Northern Peru

My Northern Peru travel summary:

Visited: July 2019

Duration of visit: 17 days (total Peru: 95 days)

Capital city: Lima

Population: 34 million (2022)

Northern Peru travel blog reading time: 9 minutes

• Colorful tuk-tuks and stunning sunsets in the surf paradise of Máncora.
• Lord of Sipan Museum – among my favorite museums in the world.
• The questionable grandeur of the Incan ruins in Kuelap.
• An extended hike to the powerful Catarata la Chinata.
• Tasting unique fruits and observing exotic meats in Iquitos.
• Navigating the Amazon River from Yurimaguas to Las Tres Fronteras.

In 2019, I had the opportunity to explore the final major region of Peru I had not yet visited — the Amazon rainforest. Covering 60% of the country, it is covered by tropical forest and largely navigable only by rivers.

I combined the Amazon with northern Peru, crossing the border from Ecuador in Tumbes and stopping in Máncora, Chiclayo, Kuelap, Catarata la Chinata, Tarapoto, Yurimaguas and Iquitos, before reaching Las Tres fronteras.

In this article I describe Northern Peru travel adventure in 2019: surf & beach life in Máncora, fantastic museum in Sipán, Caballitos de Totora in Pimentel, Kuelap – the Machu Picchu of Northern Peru, La Chinata Waterfall, navigating Amazon River to Iquitos.

More articles about my Peru travel adventures are available here:

I had passed through Máncora on previous trips, assuming that as a surf town it would offer little for a non-surfer. The whole area is famous for its turquoise beaches and excellent waves, making it Peru’s top surfing destination. While it mainly attracts a younger crowd with its lively atmosphere, I really appreciated its relaxed vibe.

The Pan-American Highway is the main boulevard, lined with bars, restaurants, shops, and street vendors. Surf schools and rental shops operate along the beach, serving their regular clientele in a relaxed atmosphere.

Colorful tuk-tuks, driftwood bars, smoothie shacks, waves for beginners and advanced surfers, a pleasant swimming beach, and fantastic sunsets make Máncora a great stop in northern Peru.

The region is also known for its turtle population. In El Ñuro, a short trip from Máncora, I swam alongside green sea turtles in a designated area marked by floats and ropes, while the turtles moved freely.

Swimming with the turtles is a unique but controversial experience. Endangered green sea turtles can live up to 80 years and are protected in most countries. It is illegal to collect their eggs or harm them.

Many prefer the waters around El Ñuro to remain untouched. However, supporters of turtle interaction argue that it helps people feel closer to the turtles and increases conservation awareness. Swimming with the turtles also brings tourism revenue that improves local living standards and supports conservation efforts.

The Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum is one of my favorite museums worldwide, a highlight and favorite place to visit in Lambayeque. I first visited it 15 years ago, and during my Northern Peru travel adventure I wanted to show it to my kids.

The Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum is dedicated to the royal tomb of the Lord of Sipán, discovered in 1987.

The Lord of Sipán was a Moche ruler from the 3^rd century. His tomb, discovered intact, became a major archaeological breakthrough as the first royal burial from a pre-Inca civilization found in South America.

Around 600 valuable objects were recovered, including ceramics, carved wood, gold and silver items, precious stones, and turquoise ear ornaments.

Archaeologists excavated eight other bodies in the same vault where they found the monarch’s sarcophagus. 1.65 meters tall Moche ruler was around 30 years old when he died. Nearby, the tombs of the Priest and the Old Lord of Sipán were also discovered.

The Pimentel Pier, almost 700 meters long, is the longest in Peru. It was built in 1911 to facilitate transport and trade. However, this is not the reason I would stop in this rather unattractive town.

The main reason I visited the fishing village of Pimentel is the caballitos de totora – traditional reed boats invented more than 3,000 years ago.

These small, lightweight boats have served multiple purposes over time, but mainly for artisanal fishing and survival. Today, I saw them as the main attraction, drying in the sun and lined upright along the beach.

Recognized as Cultural Patrimony of the Nation, caballitos de totora measure 3 to 4 meters in length and up to one meter in width. When dry, they weigh 40 to 50 kg and can carry up to 200 kg of load. They are designed for a single fisherman, who paddles standing through the waves, carrying nets and storing fish in their structure.

There is a simple rule for handling these boats: fishermen who cannot carry their raft should not go to sea, as they would not be able to control it.

Uros people on Lake Titicaca use the same totora reeds as fishermen along the Pacific Ocean. The name caballitos de totora is not original. The Spanish introduced horses to South America only after conquering the Inca Empire.

When I visited Machu Picchu in 1997, my journey through the remains of magnificent pre-Columbian civilizations in Central and South America was completed. New discoveries continue to appear, though they are smaller and harder to access. Kuelap might be an exception.

