March of the Penguins is the gripping tale of penguin survival in the frozen wastelands. What our dear friend Morgan forgot to mention was that sometimes Penguins get lost. Then they end up in the desert hanging out with pelicans. I see the plot line to a Disney movie...
These are Humbolt Penguins and apparently they belong here. Who knew? Okay, actually I did, but I didn´t want to come off as a smarty pants. They pretty much hang around on the rocks all day and frolic with pelicans and sea lions. Here is the requisite cute sea lion picture.
Well after a day of exploring the desert by boat and taxi, Drew and I needed a well deserved rest. We headed south a bit and holed up in a little oasis town. The town is surrounded by huge sand dunes on every side. Some of these dunes are hundreds of feet high. Drew had the brilliant idea to walk up the dune and watch the sun set. Walking up a giant sand dune is exactly as much fun as it sounds. We were about two-thirds of the way up when the sun set. (Okay, I was two-thirds of the way up. Drew stopped at the half-way point tried to get the sand out of his shoes, pants, etc.) It produced a few good pictures.
A quick word about night time in the desert. It comes fast. We had a lovely (unexpected) time running (rolling) down the hill in a vain attempt to make it back to the hotel before it got pitch black. We exuded grace and style as we walked back into the hotel with trails of sand pouring out behind us. (The cleaning staff declared us mortal enemies.)
The next morning we grabbed a dune buggy and tore off into the desert again to try our hand at sand boarding. If you have never had the joy of taking a dune buggy let me explain the sensation to you. Imagine your self on a bucking bronco. Now try to shave with a sand blaster. That´s pretty much it.
The sand boarding was a great sport and I am terribly disappointed I will not be able to take it up full time when I return to DC. Sand boarding is like a cross between snow boarding and water boarding. You standing on the board like would a snow board or you can lay on it like a sled. Then you hop on down the hill and let gravity do the work. It is pretty easy.
Then you fall... You are in the desert so the sand just been laying there waiting for some idiot to come by. Sand left out in the desert sun takes on a nice skin searing temperature of about 300 degrees. This is the water boarding portion of the sport. It hurts!!! Bad! After laying in the sand for a minute or two would confess to pretty much anything.
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