Tumbes

Understand

thumb|Amphitheatre featuring a mural Encuentro de dos mundos Tumbes is a gritty, mostly unpleasant city, though a gateway to beach resorts, mangroves and national parks in its vicinity.

Get around

There are kombis to beach resorts, and colectivos to the frontier.

An official, white taxi will charge S/33 (Feb 2018) to take you to the joint Peru-Ecuador border post at Aguas Verdes. Exit from Peru and entry to Ecuador is now handled by officials sitting beside each other. Yellow Ecuadorian taxis will charge US$5 (Feb 2018) to take you to Huaquillas.

International buses are another means of crossing the frontier. Beware of currency exchange scams.

Tumbes is infested with trimotos, motorcycle taxis that will take you around the city for a few soles.

See

thumb|Rio Tumbes in the Parque Nacional Cerros de Amotape White sand beaches, mangroves, Tumbes River & national parks like Cerros de Amotape. The manglares are a series of swamplike everglade type islands in the shallow water. You can visit a small crocodile zoo, where they are trying to restore the local breed.

Do

Observe the beautiful mosaics in the town, including a 6-m (20-ft) 3-D mosaic of Jesus's ascension into heaven. Others can be found across the various plazas.

Go for a walk along the malecon, the walkway along the river.

Get out to the beaches in Aguas Verdes, or Puento Pizarro to see the manglares, or eat lunch on a small island only reachable by boat.

Explore Cerros de Amotape National Park, characterized by its dry forests and endangered species such as the Tumbes crocodile.

Eat

Seafood is of course plentiful and affordable. There are many chifas, Chinese restaurants with a Peruvian flavor, on Feijoo Street. Many delicious dessert shops are on the market street.

Stay safe

Tumbes is not a dangerous city at all, but it is indeed a place of many scams run by mixed Ecuadorian/Peruvian gangs, with the complicity of the frontier police and some bus companies.