Adventure and wilderness at Zona Reservada Lomas de Ancon in Lima

Find out the new outdoor and wilderness destination 60 km from Lima at the outstanding desert of Zona Reservada Lomas de Ancon in Huaral.

Zona Reservada Lomas de Ancón is a natural protected area under administration of Sernanp, it was created the 6^th of October, 2010 and has an extension of around 11 000 00 Hectares. Its limits are on the north with Huaral province, East with Carabayllo and Canta, south with the province of Lima and west with Pasamayo and the pacific ocean.

Paisaje de la ZRLA en Huaral con el colchón de nubes de Pasamayo — Gorgeous view from ZRLA

ZRLA is not very popular in Lima yet, however one of its objectives is to develop an area for outdoor recreation, tourism and education for the population of the north of Lima. Part of ZRLA is located along Pasamayo sinuous freeway, this is an area of excessive fog and moist from July to September which sets the wet season or the lomas season.

This area conserves representative wildlife and vegetation of the lomas and desert ecosystem like geckos, coast fox, huerequeques, pamperitos and vizcachas. Its vegetation is not too diverse but shows incredible adaptability like tillandsias, desert bromeliad family of the pineapple.

Flora de la Zona Reservada Lomas de Ancón, tillandias y el desierto — Tillandsia´s populations are all over the natural area.

ZRLA faces different thrills against conservation, one of them is the invasion and traffic of lots which is due to the little knowledge of the natural area, and people see it as an unprotected land good for living. The park guards do a great job against invasions and do daily guard making sure they prevent this problems

Another problem is the solid residues mainly plastic residues which are through away from the Panamericana freeway from km 50 to km 61, these plastics get into the deserts because of the action of the wind and stay inside, ZRLA organizes clean ups but there is still job to do.

Invasions are one of the biggest thrills of ZRLA

Jornada de limpieza de la ZRLA organizada por Desert Expeditions en marzo del 2018 — Clean up at ZRLA organized by desert expeditions in february 2018

On the action sport side, off road driver damage and fragment habitats of species like the desert owl and Pamperito bird which make their nests on the ground. Missing a formal registration and delimitation of the area where this sport could be performance.

Huellas de Camioneta en la Zona Reservada Lomas de Ancón — Truck tracks wich damages the habitat of some of the animals of the area

Tourism at ZRLA means a tool for conservation and education of locals and visitors. Being this an area with representative coast ecosystems has the potential for scientific investigations and the investigation of the ceramics and utilitarian artefacts found there. Operate and control tourism in a sustainable way is an objective and compromise of the biologist, David Orosco, shift of the area.

Guardaparque de la ZRLA haciendo sandboard con desert expeditions — Park guard sandbboarding for the first time with Desert Expeditions.

Nowadays its being develop sandboarding and sand dune buggy tours in the dune field of the area which is located at km 61 of the panamericana freeway. This is a project with mid term goals to provide the best adventure travel experience of Lima with the message of conservation and responsible operation very close to two tourism destinations: Ancón and Huaral. Desert Expeditions is committed with the area and working hand by hand with to reach the expectations of conservationist and tourist of the beautiful desert of Lima.

Lechuza de desierto en la ZRLA se ve afectada por el acceso de camionetas para off road — Coast Owl (Athene cunicularia) at ZRLA

Desert Expeditions is committed with ZRLA and it´s working hand by hand with the Natural protected area to benefit locals, visitors and the preservation of the desert of Lima.