Jumping off a cliff in Lomos de Lucumo

Little known and underappreciated, Lomos de Lucumo is a real gem of a spot.

Located just south of Lima in the Lurin Valley, it includes a series of surprisingly green hills situated in the midst of the coastal desert. While most of the hills around Lima remain devoid of vegetation all year, resembling something you might see on the moon, the hills of Lomos de Lucumo are situated in such a way as to capture the moisture from the sea fog. The result is that they support low lying brush, which remains green or in bloom during the Lima winter (June-November).

There are two main hiking trails, a shorter 3-hour route and one that takes another hour or so. You can go with a guide or on your own.

We recently spent several hours hiking the trails on our own. We were lucky to catch the vegetation before it turns brown from the summer heat and sun. The hills were still quite green and full of birds and butterflies. They say you can also spot foxes and small rodents, though we didn't see any.

We did run into a group of military reservists doing their weekend training. This day, they were working on mountain rescue, which included rappelling down a cliff, among other things. They were looking for volunteers. So, being the wild Gwinners that we are, when they invited us to jump off a cliff with them, we naturally said, "yes."

 

Lots of vegetation and still plenty of green and flowers

 From the top you can see the Pacific and the Lurin River Valley

 It was more sunny than we expected, so we were glad to have brought along sunglasses and hats, but sorry to have forgotten the sunblock.

 This photo was taken by a very friendly couple, both communications and marketing students. As their final project they are working on building up the visibility and use of the Lomos de Lucumo as a destination for nature lovers, hikers, school students, and other lovers of the outdoors.

 The rescue squad was looking for volunteers to jump off the cliff. Here, Britt is getting set up with a rope harness.

 A few quick instructions on rappelling down

 This is the point where Britt realized the cliff was steeper than expected.

 Valerie got to wear the Hello Kitty helmet and white gloves. A nice feminine touch to the adventure.

 They don't seem to get many female volunteers. So they guys all joined in for the photo with Valerie when she reached the bottom of the cliff.

 The rescue brigade practicing on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

 Britt made pals with the volunteers, a very friendly bunch of guys, indeed.

 Later, as we continued the hike, we came across this young shepherd, who showed us some petroglyphs.

 Looking at the petroglyphs.

 At the end of the hike, the village.

And the the midst of it all, a peacock!