The city of Kuélap was built between the 6^th and 10^th centuries by the Chachapoya people. The Incas added a few buildings after they conquered the region in the 1470s. Kuélap remained forgotten by the outside world until a local judge rediscovered it in 1843.

This is the largest and most important Chachapoya site, located at about 3,000 meters above sea level on a mountaintop overlooking the Utcubamba River valley. A cable car takes visitors to the summit, where a fortified city stands. It is one of the most impressive pre-Columbian ruins in South America.

Kuélap is promoted as the next Machu Picchu in tourism terms, but I believe its splendor cannot match the uniqueness of the Lost City of the Incas.

Kuélap is an imposing stone structure protected by an outer wall up to 20 meters high, built of large limestone blocks on a rugged mountaintop. The main complex is an awe-inspiring fortified stronghold, about 600 meters long and 120 meters wide.

Personally, Kuélap impressed me most with its location and views over the surrounding landscape and mountain peaks. The archaeological remains themselves were less striking, but it is still a memorable place to visit.

Known as “spring that falls from the sky,” La Chinata Waterfall drops 580 meters. The area is rich in orchids, ferns, and mosses. The water flows over three (sometimes five) tiers before disappearing into the jungle.

The starting point of the hike is the town of San Carlos. I wasn’t sure the kids would stay motivated for a two-hour walk without complaining. Fortunately, a street dog joined us and kept them entertained the whole way.

A warm, rainy climate most of the year often covers the waterfalls in mist and clouds. However, we were lucky that day. Mostly sunny weather with clear sky allowed us to admire Catarata La Chinata from several viewpoints along the hike. The waterfalls were one of the highlights in northern Peru.

Iquitos is accessible only by river and air, except for a road to Nauta, a small town about 100 km to the south. This remarkable inaccessibility, along with nearby attractions, was the main reason I wanted to visit the city.

Iquitos, the capital of the Peruvian Amazon, is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road and is not on an island.

I couldn’t find many options to navigate the Amazon River from Yurimaguas, the last town accessible by road. The only slow boat scheduled for the next three days had just left, and I could only watch it disappear into the tropical forest. We missed it by just 15 minutes.

What remained was a night ride on a small speedboat or an early morning departure on a more comfortable speedboat.

The following morning at 6:00am, we boarded a fast motorboat with about 40 other passengers, mostly locals. The plastic seats offered little luxury, but we quickly moved along the Amazon River, powered by two strong engines.

In between, lunch was cooked and served, and we made a few stops in small river villages. In the late afternoon, we arrived in Nauta, where we switched to buses and continued by road to Iquitos.

Founded in 1757 as a Jesuit settlement on the Nanay River, Iquitos became a major rubber export hub during the late 19^th-century Amazon boom. Wealthy rubber barons built luxurious homes, shaping the city’s unique style.

The historic center around Plaza de Armas is surrounded by European-influenced buildings dating back to the early 20th-century rubber boom.

My strongest memory of Iquitos is motorized tricycles whizzing through the streets and making noise.

I quickly found out that due to rainy season and lack of tourists, jungle tours were going to be too expensive and too dangers due to swarms of mosquitoes, which would be biting us all day long. Therefore, I postponed jungle excursion to Leticia in Colombia.

Iquitos itself has few major attractions and limited things to do. Its main landmarks are the colorful open-air Mercado de Belén and the rustic stilt houses along the Itaya River.

Aside from the usual stalls selling everyday goods, Mercado de Belén offers a wide display of traditional Amazon medicine, jungle fruits, roots, herbs, and animal extracts. These products are believed to cure a wide range of diseases.

Here are my highlights from the market:

Suri worms are larvae of the palm weevil that live in trunks of the same tree that produces aguaje. In Iquitos, I saw them skewered, grilled, roasted, or boiled and sold very cheaply. They taste like a crispy snack with a creamy inside, both rubbery and crunchy, with a slightly bitter flavor and rich in protein. I found them surprisingly delicious.

Aguaje is an oval-shaped Amazon fruit, similar to an egg, and largely unknown outside the region. It grows on the moriche palm native to the Amazon. People often use the pulp in juices, jams, sorbets, and desserts, and it is rich in essential fatty acids, vitamin A, and vitamin C.

Vendors displayed aguaje fruits in a very photogenic way. I tried them plain, but I found the taste unfamiliar and not pleasant.

One product that drew my special attention at Mercado de Belén was caiman tails. While indigenous communities are allowed to hunt and consume wild game, its sale is prohibited. Selling caimans is illegal, yet it appears to continue without resistance.

The last Peruvian stop of this trip was the area of Las Tres Fronteras, where the borders of Colombia, Brazil, and Peru meet along the Amazon River. Three cities from different countries face each other across the water: Tabatinga in Brazil, Leticia in Colombia, and Santa Rosa in Peru.

The place feels like one shared space despite the borders, with boats and moving between all three countries without restrictions.

Later, I continued my journey from northern Peru along the Amazon River on a slow boat to Manaus in Brazil.