Rare Adventures

Tag: travel

Adventures in Huacachina: Sand Dunes and Thrills

Our first sight of Huacachina came soon after we arrived in Ica, we turned up a back road that wound up the sand dunes, then we came over the hill in the coach and there it was, the most stunning and unbelievable view of a beautiful oasis surrounded by the sand dunes the size of real mountains, it was like an image of heaven in a desolate, hell like landscape.

We made our way to our hotel, which was like any seaside hotel on the Med, so a swim was in order. As we got over our trip, we started to notice lines of ants crawling along the ridges of the distant and dunes, more investigation led to the discovery that these were some form of monster trucks.

This part of our South of Lima adventure was called something vague like “Fun in the sand dunes”, as we watched the little dots moving around the full potential of the fun started to take shape.

We met up with our fellow adventures and walked up the dunes to find our truck. Our new companions were Dawn and Reg from Scotland, a couple of doctors on a 6 month world tour with lots of great stories to share along with Bettina, an amazing young lady who worked for the United Nations refugee council.

As we walked up the path we started to hear the roar of the trucks in the boarding zone. We also watched the convoys of trucks coming back down the sand dunes over gravity defying drops and almost vertical climbs back up the dunes.

The afternoon promised a lot of fun, as we also had sand boarding included in the itinerary, hardly ideal for a bloke with a trapped nerve in his back!

Monster dune trucks

The first sight of the truck was amazing, in truth it wasn’t a truck, it was a giant V8 engine attached to a tube framework with seats. It was an incredibly powerful beast and the absence of any real exhaust system meant the noise was more akin to that of an aircraft.

Once we were all aboard, the engine fired up and off we went with engine roaring and sand being sprayed off the wheels as we followed a convoy of similar mechanical beasts up the dunes.

For the next hour we were on a roller coaster through the dunes, as we headed for the peaks. The climbs got steeper, the drops got bigger and the screaming in the truck got louder as our madman driver launched us off the tops of ridges.

The best way to describe the experience is that it was like being live in a Mad Max movie. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done, my adrenalin was in overdrive willing the truck to go faster and fly higher!

Hope you enjoy the video of the sand buggy rides and it brings it to life for you.

Sand boarding for beginners

Eventually we pulled up to stretch our legs, and then discovered this wasn’t a break, it was the start of the sand boarding as we were stood on the top of a ridge. Boards were unloaded from the truck and we stood there looking at the drop, this meant decision time.

My trapped nerve was still an issue, but was definitely on the mend, but the Inca Trail trek was only a week away, so a wise person would have chosen not to go headfirst down a sand mountain, like Dawn and Reg. Not being a wise person, I grabbed the board, carefully knelt down gently, laid on the board and flew down the hill and gingerly stood up at the bottom, no damage done.

Back into the truck and off we went to our next stop with lots more roaring engines, flying off ridges and to avoid trucks coming from other angles. Eventually it took us to the high point of the tour, with an outstanding vista from one of the high points of the region. It was then that we realised there was another reason for reaching this high point of the region, it was the next sandboard opportunity.

Sand boarding for the deranged

After a climb along a ridge, we were faced with a downhill run that was at least 2 km long. There was no reason in the world for a sensible person with a trapped nerve in their back to go headfirst down this hill. However, the constant excitement of the racing trucks had my adrenaline pumping and the next thing I was looking down the mountain, in the company of my young companions. Before I knew it, I was having one of the most exciting runs of my life, going over 50mph headfirst down a sand mountain.

I hope you enjoy the video of our sand boarding and it brings it to life for you.

The truck collected us in the valley below and took us off to another remote part of the sand dunes to watch the incredible sunset over the dunes. At this remote location we all found places on the dunes to settle and just watch the vastness and desolated scene across the desert, providing a fabulous counterbalance to the adrenaline junkie events of the afternoon.

After we had climbed all over the trcucks for photos, and climbed up the sand dunes, we headed back to the truck park and the end of the adrenaline experience, but it wasn’t the end of the day.

We walked back down to the town for the evening BBQ and a few beers with our fellow adventurers but we had no idea how much mayhem was about to follow us as we headed for the bar to celebrate our adventures.

