Trujillo, Chiclayo & the North Coast

The irrigated river valleys of the north coast supported some of the most sophisticated societies of ancient Peru. The Moche, between about AD 100 and 800, built huge adobe pyramids, dug canals across the desert and made portrait pottery of astonishing realism; their rulers were buried in lavish tombs such as that of the Lord of Sipán, found intact by archaeologist Walter Alva in 1987, and of the tattooed Señora de Cao at El Brujo. The Sicán, or Lambayeque, culture that followed built the pyramids of Batán Grande and Túcume, and the Chimú kingdom, from its capital Chan Chan, came to rule the coast before the Inca conquered it around 1470.

The Spanish arrived here first. Francisco Pizarro landed near Tumbes and in 1532 founded San Miguel de Tangarará, forerunner of Piura and the first Spanish town in Peru, before marching inland to meet Atahualpa. Trujillo, founded in 1534 and named after Pizarro's home town, became a prosperous colonial city of sugar estates, and in 1820 it declared independence ahead of Lima.

The 20th century made the north a political heartland. Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, from Trujillo, founded the APRA party, and a revolt in the city in 1932 ended in mass executions at Chan Chan. Tumbes was the front in the 1941 war with Ecuador. More recently El Niño floods, especially in 1998 and 2017, and the wave of gang extortion in Trujillo have shaped the region's news.

The north coast thinks of itself as warm, outgoing and hospitable, and its people, the norteños, are known for their cooking, their music and a sing-song accent. The marinera, the courtship dance with handkerchiefs that is Peru's national dance, belongs above all to Trujillo, which hosts a national contest every January, and the Peruvian Paso horse, with its smooth lateral gait, is bred and shown here, often ridden in marinera displays. Piura has its own tondero, a couple dance of mixed Afro-Peruvian, Roma and native roots.

Old crafts survive. At Huanchaco, fishermen still ride the caballitos de totora, bundled reed boats already used by the Moche. Catacaos, near Piura, is known for silver filigree and woven straw hats, Chulucanas for its pottery, and Monsefú, near Chiclayo, for its crafts and its FEXTICUM cultural fair.

Religion is Catholic and demonstrative. Motupe's Cruz de Chalpón draws huge pilgrimages in August, and folk healers, the curanderos of the Piura highlands, still perform healing rites at the Huaringas lakes.

Trujillo is Peru's third-largest city, at the centre of the country's third-largest metropolitan area; Chiclayo and Piura each have several hundred thousand, and Tumbes is a smaller border town. All grew fast in the 20th century with migrants from the northern Andes, and all have spread into new informal districts on the desert edge.

The economy is irrigated agriculture on a large scale. Huge projects such as Chavimochic in La Libertad and the canals of Piura water blueberries, asparagus, avocados, mangoes, grapes and sugar cane for export, and La Libertad and Piura are among Peru's leading farm-export regions. Piura also has oil around Talara, fishing, and phosphate mining; Tumbes lives from cross-border trade with Ecuador and beach tourism.

Life starts early and slows in the heat of the afternoon. Public concern is dominated by crime, especially in Trujillo, where extortion of bus lines, shops and schools has forced repeated emergency measures, and by the damage each El Niño does to roads, homes and farms.

The north claims to cook better than anywhere else in Peru, and many Peruvians agree. Cabrito a la norteña, kid goat stewed with chicha de jora, coriander and chilli, and arroz con pato, rice cooked green with coriander and served with duck, are the signature dishes of Chiclayo and Trujillo. Trujillo also has shámbar, a thick soup of wheat, beans and pork eaten on Mondays, and sopa teóloga, a bread and turkey soup.

Piura's kitchen is built around plantain, goat and carob: seco de chabelo mixes mashed green plantain with dried beef, and algarrobina, a dark syrup from the carob pods of the dry forests, flavours cocktails and desserts. Tumbes is famous for conchas negras, black mangrove clams eaten as ceviche, and majarisco, seafood cooked with mashed plantain.

The best-known sweet is the King Kong of Lambayeque, a giant biscuit sandwich filled with manjar blanco and fruit paste; Piura has natillas, a caramel made traditionally with goat's milk. The drink of the countryside is chicha de jora, the fermented maize beer, and Piura's clarito is its pale, filtered form.

Trujillo has a colonial centre of brightly painted mansions around the Plaza de Armas. Just outside it, Chan Chan, the Chimú capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a maze of adobe walls carved with fish, birds and waves, with the restored Tschudi palace open to visitors. The Moche pyramids of the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna lie to the south of the city, and the El Brujo complex, with the Señora de Cao and her museum, is in the Chicama valley to the north. The fishing village and surf beach of Huanchaco, with its reed boats, is the relaxed alternative base.

Around Chiclayo, the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán in Lambayeque displays the Lord of Sipán's gold, found at Huaca Rajada near the town of Sipán. Túcume's valley of pyramids, the Sicán museum at Ferreñafe, and the dry forest of the Chaparrí reserve, where spectacled bears are protected, are within easy reach.

The far north is for the coast. Máncora, with its surf and year-round sun, anchors a string of beaches including Vichayito, Los Órganos and Cabo Blanco, known for big-game fishing, and whales pass offshore in the southern winter. In Tumbes the Manglares de Tumbes sanctuary protects Peru's largest mangrove forests, explored by boat from Puerto Pizarro, and the beaches of Zorritos lie to the south.