Cabo Blanco and El Ñuro

Cabo Blanco and El Ñuro lie on the coast of the El Alto and Los Órganos districts, 40 and 47 km north of Talara. Access means leaving the North Pan-American Highway at El Alto and descending paved roads among arid cliffs; the coves are fifteen minutes apart by local transport.

Cabo Blanco's fame rests on its historical fishing legacy: in the 1950s the celebrated Cabo Blanco Fishing Club turned the cove into the world capital of big-game fishing, taking advantage of the convergence of the Humboldt and El Niño currents, which sustain swordfish, giant black marlin and bigeye tuna. Ernest Hemingway came in 1956 to film scenes of The Old Man and the Sea.

In El Ñuro the star activity is controlled swimming and observation of green sea turtles around the communal pier, where the reptiles live permanently; local fishermen run a marine interpretation room. In Cabo Blanco visitors inspect the fishing club remains and pier architecture, plus the challenging tubular left wave known as El Tubo, reserved for advanced surfers.

Swimming with turtles requires life vests; touching the animals or entering with non-biodegradable sunscreen is forbidden.