Máncora Beautiful Sea-Front (Photo Las Pocitas Hotel)

The Beaches of North Peru

Peru's North, specially the departments of Tumbes and Piura, are blessed with warm, turquoise waters, white-sand beaches, and a beamy weather most of the year. Many of these beaches are ideal for surfing, diving, and fishing, and over the years have become popular resorts both for youths and families.

One of the most well-know beaches is Punta Sal (80km from Tumbes), a long white-sand beach considered one of the finest in Peru. Its warm waters boast a rich marine biodiversity and, diversely from most other beaches in the area, accommodate quite gentle waves. The Punta Sal beach resort, surrounded by sand dunes and carob trees, is extremely popular among families. It faces the relatively isolated half-moon section of the beach.

Equally popular, though more among surfers and party-goers, is Máncora (Piura, close to the border with Tumbes). This town and beach resort features more than 30 different accommodation spots that receive both resident and foreigner tourists almost year-round. The resort town flaunts a large number of exclusive restaurants, nightclubs and unpretentious bars.

Máncora, despite its large influx of tourists, has the magical ability to seem private and empty when relaxing on the beach, while brimming with people late into the night at the many nightclubs in town playing loud music. Great waves for surfing and a average ocean temperature of around 24 C°.

Cabo Blanco (153 km north of Piura) is another superb beach, specially for surfers and big-game fishermen. In the 50s and 60s fishermen from all over the world travelled to Cabo Blanco to hunt big marlin. Ernest Hemingway, it's said, caught a 700 pound marlin here and was inspired by it to write The Old Man and the Sea. In any case, truth is the abundance of plankton attracts many fish, including sword fish and marlin.

Cabo Blanco's almost-mythical wave is a hollow powerful left that draws big crowds of surfers from Lima (700 kilometres south) and from around the world. Modern swell forecasts and the Internet have made it easy to know when swell is on the way, and the surfers once there pack into a single tight take-off zone, despite other waves elsewhere in the area.

Colán Beach (65km west of Piura) is a nice resort, mostly frequented by Piura locals. A sandy beach with calm water, it's characterized by the typical wooden houses set upon pylons right on the seashore.

Zorritos (28 km south of Tumbes) used to be a favourite beach resort for the Tumbes aristocracy and now is extensively frequented by the tumbesino youth. The white-sand beach has good waves for surfing, while the cove is washed by rather calm waters inhabited by abundant marine life. The town offers some nice hotels and seafood restaurants, and is close to the Cerros de Amotape National Park and to the Hervideros hot springs.

Other nice beaches in Peru's north include Los Organos (175 km north of Piura), a nice surfer's point, and Chicama (74 km northwest of Trujillo, department of La Libertad), which features the World's longest left-handed wave. Indeed, surfers say that to surf Chicama (a.k.a. Malabrigo cove), one has to bring along a spare pair of legs.