07/01/2026
A crazy night in Huacachina

Some memorable nights come about after a well laid plan, and others come about spontaneously, and after 4 hours overdosing on adrenaline I was ready for a beer or two and whatever would follow.

The scene was set when we settled in the bar overlooking the oasis, with our Scottish chums Dawn and Reg from the dune buggy. The first beer arrived and was gone in a flash, on to the next one and Dawn started to tell us about an obnoxious, misogynous chap called Dave who was from London, he had clearly got up her nose but apart from that we were getting along just fine with tales of mountain biking and then time for another beer.

Suddenly, the atmosphere changed, Dawn started hissing and then said, “there he Is, Dave from London”, as a chap walked along the balcony and took up a seat near us. To our disbelief, it was “John from Raynes Park”, or Dogbite John as we were calling him. Admittedly he seemed to have his faults but there were daggers looks flying between Dawn and John. This which was a bit awkward as he moved over to talk to us, I decided it was time to have another beer and focus on mountain biking with Reg.

Wooksie pointed out there must be a mistake, as he was called John not Dave, but Dawn had made her mind up and put up the barriers. So, we drank up and headed on to the next big event, the BBQ, which involved lots of lovely foot and lots of Pisco Sours, this evening was really beginning to escalate.

Then our Scouser chums Helen and Glenn appeared and joined in the evolving party spirit that was driven by adrenaline overdoses, free beer and now a bottomless jug of Pisco Sours, along with some young people who thought we were younger than we were.

Poor old John was excluded from the fun, so my wife Wooksie, being a truly lovely person went over and kept John company, Dawn continued her hate session and I got to know the young people as we;; as Glenn and Helen.

When the free beer and Pisco Sours ran out, most people of a certain age retire to bed. So we bid farewell to Dawn and Reg from Scotland along with Dog bite John and I decided to test the water with our new Scouser chums about going on to a later bar.

To be fair, they took no persuading at all so we headed to the infamous “Wild Rover” bar. our coach was due to leave at 6am, but 1 more drink wasn’t going to hurt us, what was the worst thing that could happen anyway (there was the problem right there, that is my out of control mantra).

Wild Rover bar

When we entered the bar there was some strange formalities, like I had to prove my age and my identify, which took at bit of time but it was immediately obvious that this place was built for fun and young party people, and luckily for them we had arrived!

Things started quite slowly with a bit too much Abba for my liking but the young people seemed to be enjoying themselves so I put up with the music and joined in. The more we talked (or by now shouted) at Glenn and Helen the more we realised we had loads in common and the night accelerated even further when we discovered that a jug of Pisco Sour was an amazingly good investment, so we bought two jugs just in case they ran out of jugs.

Wooksie was now picking up a head of steam as well, normally she is quite reserved but clearly the company of Helen was encouraging her, then Bettina from the dune buggy arrived and things seemed to take off even further.

An unfortunate incident was thankfully avoided. Wooksie, who was happily dancing to the music and singing along when she headed to what she thought was the dance floor. Thankfully someone noticed that the aforesaid dancefloor was actually a swimming pool and disaster was avoided when she was ushered in another direction.

Meanwhile, the DJ had now decided to insert some karaoke into the evening mix and there were now young people on stage singing along to the tracks. Glenn and I were moving closer and closer to the stage as we were singing along with increasing enthusiasm and picking up momentum, After “Blue Monday”, Joy Division was just too much for us to take, we couldn’t control ourselves any longer, grabbed the mikes and gave the young people a great version of “Love will tear us apart”, to be honest we didn’t need the microphones.

At this point, we noticed a disturbance at the bar, to our amazement one of the bar staff was now walking along the bar pouring free tequila down punters throats. It was just like the scene from Coyote Ugly, amazingly I’d always wanted to do that. The young people were a bit tentative in their indulgence so Glenn and I hustled our way to the front to have copious amounts of tequila poured down our throats whilst Wooksie looked upon with horror.

By 3am, the best of the evening had been had, then we remembered that we had a bus to catch in 3 hours, it had completely slipped our memory, Wooksie was having a lovely time with the cool people near the bar, Glenn and I were still telling stories and becoming friends for life.

