Dunes, Sand and Sun: Sandboarding Huacachina on a Weekend Remote Year Tracks™ Event

Becca of @halfhalftravel is currently traveling with her boyfriend Dan (the other half of @halfhalftravel) on Remote Year Kahlo through Peru, Colombia and Mexico for four months. You can follow their story on Instagram and www.halfhalftravel.com.

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As I stared at the horizon, watching the sun disappear behind rows of rolling sand dunes that faded into the distance, I thought, “This is the single most beautiful moment on Remote Year so far.” I was on a weekend event with other members of Remote Year Kahlo, and ten of us were sitting on a giant sand dune, feeling the desert get cooler every second.

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The experience had started that morning at 7:00 a.m. when our group met at the workspace and boarded a private van down to the desert. We all promptly fell asleep to the movement of the van, but when we woke up we were driving down a bumpy road in the desert city of Ica. We were soon welcomed into a Peruvian home that was owned by family friends of a woman who was a part of a previous Remote Year group. That’s what is so incredible about Remote Year: the network and community that you immediately become a part of. These connections are what made it possible for our Kahlo group to experience this wonderful sunny afternoon hanging out by the pool, looking up at the sand dune towering behind the house.

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Wanderlust

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Remote Year Tracks™ provide a great way to experience a city and a new culture in a hands-on way with fellow Remotes. They are essentially unique, culturally-significant experiences, carefully curated for you by the Remote Year City Teams with the intention of broadening your global perspective.

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This experience provided me with a way to become closer with Remotes who I typically don’t see at the workspace due to different schedules or interests. Had I been traveling on my own, I never would have been able to have this jam-packed day that was organized just for our group. We got to enjoy a traditional home-cooked Peruvian lunch of causa (a famous potato dish), pollo (chicken), two types of arroz (rice), chicha (a sweet corn drink) and jugo de maracuya (passionfruit juice - yum!).

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After lunch, which left us absolutely stuffed, we got back in the van and drove for a short ride to Huacachina, Peru’s desert oasis village known for its scenery and sandboarding attractions. We took a walk through the center of the town, which has a lake surrounded by trees, and then we walked through sandy roads to begin our dune buggying.

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Participants

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Dune buggying is like a roller coaster without a track, and while zooming around the desert dunes is thrilling and fast, what I really enjoyed was sandboarding. Everyone gets a wooden board the size of a long skateboard, and we slid down the giant dunes, cheering each other on.

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Lucky for us, our driver pulled up and stopped on the highest dune we’d seen all day, where we had a view of the entire desert. For me, this was the most memorable moment, as I didn’t think we’d be able to stay in the desert for sunset. I took photos so that I would remember it, but also put my camera down so that I could live in the moment.

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Huacachina Ica

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Tracks™ are memorable experiences that serve as a great way to take advantage of Remote Year benefits beyond the monthly housing and flights between destinations. I’ve learned about Peruvian cooking and about the history of Lima over the course of a morning bike tour with half of the Remote Year Kahlo group during our weekday Tracks™. The events are developed with ‘something for everyone’ in mind, and I like having the choice of experiences available in each city. The weekend Tracks™ provide excursions out of the city and allow you to sit back and relax while the planning is done for you. You can simply show up and enjoy. I think for me, these types of excursions and curated experiences  are perhaps the most pleasantly surprising part of being on Remote Year, because they are like built-in opportunities for learning about local culture through activities and bonding with other Remotes.

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Hopefully next month’s weekend event will live up to this desert sunset!

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Wanderlust Huacachina Ica