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| Other sites of interest |
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 Cerros de Amotape National Park
Straddling the Departments of Tumbes and Piura, this park with its 91 300 hectares is distributed among 200 meters with heights up to 1 613 masl. The park enjoys a warm dry climate with an average annual temperature of 24°C and is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, particularly the carob, hualtaco, and sapodilla, as well as the Andean condor, ocelot, red and gray deer, white throated squirrel and red headed parrot.
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 Tumbes National Mangrove Sanctuary
This Sanctuary occupying a total area of 2 972 hectares is located in the Department of Tumbes at the northwesternmost point of Peru’s coast. It protects the country’s largest mangrove forests, consisting mainly of five species, the red mangrove, the blushing mangrove, the salty mangrove, the white mangrove and the pineapple mangrove. The animal population consists of 30 species of birds, 14 of mammals, dozens of kinds of snails and shelled species and hundreds of species of fish. The migratory and resident birds, the threatened American black crocodile and the mangrove bear are some of its most interesting inhabitants.
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| *Photographs: PromPerú |
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The coast of the Departments of Tumbes and Piura in northern Peru offers beach lovers pleasant uncrowded beaches with fine white sand, washed by warm waters and a temperature with little variation over the day and during the year. This part of the Peruvian coast offers the interesting combination of a calm sea and such long and perfect waves that they appear to be never ending. These beaches are considered among the most beautiful of the country and of the Pacific coast. They offer visitors the opportunity to practice a wide range of activities, such as surfing, windsurfing, diving, wildlife observation and sports fishing, among others.
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Access |
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These beaches are distributed along the extreme northernmost point of the Peruvian coast, between kilometers 886 and 1374 of the North Pan American Highway. Access to the beaches is via the cities of Tumbes and Piura –according to the visitor’s location—and then turning off for short distances on paved roads to the final destination. While the roads are appropriate for vehicles of all kinds, the use of all-terrain vehicles are recommended in some cases.
There are direct bus and taxi services from the Tumbes and Piura airports.
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Tourist Attractions |
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 Punta Sal (Tumbes)
One of the most beautiful beaches, and definitely the longest on the northern coast of Peru, Punta Sal is located in the Department of Tumbes 79 km from the capital city. Sunny the year round, it is protected by hills planted with carob trees. Its waters are warm (24°C) and calm all year long, making it a perfect spot for sports fishing, diving and wildlife observation, among other things.
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 Colán (Piura)
Piura’s traditional resort is located 65 km from the capital city. Also known as Esmeralda, it is a large beach with clear warm waters and sunsets that are famous. Its old mansions with terraces resting on wooden piles, built during the 1950s, are a distinguishing feature. Only ten minutes away, on a desert plateau in the Town of la Esmeralda stands the Church of San Lucas which, traditional tells us, was the first to be built in Peru by the Dominican fathers in 1536.
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 Máncora y las Pocitas (Piura)
These wide beaches on the Piura coast are located 193 km from the city of Piura and 115 km from the city of Tumbes. Máncora is a favorite of the surfers because of its tall waves, while Pocitas is favored by tourists because its small pools are ideal for worry-free bathing.
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 Playa Jeli (Tumbes)
Jelí beach northeast of Puerto Pizarro (14 km north of the city of Tumbes) can be reached in a 30-minute sail from that city. This long wide beach with its small warm water waves is surrounded by marshes and takes its name from the jelí, a botanical species to the found in the mangrove swamps.
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 Bayóvar – Nonura (Piura)
These beaches 149 km southwest of the city of Piura are considered to be Peru’s last virgin beaches. Consisting of wide bays and white granite rocky formations suspended from the dunes, these beaches are washed by waters that are dazzlingly blue and clear, filled with dolphins, turtles and sea birds. The strong winds that blow in the zone create very respectable waves that surfers are glad to take advantage of.
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