Turning the music off didn’t quell our enthusiasm and eventually we were politely ushered from the establishment and sent on our way home. We wandered the streets wondering where we lived and eventually, we found our hotel and got our heads down by 4am.

Breakfast started at 530am and unfortunately it turned out the kitchen was right beside our bedroom, and the preparation started at 5am. So our was curtailed after about an hour by the sound of clanking pans.

It’s always amazed me how much damage one hour’s sleep can be to your physical state, I went to bed at 4am very happy and when I was awoken at 5am to the sound of banging pots, I felt like a dead rat had crawled into my head, farted a lot, had thrown up before dying on my tongue.

At 5.45 we gathered all our gear together, grabbed a drink and some fruit and headed for the rendezvous for the coach to see the Nazca lines, which was only 4 hours away in a minibus.

Dawn and Reg were waiting for us, with big smiles on their faces and were happy to share what a great nights sleep they had enjoyed and asked us how our night had gone.

I think our eyes told the story, but it was time to head on to one of our big events of the holiday, the Nazca lines.

06/01/2026
Rediscovering Freedom: Our Adventure to Peru

As the last offspring left the nest, it was time to enjoy our new freedom and start travelling to far flung lands again.

23 years earlier we had completed our last pre kids adventure trekking and rafting in Nepal, Next on our list was the Inca Trail in Peru, but fate intervened and child number one was on the way, and that trip was put on ice.

The last of our offsprings was heading to university so we decided it was time for us to get back on the road again. Now that we had our freedom back the destination was easy, Peru here we come.

After some research, which included the BBC TV series “Race across the World“, we came up with an itinerary. Contacted a few trekking agencies and settled on Alpaca Expeditions tours out of Cusco, there was a 6 week lead so by mid-August we were booked up and ready for the off in late September.

It was at this moment that I had a closer look at the Inca Trekking route and discovered it was VERY steep and at high altitude. This hadn’t really registered 23 years ago, so every weekend we were out doing at least 20km walks up and down any hills we could find around Bristol, with plenty in Wales and in the Mendips.

Our training culminated in a trek up Mt Snowden, the highest mountain in the UK, we dropped our youngest off at Liverpool University, gave him a hug and a wave, and headed off to north Wales for the trek armed with all our new gear and our cockapoo Tess for company.

The trek up Snowden was roughly the same as the toughest day on the Inca Trail but without the altitude. It was quite tough but manageable, even Tess the Dog started to look a bit tired on the way back down.

We headed for our hotel, had a nice meal and went to bed. At this point things took an unexpected turn, I woke up in the night in agony, it later transpired that I had trapped a nerve in my back, probably on the steep decline at the end, and not to be left out, Tess the Dog threw up in the hotel room, probably a bit of exhaustion.

So, the last few days before departure to Peru were spent in the physio going through untold pain with the manipulation, followed by sleepless nights, and more pain.

It was difficult to know the true source of the pain, was it my back or was it the physio. By the time we headed to the airport my walking had improved from a shuffle to a limp but still not a lot of hope for climbing a mountain, but we had a couple of weeks in Peru before the trek so there was hope.

We flew to Lima via Madrid with Air Europe airlines, which seemed to be quite a new low cost airline and they were very good. We upgraded to business class to give my back a chance and by some freaky miracle, lying a bit awkward on the flatbed seemed to do my back the world of good, though it is never fun arriving in a county at 2.30am.

We had 3 days allocated to Lima to recover and look around and it was probably more than we needed. Thanks to Business Class we didn’t need the recovery day and were up and walking around by mid-morning.

Lima is a typical third world capital city, heavily congested with clapped out vehicles, mad people on motorbikes and packed buses, all the guidebooks send tourists to Miraflores as the epicentre of fun, and to be honest it was quite a nice place to chill out on the first afternoon.

There are lots of restaurants and you can generally get buy speaking English, there are Irish bars and wandering bands of minstrels playing Peruvian music, and you will be faced by your first deep fried guinea pig which is a bit disturbing.

