Sandboarding and Surfing!

Sandboarding at Duna Pur Pur

Longboard Championship - Huanchaco Beach

My time here in Perú is definitely not all work... I try to reserve my Sundays for a little R+R. I’ve explored 2 of Perú’s popular tourist adventure sports, and I have to say that I’m pretty hooked on both! Huanchaco is about 30 minutes away from Trujillo and is a popular surf town. Rocky, small beach space and many little local surfer kids who make fun of my (lack of) surfing abilities in Spanish – but still a pleasant surfing experience. I’ve heard the surf is great up north around Mancora but haven’t made it there yet.

Stick around Huanchaco to catch a gorgeous sunset

I highly recommend sand-boarding, although if you are not with a bunch of locals you may want to go with an official company – there have been lots of reports of tourists getting robbed at gunpoint on the sand dunes if they go alone. There are tourist operations for sand-boarding all over Perú (the most popular being down south of Lima in Ica), but of course it’s a lot cheaper to do it on your own.

We rented sand-boards for 15 soles (5 dollars) for the day in El Centro (Trujillo). Hopped on a bus (Santa Cruz station) toward Viru for 3.50 soles one-way ($1.25) and 40 minutes later were dropped off on a dirt road in the country-side, right after the road that turns to Puerto Morin. We walked down the road until we ran into a man with a giant gun, who told us he thought the area we were heading was “forbidden.” That did not deter my host sisters and cousins, so we continued on until we came to a big gate. After 5 minutes of bribing the guy at the door, he let us in (for the price of 5 soles for all of us).

We walked through the farm until we arrived at a giant sand dune surrounded by green farms and with a view of the ocean. It was pretty incredible. I learned a few things very quickly, 1) sand-boarding is pretty slow, you need to find a very steep spot to get any sort of momentum and 2) if you try to turn the board like a snowboard, you will inevitably eat it – just plan to go straight. We had a wonderful time and cooled off with ice cream at Playa Puerto Morin afterward- which is a nice, local-vibes non-touristy beach spot. I’m still digging sand out of my ears, but it was definitely worth it!