Pimentel Beach

Pimentel is Chiclayo's beach, a long stretch of sand with a pier built in the early twentieth century to load sugar and cotton onto ships - iron, several hundred metres long, and now a promenade rather than a working structure. The thing that makes the beach worth more than a swim is the caballitos de totora: reed craft, built from bundled totora into a narrow hull the fisherman straddles and paddles out through the surf, a design shown on Moche pottery from well over a thousand years ago and still used daily by Pimentel and Huanchaco fishermen to set nets. They are stood upright to dry along the beach between uses, which is how most visitors see them. The water is cold from the Humboldt current, there is surf, and the town has restaurants along the front. It is a working beach and a Chiclayo weekend destination rather than a resort.

What you actually see

• The caballitos de totora - reed craft of a pre-Hispanic design, still fished from.
• The iron pier - the early twentieth-century loading structure, now a promenade.
• The drying rows - reed boats stood upright along the sand between uses.
• The working beach - fishermen setting nets alongside weekend visitors.

When to go

December to April for warm weather; the Lambayeque coast is cool and grey the rest of the year. Early morning to see boats going out. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Cold water and surf; not a calm swimming beach. The pier charges a small entry and sections have been closed for repair at times. It is a working town beach rather than a resort, with the litter and development that implies.

Nearby

Chiclayo is inland; the Sipán and Sicán museums are within the province.