After an hour or so sitting around it was time to test my back a bit more and do some more exploring and we discovered a very spectacular waterfront. Lima is built on a cliff top overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so technically this was our first glimpse of the South Pacific.

The lower level has the motorway running beside it but there was a pier with a loverly bar overlooking the rocky beach and the local surfers enjoying the waves, I noted their thick wetsuits from bar and decided the water was no place for a bloke with a bad back.

We headed back to Miraflores to test the Peruvian food for dinner and a pint in the Irish Bar before heading back for a good night’s kip. Next day we were beginning to regret having an extra day in Lima, then we decided to take a tour bus to fill the day up and see the city. This turned out to be a very good idea, as there was a lot of good stuff to see and the bus was really the only way to see it.

The city is spread out but we discovered that the muddy hill behind our hotel was actually an ancient pyramid that had only been discovered 25 years ago, up to that moment the local kids had used it for dirt bike riding.

The tour took us around to the main square of government builds which was very attractive, and over the coming weeks we discovered that pretty every city in Peru had one of these. Our fist ancient monetary and some sites of some bad moments between the people and their government which litters their history.

So that was our trip to Lima, a good start but now the real fun begins.

29/12/2025
Culture vultures land in Buenos Aries

We landed back in Buenos Aries for our second visit of the South American adventure. The first visit only lasted about 15 hours but we did manage to get in a tour of the main sights before heading to the airport, so we were looking for something different on this visit.

The trip up from Ushuaia using Flybondi had been surprisingly incident free. After our previous experiences, we were relieved the find the flight on time and we landed in Buenos Aries on schedule, tired but with the evening to look forward to.

We then encountered the Howard Johnson hotel chain, in particular, their hotel naming convention. Now I get the need for branding and consistency but do the hotels have to have almost the exact same name?

Howard Johnson Hotels

So after a long day we got an Uber from the airport to Howard Johnson by Wyndham Buenos Aries, which it turns out is hidden away in a shopping mall. After walking around in circles trying to find it, we finally found the hidden entrance, waited 10 minutes while a couple of other customers faffed about before it was our turn.

The receptionist looked at our reservation and laughed, “You have the wrong hotel”, firstly I didn’t like having to wait anyway, but when he chose to laugh it really did agitate me so I let Wooksie deal with it. It was the first time the pace of our South American adventure started to catch up with us.

Turned out we were at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Plaza Buenos Aries Florida, when we should have been at Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima, a mile away, a simple mistake to make I’m sure you will agree, and in fact, a naming convention almost designed to cause trouble for innocent customers.

So, we called another Uber for 4 persons, and the driver turned up in a VW Up which is hardly a 4 seater. It patently wasn’t big enough to take us and our bags comfortably but I wasn’t giving in that easy, we then had a stand off as he wanted to cancel the trip but after another very dirty look from me we piled into the car with two big bags on our laps, and finally we made it to Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima. We then discovered that Buenos Aries shuts down on a Sunday night, so there was no big night out for us so a light dinner and a good night’s kip.

Culture options.

For this trip to Buenos Aries we wanted something a bit different, we had already done the city tour so wanted to see a different side of the city. Wooksie was adamant that she wanted to experience the traditions of Tango, we had touched on it in Boca, so we decided we would go to a see a Tango show. We also had time in the day for something else so we decided to do the tour of the street art in Palermo, and in particular the Soho district.

In the morning, we went for a stroll in the spring sunshine around the parks and the around Porteno backstreets, was good to feel the sun again after Patagonia and Ushuaia in particular.

We are not particularly arty, in fact, not arty at all, so the walking tour of the street art was a bit left field for us, but it turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip. We had a really nice, paced walk around the back streets of this famous suburb and you could really feel the buzz, I would imagine nights out in that area would be a lot of fun, there was even an Irish pub.

Street art in Palermo

The street art itself was brilliant. If we had wandered around the streets ourselves, we would have missed so much, not just the art but all the history and buildings that make up the area. Bright vibrant colours on all the walls, apparently vandalism is defined as someone who damages someone else’s art.

