RIDING THE WAVE

On the fringes of Peru’s northern coast, the burgeoning surfer’s paradise of Máncora courts travellers with pristine beaches and a laid-back, bohemian vibe. MARTA TUCCI catches a break.

- MARTA TUCCI

STANDING ON THE TARMAC of Talara, a no-frills regional airport in northwestern Peru that sees just eight flights per day, I began to think I had made a mistake. Though I was destined for Máncora, a coastal town in the Piura province, I found myself surrounded by nothing but desert .

“You’re in the right place!” a fellow passenger called. I turned to find a Matthew McConaughey doppelgänger with salty locks and a giddy grin . After chatting for 15 minutes, I learned he visited Máncora regularly and often encountered confused first-timers. Headed in the same direction, he offered me a ride and helped load my tattered longboard onto his dusty 4 x 4 Suzuki. “Everyone has the same reaction,” he said with a chuckle, making zero effort to avoid the road’s frequent potholes. “Give it a few days, and you won’t want to leave.”

After a bumpy hour-long drive, the road dipped down , revealing a row of bright bougainvillaea-covered villas, and the ocean began to peek out from behind the dunes. When I laid eyes on Máncora’s legendary north swell, I could understand why surfers and artists began to settle in this isolated slice of paradise in the 1970s.