THE COAST

The Coast is a barren desert plain, cut by valleys formed by the rivers (52) which flow down from the Andean glaciers, enabling man, animal and plant life to survive. Their flow is so low that barely one tenth of them finally reach the sea, and only one, the Tumbes River, almost on the Ecuadorian border, in navigable. This river flows with such force into the sea that it forms an inextricable delta composed of channels and small islands where thousands of mangroves constitute a veritable aquatic forest.

The Coast is located between sea level and an altitude of 500 m, the coastline being 2 500 km long, and is 200 km wide in the North, where it forms the Sechura Desert, and 40 km wide in the South, where the Andes are closer to the sea. Although located near the Equator, it has a moderate mean annual temperature of 18ºC, because of the cold sea waters of the Humboldt Current (19ºC annual average) that flow along most of the Coastline and trigger the up swell of deep waters towards the surface.

These waters cool the air which condenses into mists which remain permanently, thus preventing the formation of rain, and provoking the aridity of the Coast, is spite of the high 80% humidity. The cloudiest months are from May to October when the sky is overcast up to an altitude of 600 meters, above which the temperature rises and the sun shines. However, the cold waters emerging from the sea bottom are charged with mineral and organic salts that serve as nutritive elements for phytoplankton, making the sea a sort of menestrone or marine broth which develops an exceptional ethological richness. In addition, shoals of warm water fish are carried by the El Niño Current in the North, providing Perú with over 800 species of fish. At present, 90% of fisheries concentrate on anchovy for the manufacture of fishmeal, and only the remaining 10% is for human consumption. The high international demand of fishmeal for use as animal feed is one of the country’s major sources of foreign exchange.

As a result, Peru is rated as one of the world’s first fishing countries., the port of Chimbote, 400 km North of Lima is the main fishing port.

The only rainfall on the Central Coast is a very fine almost imperceptible drizzle called garua occurring in the winter months. In some sectors, the mists condense on the ground humidifying it and covering some hills by vegetation. However, in winter northward from Trujillo, and particularly from Chiclayo, the coastal mist disappears and the climate becomes warmer. In summer (from December to March) when the layer of mist has dissipated, the climate is much warmer there (Piura, Tumbes) than elsewhere.

Lastly, due to historical and social evolutionary reasons, almost the whole of the country’s economic activity is concentrated on the Coast . In fact, in 1990, 70% of the industrial capacity, 90% of private investment, 83% of bank loans, and nearly 87% of the fiscal revenue were concentrated in the capital. In addition, Lima is the seat of Peru’s political and administrative power congregating most of its social and cultural services.

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