Nearly all the walls had artwork on them, from artists all over the world who had come here to leave their mark. I now know the history of graffiti, not to be mistaken for murals of course. It was difficult to really capture all the vibrant colours in the photos as there were so many of them, so I created this video to capture them all.

The time flew by with a great tour guide and interesting company in the group, but before we knew it, we had to bail out and head back to the hotel for our big night out at the Porteno Tango show a few blocks from our hotel.

We got ourselves ready in our least scruffy T shirt and jeans for our big night out. Just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango (at 745 pm) I received an email from Antonio Jungle Trekking that said our accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it poured cold water on our evening at the Tango, you can read the full story in our Cautionary Tale blog.

Wooksie started to come to terms with possible unravelling or Jungle Trek in Manaus and at least started talking to me again in rather clipped phrases, one of the terms she used sounded similar to anchor.

A night at the Tango

Thankfully, our arrival at the Porteno Theatre went without a hitch, the booking was all in place so no problems to navigate, the welcome was warm, and we were directed to our dining table which had a great view of the stage.

We then found ourselves in the company of another English couple touring South America in the wake of the BBC Race Round the World, exactly the same as us. So, we had much to talk about, and tales to tell of our adventures and experiences and the pre-show dinner and drinks just flew by.

A word on the dinner, the food at the theatre was as good as anything we had enjoyed at restaurants and the Merlot was really good quality, it was relatively expensive but was good value for money.

In the UK we don’t really do show things, it’s not really us but this was a great experience. The whole Tango experience was different to what we expected, the dancing was more akin to what I would have expected in Paris with café culture scenes. I think we were expecting Flamenco dancing, which we now realise is associated with Brazil 😊.

Even though the Tango is associated with Argentina, it clearly has its origins in France and Italy with other European influences, a bit like the whole of Argentina really. So, this was the last act in our Argentina adventure as the next day we headed to Brazil to continue our adventure.

We had a wonderful time in Argentina and I’ve documented the little surprises about the country and what to expect if you decide to come here.

The pictures tell part of the Tango story, but I put them all together to make a little video of the night, which I hope you will enjoy.

07/12/2025
Amazon treks – a cautionary tale.
Our search for adventure took us into the Amazon jungle. This wasn’t planned at all, but our journey through Patagonia had been quicker than we expected so we had accrued a few days.

Making last minute decisions is part and parcel of our approach, but the decision to take on the Amazon at short notice did come with risks.

There were one or two other potential options for the last week, but as I had always wanted to do a jungle trek (and after some negotiation with Wooksie) it was agreed that we would do a jungle trek to use up the spare days, it also had the benefit of saving us coming back on a future trip.

Reflecting on this story, there is a lesson that if you are going to commit to something as risky as an Amazon trek then you need to do your research properly, rather than doing it on the spur of the moment like we did.

In addition, we made an assumption that if you offered to pay more, you would get better accommodation, but clearly that was lost in translation.

The last 2 years we have booked the Inca Trail and a safari in Tanzania without needing a travel agent, so know about the potential pitfalls and the need to take care about the selection process of suppliers.

We were in Ushuaia when we had the discussion, and I have to admit there were a few logistical challenges, not least that we were on the edge of Antarctica and the treks were mostly from Manaus in Brazil, which is only just south of the equator. We were embarking on a 6000 mile journey as the crow flies, which involved 3 flights and 10 hours on a plane over 3 days to get there.

Wooksie only agreed to the Amazon trek on condition that the accommodation was good so she could escape some of the heat, many people don’t realise that redheads struggle with body heat regulation, so it was a really important criterion.

Unlike the Inca Trail and safari, where I did the research months in advance, this time we only had 7 days to get it booked and get to Manaus. Most of the offerings were 2 or 3 nights at a lodge, with a night camping out in the jungle in a hammock, which was an absolute “no no” for Wooksie, and me to be honest.

So, we set out our defined our requirements, namely, aircon room, private bathroom and no camping in the jungle and sent them off to some of the travel companies in Manaus.

We tracked down 5 companies that were offering jungle treks and seemed to fit the bill. At such short notice the potential suppliers dropped down to 2, namely:
- Antonio at Antonio Jungle Tours
- Leonardo at Amazing Tours
In the discussions, I made it very clear that Wooksie needed good accommodation to be able to cope with the heat that we anticipated, at the end of the day, she is a red headed English Rose and has to be handled with care.

