When Shannon came this time, I wanted her to experience a new part of Peru, so I decided to take her to the North Coast. Since I've already seen Piura, Vichayito and El Ñuro, I decided we should head further north-to Zorritos Beach. We decided to be adventurous and stay in an eco-hotel, and it turned out to be a great decision. It was rustic, yet idyllic-pristine beach, comfortable accommodations that take you back to your days at summer camp, and lots of hammocks inviting you to lay about.
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| The owner also breeds Peruvian hairless dogs, so there was a bunch of them running around all the time. |
One of the things to do in Zorritos is to visit the
hervideros, or mud baths. After a long, rough ride in a mototaxi, we finally arrived at the site. The three pools are each reputed to have healing properties-one for stress relief, one for the skin, and one for the blood circulation. We took a dip in each to take full advantage of the curative effects.
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| This is the one for the skin. You put it all over and then let it dry. |
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| The pool for stress relief |
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| Relaxing the stress away: this one was warm (in spots!) |
One thing that everyone said we
must do was visit the
manglares (mangroves) in Tumbes. Eagerly we took a tour from our hotel...only to have one of the most boring travel experiences ever! The
manglares are unique in that they grow spending half the time covered by water and half the time dry. When we arrived in Puerto Pizarro, the channel was dry, so we had lunch and waited for it to fill up enough to head out on the boats for a tour of the islands.
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| The dry channel |
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| Here you can see the water line on the manglares-it's not quite full yet |
Our tour also took us to a crocodile farm, where we saw crocodiles in various life stages.
By the time we had done our circuit of the islands, the water level had risen noticeably.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the North Coast was to see the humpback whales. Unfortunately, our hotel wasn't able to arrange a whale-watching tour this late in the season. Instead, I took Shannon to swim with the turtles. (Also hoping she would forgive me for the disappointing
manglares tour!) This time the waves were much rougher, but there were more turtles swimming with us.
