Tim_Day 66-67 (Ica)

Day 66 (Continued)
Luckily the magic of the words ¨Chung King¨ worked and right after the internet we headed to scared on some noodles and rice. Good stuff. I think Ana really likes the food but doesn´t want to admit it.

After lunch we grabbed another bumpy three wheeled taxi ride back to our hotel. It´s so funny because the cart barely has enough power to make it up the small hill into the city. Every time they need to drop to the lowest gear to make the hill. Although there slow there still the most fun and the cheapest. We pretty much only use them as taxi’s unless we have no other choice.

We had a couple hours to burn before the dune buggy ride so we crashed in the room for a while and took a short nap. Were like cats lately for some reason. We woke up in time to head out and catch the dune buggy ride. Ana was a little excited but not too much. I was thinking she was going to have a good time but she was a little afraid I think. She´s never been on a dune buggy ride before.

We got to the hotel and their were a ton of people signed up for the buggy ride. We were one of 5 buggies that ended up going together from the same company. I was a little worried it was going to be crowded and kind of suck with so many people. Although having that many people actually ended up being really fun.

We took off out of the city and headed for the sand desert. The buggy was very open and a bit old so sand was flying in our eyes and face and water was hitting us from the radiator of the engine. Pretty funny. I was wishing I brought my glasses so I could see better. I was constantly blinking and squinting to see anything.

The ride was really fun and the buggy’s were pretty fast. They didn´t have much of a suspension so most of the ride was on smooth ground going up and down large hills. Was a good time and more than I expected. After about 20 minutes of driving we stopped and got the sand boards out to go down the first hill. It was a tiny hill and was only for practice. It was funny to watch everyone eating it on this little hill. I joined in and tried. I was glad I messed around with the board the previous day because it gave me a sense of what I had to do to get down the slope standing. I was only able to turn to the right since that was the most comfortable for me. It also had me facing the hill so if I went down I didn´t have far to fall.

We spent about 20 minutes going down the crowded small hill. It was fun and Ana took a run down on her stomach. She was going pretty fast and enjoyed it allot. I went down about 3 times or so. I looked like an idiot but I did make it all the way to the bottom without wiping out to hard.

We got back in the buggy and headed out for more riding. It was fun and this time he went down some really large hills. He actually had time to shift 3 times while going down. Big hills and it was great. We must have been doing around 50 mph when we hit the bottom. Good times and we stopped about another 20 minutes away at another larger and steeper dune.

The dune looked pretty massive and was allot larger and steeper than the first one. A couple guys who knew more of what they were doing hit the hill. They wiped out pretty hard a few times before they hit the bottom. There glasses would fly and there would be a large dirt cloud then a couple flips and they would stop. Pretty funny and they were pretty crazy. I just wanted to stay standing so my strategy was to cut to the right only and learn that well. I knew there were larger hills coming and it was only going to get harder.

After a few people eating it all the way down it was my time to go. I hit the slope and fumbled my way down the hill. I was doing ok till I heard one guy saying watch out! I looked above me and he was screaming down the hill sideways on the board. I´m not sure how he wasn´t stopping? Rather he was screaming towards me. I had to aim the board straight down the hill and run the hill out to keep from being wiped out by him. I´m pretty sure I would have gotten the bad end of the crash should be have hit. I ended up going way faster than I wanted but it was the only way to get away. Luckily I just held the speed to the bottom and there was no problem. The hill was pretty steep and I couldn´t believe the guy was flying down the hill with the board in the same position I use to break which is perpendicular with the hill. I was laughing and watched bodies and boards crashing and flipping down the hill.

About a minute after I got to the bottom I saw a guy eat it really hard on the hill. I heard a crack when he fell and it sounded like he smacked his head on the board. He wasn´t moving too much after falling so I decided to start walking his way. Then this stupid girl started down flying down the hill right at the guy who just fell hard. She was flying and couldn´t stop. Luckily at the last minute she pulled her feet up and the board just missed hitting the guy right in the head. She did a couple flips and landed on her but. I started running toward both of them to make sure they were ok. The guy wasn´t moving so I wanted to get to him first. I think the girl though I was coming to help her but she looked ok and I passed her up. She looked pretty stunned and her face was covered in sand and she was spitting sand from her mouth.

