Coastal Adventure for Families

The journey starts in Lima and ends in the desert, but first there is the Pacific. The Miraflores malecón with children: kites over the cliff, pelicans passing in loose formation, the endless horizon. The city is the opening chapter of a journey where sea and desert share the same page.

The Paracas National Reserve is the encounter children recount on the way home. The private boat reaches the Ballestas Islands: sea lions sleeping in heaps on the rock, Humboldt penguins lined up along the edge, sea condors circling overhead. The ocean here smells different and every child in the group notices.

The Huacachina lagoon is surrounded by ninety-metre dunes. Sandboarding with a private instructor is the most remembered moment of the journey for children: the climb on foot, the descent on wood over sand. The dune buggy at sunset crosses the crests into the sun. Family adrenaline is a universal language.

The Nazca Lines can only be understood from the air: the hummingbird at one hundred and twenty metres, the spider at forty-six. The twin-engine aircraft carries the whole family over the pampa. Children spot the hand first and reach toward the window trying to touch it. Then the lodge pool and silence.

The return journey passes through the wineries of the Ica Valley. A family-oriented visit designed for children too: the pisco process from grape to copper still, a five-hundred-year-old wooden press, lunch under ancient carob trees with regional dishes. The pisco sour, as the children are immediately told, is for adults only.

Lima on the last day of the journey receives differently: the family arrives layered with sand, salt and wonder. The historic centre in the morning with children: the Cathedral, the Government Palace, the monks of the San Francisco convent. The night flight departs at midnight. Lima saves its farewells for the end.