Mancora: The Beach Town Of Peru

We arrived in the popular beach tourist town of Mancora on November 27th, and decided to try and find a nice place to stay with a pool. Luckily our moto driver took us to one, and we checked in to a place just off the main walking street, in front of one of the beaches. Mancora gets hundreds of thousands of tourists a year, and we could tell straight away that staying here was going to be lively. There were bars, nightclubs, Western food – and interesting Peruvian fusion food!

One of the reasons I wanted to stop in Mancora was to try a Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine called ‘Nikkei.’ Colin and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving unconventionally by going for Nikkei food at ‘La Sierna d’ Juan’ on the main driving street in Mancora. That evening we ordered loads of different dishes, starting with tiraditos, a Peruvian dish of raw fish, in a spicy Peruvian aji sauce. While Peruvian ceviche is quite similar to tiradito, ceviche is typically cubed and served in a marinade, while tiradito is thinly sliced and served raw. I have posted photos of some of the fusion dishes we tried. Delicious!

The following morning, November 28th, Colin and I attended a daytrip with the company Iguana’s Trips to swim with green sea turtles, so-named for the green fat under their shells. Our guide picked us up near our hotel and loaded us into the van. After picking up a couple other tourists along the way we changed into some wetsuits at the welcome center and headed out to the boat. We didn’t need to go far however, as the green sea turtles came right up almost to the shore. There was barely enough time to notice and take a quick photo of our first blue footed booby sighting! (I took this sighting to be our invitation to come to the Galapagos! We had been debating for quite a while if we should rush into Ecuador to make it… and seeing the booby was so exciting – it made the decision so much easier to go!) 

Our group got into the water and started swimming around, with our guide taking some underwater video and some ‘out of water’ photos for us of our experience with the sea turtles. These amazing animals were so beautiful to swim with, and much faster in the water than their large oval bodies first indicate. Apparently, one can distinguish green sea turtles from other sea turtles based on their single pair (rather than double pair as in other turtles) of scales located in front of their eyes. These turtles have small heads and serrated jaws for tearing bits of food. While most of the turtles we swam with were 3 or 4 feet in length, they grow up to 5 feet in length and can weigh nearly 400 kgs.      

After our turtle swim, the group dried off and had some snacks (juice and cookies never gets old!) before heading to a beach called Las Pocitas. The waves crashed quite strong here, and we watched a sea lion play around in them, while loads of frigate birds and pelicans flew around over ahead. I headed into the warm rock pools filled with little critters while Colin tried to stay somewhat shaded. Once the waves started crashing up onto the rocks we noticed lots of colorful crabs running around, anxious to reach higher ground. One of the crabs was just a shell of its former self, having shed its skin and ran away sometime before! The crashing started to get quite intense at this point, and our group decided to leave, driving back towards Mancora. Time for a dip in the lukewarm beaches’ ocean – and shortly after, the cold hotel’s pool!      

Colin and I spent the day relaxing on November 29th, as he had picked up a bit of a sunburn. I got to head out for some more time at the beach, reading a book and munching on snacks while watching the lifeguard school do their training pretending to ‘rescue’ each other from the water. It was pretty funny to watch, especially the ‘mistakes’ they made. After this Colin and I got a set-menu lunch together, then he headed back to the room to stay out of the sun while I went for a ride with two other girls on a banana boat. It didn’t last long because the weather was getting pretty bad, but it was bumpy and fun – I only fell off once!   

On November 30th we took a daytrip to some areas around the city of Tumbes, the Northern-most city in Peru – though Peru’s right to Tumbes was debated by Ecuador up until the 1990’s. Tumbes was formerly part of the Incan Empire, and before the Incans was inhabited by hundreds of thousands of native ‘Tumpis’ peoples. We headed to see some interesting mangroves at Puerto Pizarro, named after the Spanish conquistador who conquered the area from local chieftain Chilimaza in the 1500’s.

The mangrove area itself was called the Santuario Nacional los Manglares de Tumbes. Once we arrived at them we headed on board a couple of boats to tour around the area. There are 5 different species of mangroves in the sanctuary, but it is the red mangroves which contain black conch. Also in the area are shrimp and lots of birds including pelicans and some of those we saw at ‘Bird Island,’ such as frigate birds. We didn’t see any mammals, but there are apparently crab-eating raccoons and otters in the area as well.

Our group stopped off to visit the crocodile farm, which protects (aka ‘stores,’ because of their decline in the mangroves) the Rio Tumbes crocodiles. This crocodile is on the UN red-data species list, meaning it is under threat due to the local fishermen using the sanctuary for shrimp farming, as well as from pollution due to up-river gold mining and the local people’s agricultural and waste disposal practices (everything is dumped into the river with no treatment or consideration.)      

On our way back to Mancora we stopped for an hour to swim in some mud pools called hervideros, which contain dissolved minerals. These mud pools were somewhat warm (but not very) but thick and soft. In the dark brown mud I saw lots of small colorful bubbles – probably different minerals coming up from the ground, but I have no idea which ones. It just looked like little mini rainbows and was pretty memorizing. When Colin and I switched from one mud pool to another I fell down the slippery steps and caught my leg pretty hard on one of the wooden planks used as steps – leaving a bruise and some scarring. After the mud pools we were told to pay some money for water to clean ourselves off with. Unfortunately, there were no showers working. We ended up being asked to pay for buckets of water from which we had to use small cups to clean ourselves off with! And there were no towels provided. The mud was OK, but what a scam those guys were running.