I got to the guy and he was laying face down in the sand. I asked him if he wanted me to take the board off his feet and he said ¨yes please¨ I could tell he wasn´t feeling too good. I pulled the board off his feet and he turned over. His body, face and hair was covered in sand. His mouth also was black with sand which he was trying to spit out. He said his collar bone was hurting him and he thinks he broke it. He said he heard a cracking sound. I heard the same sound from down on the bottom of the hill but I thought he hit his head on the board.

One of the drivers came up and started touching his arm. I think he saw a couple shows on tv and thought he was a doctor. He started moving his arm and trying to role his shoulder back into place. I told him he didn´t dislocate his shoulder he thinks he broke his collar bone. He didn´t pay any attention to me as I tried to stop him from moving his arm. The guy was in some serious pain and the moving was killing him but the guy keep trying. The guy with the broken collar bone was saying ¨what are you doing?¨ and he just keep moving it. I would have punched the guy in the face but he let him move it. After putting him through some really good pain he realized he needed to take him to the hospital. They had an arm bandage in the buggy (this must happen pretty often to have one in the buggy) and they bandaged up his arm.

I felt so bad for the guy. He keep saying ¨why me?¨. I know that feeling. It was his first run down the hill and he was probably having a good time. Then crack and it´s all over for another month or so. Poor guy. They put him in one of the buggies with his girlfriend and took him back to the local hospital to take care of his shoulder. I´m sure the ride in the sand must have been pretty painful. Getting back to the town was about 20 minutes on bumpy roads and then at least another 10 minutes to the main city on bad roads. Nothing’s better than bumpy roads with a broken bone. You feel every little pebble in the road.

The guides rushed him off pretty quick and were trying to have us forget about the whole thing. But the air was ripe with new worry and concern about what we were doing. I was a little more worried but figured what the hell and grabbed another board to run the hill again. I figured I just need to be more careful and not crash the same way he did.

After about 20 more minutes the hill was filled with a small group of people who were still willing to sand board despite the crash. In fact they drove us to the top part which was even more high and steep. I was starting to get the hand of sand boarding and was able to stay upright most of the time. I was only concentrating on right hand turns since I figured if I could master that then I could at least make it down the hill. I would work on turning and left hand riding another day on smaller slopes. For now it was more about survival than anything.

I got about 5 good runs down the hill. A couple were from the top which was pretty crazy but VERY fun. We took off in the cars and did some more trials in the buggy. Long enough to get a nice coating of sand on your face and in your eyes. When I wiped my eyes I got a ton of sand out. In fact I still had sand in my eyes the next morning. Could feel it like sandpaper. Crazy.

They brought us to the last hill to ride. It didn´t look that steep and I was like is this it. No they said it was the dune to the right. Oh great. I walked to the crest and we were standing on the biggest sand dune I´ve ever seen. I didn´t know sand dunes could actually form as tall as this one. It was crazy and I strapped on my board to give it a shot.

By the time we hit this hill only about 10% of the people in the large group were game to try it. I got my board on and there were already a couple of guys way down the hill. They were small as ant and that showed me even more how large the hill was. It was really cool. Ana was even scared to walk on the hill but I had her come over and film me going down the hill. I took off and the new wax that was put on the board made the board move pretty fast. It was really cool. Soon enough I was flying down the large hill at a right hand slant since that´t the only way I knew I could go with confidence. The hill was steep and I picked up some pretty good speed.

It was an amazing feeling going down the hill. I´ve never done any snow or water skiing so the experience for me was really amazing. I will never forget the feeling of flying down the hill and hanging my right finger to the side to scrape S shapes into the virgin untouched sand. Was really magical and I felt almost like I was in control. A couple times I almost ate it but at this point I didn´t care. It was so cool flying down the mountain I didn´t care. Very magical. The sky was starting to set and the colors of the air and sand were beautiful. Memory I´ll have forever.

