The Santa Chilenita

Just a few kilometres south of Tumbes, Peru’s northern most region, is a colorful little chapel that grabs the attention of passers-by. It is here that dozens of believers stop off to renew their faith in the Chilenita, a mysterious figure apparently from the country’s opposite border in the south.

March 13, 2010 | Tumbes Guide

No Comments

Fur seals leave Galapagos and head for Peru

A colony of fur seals has moved 1,500km away from the Galapagos Islands, a Peru-based organisation which monitors the aquatic mammals has said. Average sea temperatures off northern Peru have risen by 6C in past 10 years.

February 8, 2010 | Nature, News

No Comments

Without Machu Picchu you’ll enjoy the trip of a lifetime

SPECIAL: PERU WITHOUT MACHU PICCHU – Machu Picchu is closed. It will stay that way through all of February at the very least. Do you have your flights booked and are wondering what to do next? Should you cancel or put off your trip to Cuzco?

February 4, 2010 | Travel and Places

24 Comments

What’s the difference between Peruvian Cebiche and others?

So, what’s the difference between the ceviche of Peru and the international dishes that share its name? To Javier Wong, perhaps Peru’s biggest ceviche expert and internationally renowned ceviche chef, the answer is simple: There is no other ceviche in the world.

December 4, 2009 | Peruvian Food

3 Comments

Curich and the cremolada

It’s summer in Lima. The days are hot and they are long. The sun pushes you down with its full force, as if a heavy weight on your shoulders, and the humid air is thick like treacle. The gentle sea breeze along the cliffs of the Costa Verde in Miraflores seems to disappear during the hottest hours of the day, just when it is needed most. Ice cream sellers whistle as they ride by on their ice cream dispensing bikes… but you are thirsty and a thick ice cream won’t refresh you beyond the 30 seconds it takes to devour it. What is there that can save you from collapsing into a heap in the middle of the street?

A cremolada, a cremolada from the home of cremoladas, a cremolada from Curich.

February 26, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

2 Comments

1250km of Northern Coast: The usual and the little-known

Let’s start in Tumbes, the smallest region in Peru and the one with proportionally the most protected areas: 50% of the territory is covered by mangroves, dry forest and tropical forest. The Usual: From Puerto Pizarro boats can be hired to get to the Isla de Amor where you can enjoy a beer and bathe in the clear sea. The Little-Known: Entering the mangrove sanctuary by taking a boat from Puerto 25, be guided by locals involved in the conservation and protection of this resource, visit the protected area and later dedicate many hours to a refreshing dip in the Zarumilla canal where also, if lucky, you might see a wild crocodile.

Continuing south… The Usual: Stopping off at Zorritos beach, or going straight on to Punta Sal or to Máncora resort towns. The Little-Known: To stay in Caleta Grau at kilometre 1,242, at the edge of Tumbes and Piura. It boasts a large beach lined with simple houses where you can find a good room with bathroom for just 25 soles a night and eat fresh lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

January 9, 2009 | Lima Region Guide

2 Comments

Did the Incas explore the Pacific?

There has long been evidence, most of it barely investigated, that Andean peoples and Polynesian peoples have had contact various times in their pre-Columbian pasts. It has even been suggested that people arrived in South America from Polynesia – evidence of human activity in Chile from a time before humans were supposed to have crossed the Bearing Straits has been found.

August 15, 2008 | Archaeology, Culture & History

5 Comments

Macará border crossing

I’ve crossed the Peruvian/Ecuadorian border twice at Tumbes (1,2) at it was not a very pleasurable experience. Macará is said to be very different, so when having to cross into Ecuador last week, I decided to try that route.

June 5, 2007 | Beyond Peru

No Comments

Tumbes

We had crossed the border from Ecuador and had arrived in the Cifa bus station on the panamericana in Tumbes.

As we stepped off the bus someone grabbed my forearm, tugged on it forcefully and screamed something incomprehensible in my face.

Another voice, with a beaconing hand, screamed “no no, come with me, I’m official, come come, quickly”

February 8, 2007 | Opinion, Tumbes Guide

6 Comments

Ecuador: Race to the border

We left Cuenca mid-afternoon, eager to return to Perú. We needed to arrive at the border and cross it before dark, worrying about what might happen if we were wandering through the Huaquillas border-market at night. There are buses direct to Huaquillas from Cuenca, but if we waited for that bus we’d be crossing the border at sunset at the earliest so we opted for the bus to Machala, a small city less than 2 hours from the frontier. From there we could take a local bus and waste no time at all. It turned out that we were lucky we couldn’t take the later direct bus.

February 8, 2007 | Beyond Peru

2 Comments

Ecuador: To the border… and beyond

The journey was as expected – 18 hours from Lima, passing the famed and inviting beaches of Mancora, Punta Sal and Zorritos to arrive in Tumbes. The plan was to arrive here and take a taxi back to Zorritos to stay for a day and a night at the beach – before heading to Ecuador the next day.
But never make plans in Peru – something I know, but tend to forget.

January 18, 2007 | Beyond Peru, Opinion

3 Comments