Pisco Sours party in the Huacachina desert


After the thrilling sandboarding experience, we went on to party in the Huacachina desert, drinking copious amounts of unlimited, lethal, Pisco Sours – Peru’s national cocktail.

It looked very inviting – a protected bonfire set up in between 2 large sand dunes with music, lights, and a table full of canapes which included cheese sticks, fruit skewers, and a range of pork finger foods.

Eventually, a bbq was set up and a variety of meats cooking.

Katarn to T – ‘Aren’t you going to eat any of the bbq?’

T, sheepishly admits – ‘No, I thought a bbq in the desert meant just the table of finger foods that were out earlier (camping in desert rookie!), so I went totally ‘survival of the fittest’ on the cheese sticks’

As the night progressed, there was plenty of dancing, laughing, bonding, burying of wastes, and learning interesting bits of new information. Like did you know that ‘camping in the desert’ means just you and your sleeping bag, no tent? Only the thousands of bright stars above your head – amazing!

Pisco Sour Casualties

– Irish Adam fell drunkenly into the bonfire twice while dancing wildly.. and once onto the lit BBQ.

– Little blond Australian Amy got a wopping cut above her eye – she was pulling a fancy dance move when Aussy Oden dropped his beer bottle on her face.

In the morning when everyone was ‘ooh’-ing and ‘aaaah’-ing over her swollen shut, multi-coloured, bruised eye.

Everyone – ‘What happened?!’

Amy – ‘It was Oden’

Oden, jokingly to the group – ‘I tried to rape her but she resisted’

Sandboarding in the Peruvian desert – Tiara style.


Huacachina, Peru, is a desert oasis surrounded by massive sand-dunes. MASSIVE, 70 metre high, steep, enormous sand dunes, and it was here that I was going to have my first sandboarding experience.

Everyone was excited, and it WAS exciting, like the way death is exciting.

How to sandboard with a fractured right toe.

– Wait til last and hope to God that someone else falls off their board and rolls down the sand mountain, cursing, looking ridiculous, before I do.

– Encourage being in shock. This will help prevent your legs from running away from this exciting experience.

– Don’t stand. Lie down on the board and listen to the instructions with intense concentration – elbows in, legs spread, do not let your feet drop… too much info, just imagine its a water slide. A really really high water slide. I like water slides..

– Let out a single, loud, blood curdling scream that carries through the desert, and most likely all the way into the city, as the man pushes me off the edge.

– Feel incredible, (invincible!) as I’m flying down the almost vertical drop with the wind and sand blowing in my face, giving me a naturally surprised facelift.

– Successfully make it to the bottom without becoming a sand donut.

All smiles as the dune buggies pick us up from the bottom. I did it! With permanent eye-liner tattoo, a fractured foot, and a bright blue Priscilla scarf flying from around my neck! I am not a pussy.

Jesus, our crazy dune buggy driver looks over at us devilishly and says 2 words – ‘Level two.’

Everyone cheers.

T, smile frozen on face – ‘LEVEL TWO? ….shiiiiiit!’