Our safari accommodation had been really outstanding, its cost a lot more but we got what we paid for. It also set an expectation for what we should expect in the Amazon, but of course, this is a different country and different continent,

We chose Antonio as he seemed to understand our requirements the best and his English was very good, so we committed to go with them, on Sunday 15^th Nov. for the tour going out on Thursday 20^th Nov, after confirming I was a bit surprised they didn’t ask for a deposit, but I booked our flights and we headed to Buenos Aries enroute to Manaus for our trek.

The problem with rushing through the selection process is that it is difficult to do the quality control and checking, so I was taking their word and depended on them being honest, and unfortunately, we had a nasty surprise coming.

On the Monday night in Buenos Aries, just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango at 745 pm I received an email from Antonio Trekking that said the accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it ruined our evening at the Tango.

I have no doubt that this was a callous attempt to get our booking and that they were never intending to meet our requirements. They hoped that we had no other options so were up shit creek without a paddle and would take their package in desperation.

I’ve always been careful not to burn bridges unless I have to, fortunately, I hadn’t told Leonardo we hadn’t chosen them at this point, so a quick check with them confirmed they still had availability and by 1am we had switched the booking to Leonardo Trekking them and all seemed well.

We have covered the adventures in our other blogs, one to cover the journey to the lodge, the fishing expedition and the jungle treks. So, I am just focusing on the sharing our experiences with the lodge.

We arrived at the Ipanema Lodge midafternoon after and an entertaining journey and it was a really nice set up. We found a lounge and a communal dining area overlooking the river, was a very positive start, so we then headed to our room to settle in.

Things took a turn for the worst at this point, there were lots of rooms in amongst the trees but we followed a walkway to our room, the walkway was clearly not finished as it didn’t have a roof or any rails to stop us falling over the edge. This was OK in the daylight but when faced with a monsoon in the dark later it became a lot more challenging with a 2m drop each side.

This brings us to the room. The bizarre thing is that the room technically met our specification because it did have a private bathroom and an aircon unit as we requested. The room was actually a large wooden shed with gaps in the walls and the aircon was totally useless, it was a pathetically small unit in a wooden shed with gaps between the wood, so it had absolutely no impact.

We had, unfortunately, been allocated a room that was not in the shade, it was in direct sunlight so the temperatures in the room soared during the day (well over 40C), so the heat was stifling in the room. The balcony had not been built, so the door to the balcony led to a 5m drop into the jungle so had to be kept close.

It had a private bathroom, which was an anteroom off the shed with a pipe that fed cold water to a shower, which was quite pleasant in truth, and the water ran out through a hole in the floor. Basically, from Wooksies perspective, this was a total disaster but despite everything, she almost kept her sense of humour.

The accommodation was fine for young backpackers, which is largely what our travelling companions were. In hindsight, it was always going to be wooden accommodation, so temperature regulation was always going to be a problem, but the big lesson not having any images.

There are about 5 of these lodges in the Amazon Rainforest 4 or 5 hours from Manaus and my conclusion is that all of the lodges are like this, and that accommodation is very basic. Having rechecked the websites, it is very difficult to find any images of the accommodation and if we had had more time I would have asked for images which would have solved the problem and set our expectations.

As you will read in the other reports, we had lots of fun, the food was very good, with wonderful helpful staff, but the reality is that this is a hot endurance experience. We elected to head back civilisation after 2 nights rather than 3 to save Wooksie any further suffering, we had also done the main jungle experiences, we didn’t need the 3^rd night as jungle doesn’t change much whichever direction you walk!

The reality of a jungle trek is a very basic experience; these lodges are out in the wilderness with no creature comforts. We thought that if we paid extra, we could get a higher level of accommodation, but I am not sure it exists.

Unlike a safari, where there is a wealthier clientele who will pay extra, I am not sure that market exists in the jungle trek sector, it is hot, steamy and basic.

A tour of our room at Ipanema Lodge
28/11/2025