By: Lindsay Hogg

I’ve had some great days at the beach while traveling, but I’m not a big fan of it. Mostly because sand bothers me. The good thing about a beach is that you can go home and shower off all those gross little particles that stick between your toes and get in your hair. But after spending a few days in Huacachina, Peru, I won’t be jetting off on any Tunisia holidays in the near future.

These desert based destinations are not high on my list of places to go.

I know you’re probably thinking ‘what a princess’ right now, but I get dirty all the time. I literally put a shirt on and have coffee or food spilled on it within minutes. I wear black a lot because of this. The difference between desert destinations and doing things like camping, hiking, riding quads and so on is that I it’s only for a short period of time. I get to go home and shower after.

I try not to think negatively about any travel destination, because I feel like any place can surprise me, I’ve ended up liking countries I was not expecting to enjoy so much.

I can adapt fairly well, which causes me to believe I would be okay and adapt to that ‘dirty feeling’ after a week or so in a desert destination, it’s the part of getting myself there that’s hard. Thinking about all that sand, everywhere, all the time. It’s brown, sometimes white, pink, or black. Sometimes it gets hot and burns my feet. Sometimes it gets wet and dirties my feet. The worst is when it gets under my contact and itches/irritates my eyeballs.

When I was in the Huacachina desert oasis, Peru, everything was covered in sand; my shower and bed even had sand in them. I also saw a cockroach for the first time in my life, which upset me as well. It wasn’t all bad, sandboarding was awesome for a period of time, but I couldn’t wait to leave Huaccachina after a day or two. Is it different in other desert parts of the world? Am I being biased from my one experience?

Anakin Skywalker states it perfectly:

Anakin and I feel the same way about annoying tiny particles of dirt, alas hating sand doesn’t result in me hitting on chicks with crazy ass hair-do’s… most of the time.

Shout outs to Amanda Kennedy and Steve Lowes for helping me think of more things to say about my hate for sand.