In 2011, I embarked on a two week volunteer trip to Lima, Peru during which time I read Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel. One weekend my group drove south to the massive Huacachina sand dunes, a boundless desert playground for visitors. We raced around in dune buggies and took turns sand-boarding, an activity in which one sits on a small surf board and speeds down the side of a dune the size of a Manhattan building from top to bottom.

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