Sand Surfing on Another Planet

     Normally, one assumes the topography of a country is fairly uniform. For example, that Brazil is all jungle (much of it is actually grassland), or that Australia is all desert (actually it has rain forests to the east and some snowy mountains in the south). I made ​​the same mistake in Peru - after seeing Lima, I imagined Peru would not possess many surprises in weather except perhaps changes between fog and sunny weather.
   I first began to realize the variations yesterday after seeing the ruins at Pachacamac (see my previous post), but this was driven home during my drive to the town of Ica today. As we drove down the road and left Lima, the landscape transformed from city to desert in the blink of an eye. Mountains loomed in the distance, while enormous sand dunes surrounded us on either side. I thought they were hills at first, until the road cut through them to reveal that they really were enormous summits of sand and stray stone. The landscape looked as if someone had taken a piece of Mars and transplanted it onto Earth.
     After our drive, we arrived at our destination -  Ica. After a tour of the town and its fine pisco winery, we went back out into the desert to do the most logical thing possible on a sea of sand - surf. We rode at a break-neck pace across the dunes, and then proceeded to slide down them on waxed snowboards. The sliding reminded me more of a roller-coaster ride than anything else, except I also had to dodge my fellow surfers as well.
      After a great day, we arrived back at our hotel for dinner. Tonight, we eat relax for our real adventures tomorrow at the Nazca lines.