Every few years, the weather in Peru is heavily influenced by El Niño, a warm current from the central Pacific. El Niño has a worldwide impact, and changes the entire climate, from Brazil to Australia, from Africa to Canada. El Niño is concentrated along the coast of Peru and Ecuador. It is the strongest climatical phenomenon on earth.

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El Niño appeared again in 1998 as one of the most severe ever, causing flooding over Peru’s deserts and extreme draught over Australia and Southeast Asia. In the northern desert district of Piura, a lake was born as a result of the immense rainfall. This lake was even bigger than Lago Junín, Peru’s second largest lake, but of course it was only temporary. El Niño means little child, and is named after the Christmas Child, as it appears usually around Christmas time.

In Paracas, the abundance of marine fauna - birds, fish and sea mammals - found in the Reserve attracts visitors and ecologists who are amazed by the profusion of sea life. In the ocean floor, on a straight line from the Paracas peninsula another wonder has been found, the Peruvian marine fault, formed millions of year ago when the coastal mountain range fell into the ocean. This fault is now the merging point for two currents, El Niño, and Humbolt -cold waters coming from the South -which originates a unique climactic condition for proliferation of plankton and phytoplankton, main food source of innumerable fish species resulting in the extraordinary chain of richness of marine life.