I wonder how much gas this thing guzzles? Do we get glasses? Why are the seat belts so loose? These questions no longer mattered as we sped across the sprawling dunes in our V8 buggy. We flew through the town then up the dune and were chased by a pack of wild dogs. Luckily the buggy was extremely fast so they didn't have a chance. The buggy zipped up, down, and around the dunes. We would zoom up the dune then fly over the other edge, while getting air we would all yell and scream with excitement. Our driver then parked on the top of a high dune and we all hopped out. We were given heavy sand boards with make shift bindings made from vinyl straps. He asked if we had ever boarded and I (Courtney) said oh yah lots back home. So he said great an expert you can show us all how its done. After he waxed the bottom of the board I strapped my feet in and just went for it. It was pretty awesome! We were able to stand and ride down but turning was more or less impossible with the boards we were on. It's very different then snowboarding, much hotter, much sandier and without snow. We rode to the bottom then climbed back up which was very hard as you slide in the sand. The other people in our group didn't want to stand so he showed us how to toboggan down the dune on our bellies. Lying on the boards elbows tucked and back arched we were given one instruction: "When you want to slow down drag your feet." Pretty simple, right? With a little push we were flying down the dune face first. It was incredible! Exactly like tobogganing but on sand and not cold!!! After a few runs we were picked up and taken to three other dunes each increasing in size. The last hill was HUGE and hilarious. There was a first descent was small then the hill just dropped off so we would fly over the edge out of sight. A couple of times we were going so fast we even got some air! After the boarding we loaded up and continued to fly over hills while the sun set...it was magical. We couldn't help laugh but at one point the engine stalled and wouldn't re-start. The driver got out sipened gas with a hose out of a tank in the back and poured it into the engine in the front. So funny and typical for Peru lol lol. After the exellerating trip through the dunes we went back to our hostel, showered (luckily the shower was like a power washer) ate, and headed out for the pisco wine festival we had signed up for earlier in the day. Oh wow wine festival ... not so much... more like a Gringo tourist trap. We were told there would be a tour, grape stomping, music, dancing and the real seller: all you can drink. We were really excited to experience a real local festival. Arriving at the "festival" we were given a 5 min tour through the winery, then taken to another building where we stomped grapes for about a hour. By the lack of locals we quickly realized this was not a festival and we were paying to work. At least they did provide all the wine (Pisco wine tastes like sherry) and Pisco (grape brandy, really really strong) we could drink. After the stomping we moved to the music and dance area and had a dance party. It ended up being a really funny and an entertaining experience all thanks to Rahul's light up whiteboard shirt (I heart Pisco and Hola Chicas).
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