Cerros de Amotape National Park

The Amotape hills carry the largest surviving stretch of Pacific equatorial dry forest in Peru, a habitat that runs up the coast into Ecuador and almost nowhere else. For most of the year it looks dead: grey hillsides of leafless ceibo trees with swollen green trunks, thorn scrub and dust. Then the rains arrive between January and April and the whole range turns bright green within weeks. It shelters animals that live nowhere else in the country, including white-throated capuchins, howler monkeys and collared peccary, along with parakeets and a long list of birds shared with Ecuador. The park forms the core of a wider biosphere reserve running down to the coast.

What you actually see

• Ceibo forest - bottle-trunked trees standing bare through the dry months and leafing out after rain.
• Howler and capuchin monkeys - troops in the wetter valleys, more often heard than seen.
• Northern birds - parakeets, tinamous and species that reach Peru only in this corner.
• The Rica Playa river valley - the greener strip along the water, where wildlife concentrates.

When to go

January to April is the short rainy season, when the forest is green and birds are breeding, but tracks turn to mud and some roads become impassable. From May onwards the ground dries out and access is easier, though the landscape is grey and dusty. Early morning is the only sensible time for wildlife, because the heat builds fast after ten.

Honest expectations

Expect a dry forest, not a rainforest; visitors who arrive with jungle expectations are usually disappointed. Infrastructure is thin, trails are unmarked in places and there is little signage or visitor facility. Wildlife sightings are unpredictable and take patience. The roads in are rough and often need four-wheel drive. Ticks, mosquitoes and heat are all part of it.

Nearby

The Tumbes mangroves lie north near the coast, and Máncora is a couple of hours south.