Sun 23rd Nov 2008
- Pacasmayo Travel Guide & City Information
Pacasmayo, it is on the Pacific seaboard. It is north of Lima, and is the base of triangle of the three most important cities of north Perú. It is between the cities of Trujillo and Chiclayo and on the way to Cajamarca city. It has a population of approximately thirty thousands people.
Pacasmayo is a bay; it has a beach of stone and sand, and also has a nice seafront with old houses. One and a half kilometers from Pacasmayo, in the bay there is lighthouse Known as "El Faro", it lights the sea in the night and guides little fisch boats and ships. Near "El Faro" people go to do surfing, and practice windsurfing. Pacasmayo is a warm town where the wind blows all the time.
In Pacasmayo there is a old pier, it was built in the eighteenth century circa 1860. In this time, Pacasmayowas an important seaport. When it was built, it's the length was one thousand five hundred meters meters because in the 1920's a big wave cut the pier. In the night its lamps and brightness lights the sea.
It had a train station which trasported the agricultural products from other towns into Pacasmayo in orde to export them by sea. It was also used to transport people. The Panamericana road affected this business and its activities; the train station was forced to close.
There are beatiful sunsets all the year round, but in winter there less.
There are two good hotels; their names are "Pakatnamu" and "La Estación" the first one is older, but the food in the newest one is much better. There are a lot of republican style houses; these hotels keep this style.
Ther is a social security hospital, there four banks working there, a market where people go to buy groceries, and many cmercial stores that sell electro domestics and other electric appliances.
In Pacasmayo, a lot of people work in the factory Cementos Norte Pacasmayo, wich is the main economic activity. Some people are fishmen. Another main economic activity is agriculture where the cultivate rice, sugarcane, and other products.
Near Pacasmayo is the Jequetepeque river, and valley and town with same name. There is a dam in the river, it's called "Gallito Ciego", that is newer than San Lorenzo in Piura or Tinajones in Lamballeque: An artificial lagoon has formed where the dam ends and extends to the town of Tembaldera, its length is fifteen kilometers aproximately. The road to Cajamarca city slopes toward the river.
Close to Jequetepeque town there is a "huaca" called "Cerro de Dos Cabezas", it's was used as a temple to worship the moon.
The ancient residents in this territory first were the Mochicas and afterwards The Chimus, they lived here and built a city called "Pakatnamu". Today this city lies in ruins. The material they used to make their building was adobe, a brick made of sandy kind of clay, which had the signuture of the person who had made it. Because of the phenomenom of"El Niño" and all the rain it cused, these buildings desintegrated.
A towon near Pacasmayo is San Pedro de Lloc, it is the capital of the province. There a viceroyalty style houses and there is an old church. It is tradition for the people in San Pedro to eat a kind of lizards, in typical dishes such as "ceviche" "aji de gallina", "tortilla" and other dishes. The lizard's meat is white and soft. San Pedro is famous for candles that had the trademark "velitas misioneras". they also made crayons. The factory that made these famous candles burned down in 1972.
Another city near is Guadalupe, which is the main center of agriculture production. There is an old church and near the town there is a hill, wich has a statue of a virgin on the top, wich is called "Virgen de Guadalupe". They have a famous fair to honor this virgin in the month of November.
San Jose is nother small town that is near Pacasmayo, its main economic activity is also agriculture. It's famous becuase of a "huecero" (a "huecero" is a person who fixes bones whenever a person has a bone pain) called Cerna who was the grandfather of famous goalkeeper named Rubiños who was goalkeeper of the Peruvian soccer selection in Mexico 70.
Pacasmayo is a very beautiful and quiet town and has a lot of things to visit and places to go where one can relax, learn, and have a great time.