An emergency passport in Lima, then Huacaf*****gchina!!!

We had arranged to collect Sally's passport on the Wednesday, so after the Peruvian cooking class we jumped on an overnight bus to Lima. Well, mojitos, plus lots of (delicious) Peruvian food plus a Pisco Sour do not a happy stomach make and I spent the first three hours of the journey being sick. It was a shame as the Cruz del Sur Cruzero Suite bus we were on was the epitome of luxury bus travel, with huge leather seats that recline to 160°, a personal touch screen entertainment system in the rear of the seat in front, free headphones, pillow and blanket and two in service meals served by an attendant. I tried having yogurt and water to settle my stomach but it came straight back up. I just about managed to take part in the game of Bingo before bed time but on the whole, my journey was terrible, not helped by the coach constantly careering round the corners of Peru's twisting highways.

Very excited about the super luxurious bus!

Luckily, I felt slightly better by the time we got to Lima. We headed straight to the embassy, where Ciaran and I weren't even allowed up to the embassy and had to wait in the lobby of the building. Well, I did my best to look shabby as we sat on the floor opposite the entrance with all our bags. After over two hours Sal emerged - it was clear that there had been no preparation of her emergency travel document before we got there, as she had to wait for them to make it there and then. For the princely sum of £95 (more than the cost of an actual passport!) Sally now has a flimsy yellow temporary passport which is valid for two whole flights - her flight home to Amsterdam and the connecting one to London, where she'll have to surrender it. What a crock!

After getting the new passport, Sal needed to get a new Peruvian immigration card, which you're usually given when entering the country either at the border or passport control in the airport. It makes you 'legal' in the country and also ensures that you don't pay an additional tax at hotels and hostels. Sal had been using the photocopy of the one she got when she came into Peru but to exit the country with her emergency passport she needed a new immigration card with the correct passport number on it. So, off we went to the Immigration office in Central Lima. For once we weren't gringo taxed by the taxi, as the driver asked us to name our price!

So, you'd think it would be relatively easy to get a new immigration card, this tiny piece of paper that fits into your passport. Wrong. The man at the door of the building sent us one way, then when he saw us wandering around, directed us to a different queue. Then he pulled us out of the queue to put us in a seated waiting area, before giving Sal a form to fill in and telling her to go and queue to pay for a new immigration card. I sat down with all our bags as Ciaran went to help with translating. Over an hour later they came back - they had queued for an hour, paid for the new card but when they went to obtain it, they were told they had paid the wrong amount - in excess of what was required. Sal said she wasn't bothered about paying too much (2S/. =50p!) But no, the officials weren't having it, so they had to go and queue again for a refund before queuing again to get the immigration card! So, another two and a half hours later, with emergency passport and immigration card in hand, we were ready to get the hell out of Lima again! But not before a tasty menu del dia for only 7S/.

Our next stop was Huacachina, back south of Lima. To get there we walked 6 blocks from the Immigration office to the Perubus/Soyuz  terminal, where we got on a six hour bus to Ica. From there we had to take a taxi to Huacachina, and as it was dark when we arrived we couldn't see anything, except for some very faint shadows of the sand dunes.

When we emerged from the hostel the next morning we got that whole '"wow" feeling. Huacachina is a small pueblo set around a lagoon. It's just like you would imagine a small oasis in the desert - the small lagoon of water surrounded by a few palm trees, hidden from the world behind huge sand dunes.

Given our crazy day the day before we had lunch and then caught some rays by the lagoon, before heading off for our sand boarding trip! We arranged the trip with our hostel, Desert Nights and for 45S/. it included a buggy tour of the sand dunes, so we spent the first 20 minutes being ragged around in a dune buggy - lots of fun!

After the pathetic speed I registered when volcano boarding, I was determined to make the most of sand boarding and get all my thrills. Sand boarding is slightly different, although the boards you use are equally shabby affairs. You can either board down lying on your front, digging your feet in to brake, or board down snowboard-style. We all opted for the front option as it seemed to be more of a guaranteed flight. Plus I've never snowboarded in my life!

It was so much fun! And in a good way, all happened so quickly that you don't have time to worry about coming off. You all queue up and when it's your go, you lie on your front and they push you over the edge of the dune and down you slide! The only way to slow yourself down is by digging your toes into the sand, and I tried really hard NOT to, although I couldn't resist sometimes. But I did manage to get some serious speed up, and each run was such an adrenaline rush! (And competition to see who could go the furthest, which Ciaran won)

We had four runs on the boards before zooming across the dunes and back to Huacachina, just in time for sunset. A perfect end to a brilliant day of chilling and adrenaline!