chatter. The awkwardness continued when, after he had finished, he placed the oranges he had brought into the circle. We had just consumed our ‘offering’ oranges, right in front of the offering place! We were a bit relieved to have not dumped our trash into the circle, but still- had we offended him or worse, the dune God? We figured it best to empty whatever remaining oranges we had into the offering to try and make peace with the situation.

Onward and upward, the deep sand clenched our sneakers, holding us back with each step, now with the sun baking our backs. Another hour and a half passed during our ’45 minute walk’, along with several false summits, and we were finally there. The guide pulled out some candles, and we were all on edge as to what would happen next. He broke them into several pieces and handed each one of us a stick. “Uh oh, whats this all about?” we were wondering. We kind of froze, waiting to see what his next move was. Watching intently, he placed the candle in one hand, and began waxing the bottom of his board. You could feel the relief drain from the group as we all mimicked his swirling strokes.

We took a few practice runs to get used to the board, but this was not like snowboarding as I had imagined. Turning was near impossible as the more forward you leaned, the greater the chance of stopping, or worse, endo-ing. After a quick run the guide pulled a Speedy Gonzales on us and B-lined it up the near vertical dune face with amazing speed. We were left dumbfounded at the base wondering if he was going to throw us a rope or something, instead he motioned for use to follow his lead. As I began the ascent, it felt as if I was on a stationary stair-stepper, only making the slightest gain for each labored step.

At the top once again, we began descending a series of dune faces, each growing longer and steeper. Our technique improved with each run and we became bolder. This was a blessing as well as a curse- the increased speed and incline led to Ash nearly snapping in half as the momentum of her faceplant carried her board to a slow stall just before stopping within inches of the back of her head. Steph decided that her preferred riding stance was sitting on the board, which had it’s own risks. On the final run, after a good waxing she became enveloped in what I would call the Haley’s Comet of sandstorms- a huge ball of sand screaming down the slope at breakneck speeds. The resulting tumble would have made Evil Keneval cringe. I mimicked this technique for the final 1000 meter dune, hitting speeds well in excess of the speed of sound as I could hear my earlier screams minutes after my crash. After no longer being able express my joy through the mouthful of sand, I chose to bail off the board having no idea how fast I was going. It all worked out ok, however, I fear I will find sand from that crash years from now.

With the exhilaration and adrenaline still pumping, we continued to walk down the rest of the dune as the sand had become to course to slide on. We saw no car, no road, nothing but a dry desert valley leading into a greater expanse of desert. Having exhausted our water (and oranges), we were parched, tired and covered in sand. There had been no mention of this ‘hike’ in the activity promotion, so we had to ask in broken Spanish – “how long is the walk?” He answered “45 minutes”, which we started to think was his answer for everything.

After about another hour, we could see a road, and a truck headed our way! Of course, it was not for us and we could see our cab about a mile away with the hood up and our driver hunched over the engine. Alas the perfect end to an amazing day.