Roaming South America

Chancay, Perú

March 31, 2024

Chancay, Perú was founded in 1562 under the name Villa de Arnedo. The Chancay district has a population of around 60,000.

The main activity in Chancay these days is as a tourist resort. The main attraction is El Castillo, a faux castle, recently repaired but constructed in the nineteenth century. There is a small museum in the castle displaying Chancay culture pottery and mummies. It is a theme park which has tour guides that lead groups through to see choreographed acts in a couple different sections, there are restaurants, and in the center is a stage where you can see various acts from traditional dances to magicians to soccer ball tricksters. It's a great place for families, but for a single person, alone, well, it was interesting for a little while. It has a couple of swimming pools and great views of the beach and port. There are lots of phots in the photo album.

Chancay was inhabited by the Chancay civilization from about 1300 - 1450, then they were assimilated into the Inca empire. Chancay was founded by Luis Flores in 1562. Although it was a "Spanish town", according to the 1792 census, the town had a total of 2960 people but only 369 were Spanish. Most of the population were slaves and Indians. In 1966, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake caused great damage in the north of Chancay and 30 people died and 4,000 homes were destroyed.

The climate is a desert climate. The average daytime high is 21° C (70° F) and the average nightly low is 17° C (62° F). Chancay gets 218mm (8.5 inches) of rain per year. Humidity ranges from 86%-89% year-round.

This is a small town and it is also a clean, litter-free town. There are few parks but they are clean, there is a long pedestrian-only street through the center and several more streets in nearly completed for pedestrians only. It's a nice town, one of the few on the northern Perú coast that I actually like. The Castillo de Chancay is a Castle theme park aimed at families and it very interesting and fun for the kids. For me alone, it was a nice place to visit for an hour or so. The entry fee is for the full day, and they have restaurants and gift shops, of course, games and shows. And lots of photo ops. Should you put Chancay on you list of must-see places in Perú? No. Stop here if you are passing through or your have your kids and they want to have some fun in the castle. Otherwise, don't go out of your way to visit.