Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [320]
From the immigration office, mototaxis can take you to the border town of Aguas Verdes (S2).
Aguas Verdes is basically a long, dusty street full of vendors that continues into the near-identical Ecuadorean border town of Huaquillas via the international bridge across the Río Zarumilla. If you are forced to stay the night at the border, there are a few basic hotels in Aguas Verdes, but they’re all noisy and pretty sketchy. You’re better off catching a S2 mototaxi to the quiet Peruvian town of Zarumilla, 5km away. Here, Hostal Prisalex (072-56 5601; www.prisalex.mbperu.com; Calle del Ejército 112; s/d S20/30) offers immaculate, large and recently painted rooms for bargain prices in their quiet, blue hostal (guesthouse).
The Ecuadorean immigration office, about 4km to the north of the bridge, is also open 24 hours. Taxis from the bridge charge about US$1. Very few nationalities need a visa for Ecuador, but everyone needs a T3 embarkation card, available for free at the immigration office. You must surrender your T3 when you leave Ecuador, so don’t lose it. Exit tickets out of Ecuador and sufficient funds (US$20 per day) are legally required, but rarely asked for. Tourists are allowed only 90 days per year in Ecuador without officially extending their stay at a consulate – if you have stayed more, you may fined between US$200 and US$2000 when you leave.
There are a few basic hotels in Huaquillas, but most people make the two-hour bus trip to the city of Machala, where there are much better facilities. See Lonely Planet’s Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands for more information.
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AROUND TUMBES
Puerto Pizarro
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About 14km north of Tumbes, the character of the oceanfront changes from the coastal desert, which stretches more than 2000km north from central Chile to northern Peru, to the mangrove swamps that dominate much of the Ecuadorean and Colombian coastlines. There’s an explosion of birdlife here, with up to 200 different migrating species visiting these areas. Boats can be hired to tour the mangroves; one tour goes to a crocodile sanctuary where you can see Peru’s only crocodiles being nursed back from near extinction. The nearby Isla de Aves can be visited (but not landed on) to see the many nesting seabirds, especially between 5pm to 6pm, when huge flocks of birds return to roost for the night. Isla del Amor has lunch restaurants and attractive swimming beaches. Boats line the waterfront of Puerto Pizarro and cost S35 to S40 per hour per boat; you can do a tour of the mangroves and the above-mentioned sites for S80. Tour companies in Tumbes also provide guided tours to the area.
Most visitors stay in Tumbes and visit Puerto Pizarro on a day trip; however, accommodation is available at Bayside Hotel (54-3045; s/d S45/65; ) on the waterfront. The Bayside has a faded Palm Springs attitude and its yellow concrete bungalows are large and weathered, but supply plenty of character. It’s a good place to chill, with a pleasant thatch-roofed restaurant and seaside hammocks to watch the world float by. The hotel also rents kayaks for S5 per hour and jet skis for S60 per hour – though you won’t see much wildlife zooming around on one of those.
There are regular combis between Puerto Pizarro and Tumbes (S1, 15 minutes).
Reserva de Biosfera del Noroeste
The Northwestern Biosphere Reserve consists of four protected areas that cover 2344 sq km in the department of Tumbes and northern Piura. A lack of government funding means that there is little infrastructure or tourist facilities – much of what exists was funded by organizations such as the Fundación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (FPCN; also called ProNaturaleza), with assistance from international bodies such as the WWF.
Information about all four areas is available from the Tumbes office of Inrena (972-52-6489; www.inrena.gob.pe; Tarapacá 427, Ministerio de Agricultura; 9am-5:30pm), the government department in charge of administering this region. The biologist in charge is Oscar García Tello