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Summer Vacations With an Edge: Sandboarding In Peru

Where: Peru
August 14, 2009 at 1:14 PM | by | Comment (1)

It turns out that the highest sand dune in the world is Peru's Cerro Blanco, which rises more than 2,000m above the ground and more or less resembles a mountain. It also turns out that if you want to sandboard down the side of it, Peru Adventure Tours is more than willing to put together a package for you, drive you out there in a sand buggy, and watch as you indulge in one of the world's most extreme sports.

Sandboarding is an all-season sport, one of the upshots of basing an activity out of a desert. Sandboarders either stand on snowboard-like boards or lie down on mats for "trayboarding," and try to pull off the same tricks that snowboarders do. That means catching air, doing tricks, and carving up the ground. Instead of kicking up snow, though, these athletes shred grainy sand. And instead of getting to ride sky lifts up picturesque mountains, they have to access some of the most unforgiving environments in the world.

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There's no cost listed on the Peru Adventures site, largely because packages are custom-designed based on where you want to go and what you want to do. There's Cerro Blanco, of course, but the faint of heart can also ask for trips to the smaller dunes at La Huacachina de Ica or the coast of Camana. Tours range from a one-day outing that starts at 5am and includes breakfast and lunch, to a sand buggy and sandboarding extravaganza that lasts 5 days.

The company also features a variety of other tours across Peru, many in the context of guilt-free sustainable tourism. We're not sure if sandboarding falls under that category given that tearing up the sides of dunes is at least in tension with the whole "Leave No Trace" thing. On the other hand, you do get to board down a gigantic mountain made of sand.

[Photo: johnrawlinson]

Related Stories:
· Peru Adventure Tours [Main Site]
· Summer Vacations With An Edge [Jaunted]
· Peru Travel Coverage [Jaunted]



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ouch

that's gotta chafe.
Christopher Gamblee Wallendjack on August 14, 2009 at 1:27 PM #Permalink
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