On the way back to Mancora we stopped off at a small beach called Punta Sal where we saw a stunning sunset. It was too cold to swim much, though I did anyways, before drying off and relaxing on the sand with Colin. Soon we headed back to the bus and returned to Mancora for some dinner out at a vegan restaurant and much needed sleep.     

On December 1st we decided it was time to head out of Peru and into Ecuador. Our wait in the immigration line was horribly long because there were school groups ahead of us and people bribing the security guards to cut into the line ahead of everyone else. Our only relief was a small shop across the street which provided ham and cheese grilled sandwiches, which later on that evening succeeded in making us both pretty sick.

Now that we were in Ecuador, we needed to buy our flights and book our cruise in the Galapagos. On now to the volcanic islands!

Francesca

Piura & The Vicus Culture

On November 26th we checked out of our hotel in Chiclayo and headed for the city of Piura, the first city the Spanish Pizarro founded in Peru and named after the Quechua word for abundance - “pirhua.” It wasn’t exactly a beautiful place we discovered, nor cheap. We looked at quite a few hostels before we found a new hotel that looked OK, while still being quite overpriced. There isn’t a tourist industry in Piura, and most people who come to the town catch an ongoing bus straight away to Mancora, or are there on business – hence the expensive rooms. However we decided to spend the night as I wanted to see a museum in the city on the following day.

The Museo Municipal Vicus was filled with some paintings by local school children, as well as by professional artists, but the best part was the archeology exhibit and the underground gold room – so I’ll start there.

In the gold room were 2,000 year old artifacts uncovered in December 2001 from the “Lord of Olleros,” a head shaman’s burial site in Ayabaca, an area northeast of Piura which borders Ecuador. Some of the artifacts found with the shaman included a shirt with 500 small decorative gilded copper platelets, golden necklaces, golden mouth ‘cover’ jewelry, golden nose rings and earrings, a copper spear, tumi knives, a crown, and a golden belt with a large golden cat head as the belt buckle. 

There were also two small gold figures found with the shaman, male and female, showing rather graphic genitalia.

All of these findings showed a grave very different from typical clay urn graves in the region and more like the grave of the Lord of Sipan. This discovery prompted Dr. Mario Polía Meconio to propose that Ayabaca must have had a highly evolved culture with Mochica influence some 600 to 1000 years before the Guayacundos, the local people of the region.

The archeology exhibit explored the Vicus culture. The Piura region had been occupied with natives who lived without organization or a leader. It is believed that eventually a culture called the Muchik culture took them over, and the two groups combined to evolve into what we know as the Vicus culture. These societies were agriculture-based, and their technological advancement in bronze-working increased their agricultural technology as well. Systems of canals were built brining irrigation to the Chira and Piura Valleys. There seems to be an indication that the Vicus culture had political and commercial ties to the coastal Moche culture, which grew over time. The attractiveness of the more successful coastal societies resulted in many people in the area migrating towards the coast. At the same time the Moche’s control grew towards the inner valleys, and ended up eventually enveloping the at first distinctive Vicus culture.       

Later on, the people in this region were known as ‘Guayacundos’ and fought the Incans, until the Incans defeated and pacified them. The Incan ruler Huayna Capac then built a fortress to maintain a hold on the region on the nearby Aypate hill – which now stands in ruins. The Aypate fortress and road also served as an Incan trail between Cuzco and Quito.

Down a side room, I found an interesting exhibit. Ancient peoples in the region believed they needed to prepare a corpse for its journey to another life. They did this by including items that person would need on a journey with them in their burial mound, such as clothing, food, pottery, and other decorative and daily items. One of these cities, which included a cemetery, is called Chusis. Chusis was occupied since 1000 BCE but was primarily used from between 100 BCE and 600 CE.

The city area (located 1.5 hours away from Piura) was constructed using a mix of marine rock, stones, and clay to make medium-sized adobe blocks. The area consisted of three zones, including a defensive area. The cemetery was separated by a dividing wall and contained 11 tombs which included artifacts for the after-life. Petroglyphs showing skeletons interacting were found indicating some beliefs about a life after death. One tomb was that of a warrior, his body has been recovered. Since the site doesn’t get much preservation, it continues to fall apart. 

Leaving the Chusis finding, the museum continued on to show more Vicus culture pottery pieces, with numerous examples of their double spout and bridge bottle vessels which make whistling sounds when pouring liquids. The museum noted that many of the pieces were created using negative painting, meaning a wax or film was placed as the ‘design’ on the pottery, then the whole pot was painted in white, black, or various reds. When the wax was removed, there would be two different colors on the piece.

There were two different phases of Vicus pottery, with the first phase being only somewhat influenced by the Moche culture. As time went on the influence of the Moche grew as their control extended to the valley and people from the valley continued to migrate to the coast. Due to this, later Vicus buildings and handicraft creations resemble Moche almost completely. This was because the Moche fully controlled the region of Piura by these phases of Vicus artwork. The two cultures became one.

Now some of the interesting artwork found elsewhere in the museum:

That morning Colin and I continued our bus journey, heading off to Mancora!

Francesca