Huanchaco: reed craft and a reserve
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-10-20
Huanchaco is a fishing town and beach resort on the coast of La Libertad, just outside Trujillo in northern Peru. Fishers here still go out on caballitos de totora – slender, tapered craft bundled from reeds – and stand them upright on the beach to dry.
A living craft, not a museum piece
Peru's tourism inventory describes Huanchaco as a fishing town where the caballitos de totora remain in use, and where surfing is among the documented activities. The reeds are not gathered from the wild: the totorales of Huanchaco are managed wetlands, dug and tended to grow totora for the craft, with a long history of fishing associations and environmental pressure. Without the wetlands there are no boats.
Three declarations
The state has recognised that in stages. In August 2003 the National Institute of Culture declared the caballito de totora Cultural Heritage of the Nation (Resolución Directoral Nacional 648/INC-2003). In October 2013 a vice-ministerial resolution extended the recognition to the traditional use of totora along the whole northern coast. And in August 2018 Congress passed Law 30837, declaring the fishing done with caballitos de totora and the protection of Huanchaco's reed beds – the balsares – a matter of national interest. The background text of that law traces the craft to the Moche and Chimú cultures; we repeat the attribution, not an age.
A surfing reserve
Surfers arrived at the same beach much later, and the recognition for that came from outside Peru. Save The Waves Coalition approved Huanchaco as a World Surfing Reserve in October 2012 and formally dedicated it in October 2013 – the fifth reserve, after Malibu, Ericeira, Manly and Santa Cruz, and the first in Latin America. The festivities opened with a paddle-out on caballitos. You will read elsewhere that Huanchaco is where surfing began; we don't say it, because the sources that would have to prove it don't.
Do you know the beach?
If your family fishes from caballitos, or you have dated photographs of the beach and the totorales, email us. We'll ask before publishing anything and agree how to credit you.
Our Huanchaco print
Our Huanchaco print stands five ochre reed craft upright behind a simple rail, their tapered silhouettes rising above the bay and casting long shadows across the sand.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.