The Dakar Rally is a famous off-road endurance race originally called “Paris to Dakar rally”, but since 2009 it takes place in South America. This year it started in Lima, and will finish in Chile.

So, we used the Dakar Rally as an excuse to form a group and go enjoy some of the Peruvian desert and beach. No phones, internet or showers were a challenge for some people, but we all could handle that because we had this great scenery right around us.

We camped on a farm the first two days and the other two went to the desert. We walked, walked and walked over, saw whale fossils in the desert of Ocucaje, crossed the huge sand dunes to a beach full of sea lions, we walk among cotton crops, more desert, more dunes and more beach.

Moreover, we concurred with the departure of the Dakar Rally and their way through another part of the desert, the competitors took away the few water bottles we had, so we had to go back to the nearest town to buy more … But we lived the Dakar from outside and inside.

The Dakar Rally is an event like many that moved the entire country and has increased tourism in areas rarely visited. However, such beauty, adrenaline and excitement were overshadowed by the lack of care that took viewers at the moment of the competition.

The dunes are formed by the wind running through the desert, unfortunately this wind also was responsible for spreading all the rubbish that may have left on the road, because it did not only stay in the dunes but came to the coast and even the ocean.

It’s good to encourage people to visit places as beautiful as this, provided it is in a sustainable way, always respecting our planet and all their habitants. Therefore it is important to educate people on issues of conservation and sustainable tourism.