The ride lasted about a minute or two. Not sure but it was a long time. When I got to the bottom Ana looked like a little ant. It was amazing to look at the hill I came down. Very cool and really fun. We jumped aboard the buggy and met up with everyone else. We rode back to the hotel and got off. Was well worth the money and I wished my family could be there to enjoy the desert as well. Would have been great with everyone.

We hit the drop off point and something funny happened. We looked up on the porch and there was the same girl from Israel that went on the Uyuni trip with us. No way! She was such a pain in the butt. We got off the buggy and pretended we didn´t see her. We headed out and didn´t want to make small fake talk with her. Of all people. Oh well as long as we weren’t on the same hotel or buggy ride as her we were fine.

We laughed and talked about the trip the rest of the evening. Was really fun. We took a shower and dropped a couple pounds of sand off. Then we went and bought two ice cold waters and one large thing of orange juice. We drank it by the lake and enjoyed the evening. Good times.

We´ve have two great days sand boarding and playing in the sand. I now want to now sand board down the large mountain behind the city. I have the confidence now to do it. I was joking with Ana the day before when we were trying to sand board and I could only go about 5 feet before I fell on my butt that I wanted to do that large hill. She said ok whatever. Now I really think I can do it. I think it´s actually smaller and less steep than the hill we did already. I´ll try the hill the next evening. Should be really cool.

We hung out by the pool and I had another cigarette. A nice way to relax. I prefer cigars but all I have access too here are cigarettes. It will have to do. We crashed later on. We were both very tired and jumped on the bed like a sack of dead meat. We both sleep like a African sheep after mating season.





Day 67
Woke up early since we went to bed a little early the night before. I woke up kind of sad thinking this was our last day of adventure for a long time. From now on we are just going to Lima to catch a plane flight and then to Panama and Nicaragua for a month.

I´m excited to see family there but it won’t be the same as here. Everything is going to be planned and known. Life is going to take on more of an at home feel where things are known and organized. No more random crazy lifestyle. Just moments of that not everyday all day. It´s kind of sad.

This last 2.5 months have been SOOOO fun. We´ve done SOOOO much and seen SOOOO much. It makes me sad to think it going away for a while. Africa will be the next great adventure. I´m excited to have that in my future. But for now I will settle down the adventure and catch up on the family stuff which I have also been missing dearly. I´m planning on not doing a day to day blog during the next few months but more of a weekly re-cap. I don´t think there is going to be as much to write about and I´d rather just catch the high points in a general.

Anyway that morning I was thinking of sand boarding the large hill but my legs are a little too sore from the previous day. We headed into town on a 3 wheeled taxi. The nicest one yet. It was clean and had two functioning doors on it. Love those little taxis.

We ate breakfast at a local place. We didn´t have jam and bread can you believe that. We actually found a place that had bread with ham and cheese in it for breakfast. Was actually really good. There were allot of locals there so we knew it must have been a good place. We also drank 2 glasses of orange juice each. We love that fresh orange juice. Probably spent about 2,000 dollars just on orange juice this trip. It´s good though and so nice in the heat here.

After breakfast we headed to where we are now doing internet again. We also drew a little more cash out of the bank to make it to Lima and eventually Panama. I think were going to eat lunch her then head back later to do some more sand boarding. I´m going to go down the large hill next to town. That was one of my high goal in the beginning and it will be great to do it on the sand board. Hopefully I make it down with no broken bones. Although if I was to hurt myself this would be as good of a time as any. Let´s hope not though.

Tomorrow we head to Lima. I´m not looking forward to that and I don´t really like large cities. There’s more people, dirt, crime, and craziness. Also it´s the end of our adventure here in South America and I´m sad about that. Oh well it´s been great and I´m really grateful we got to see as much as we did and came through it all safe and sound.

Till next time.
t*