Getting to the beach

The beach is easily and cheaply reachable with public transport. After a morning at the very interesting Belen market, we waited for one of the wooden, colourful buses that headed to Santa Clara. We waited at the corner of Alfonso Ugarte and Arica and within a minute we spotted a bus with a white sign in the front that included Santa Clara (line 12). After some 35 minutes on the bus, we were dropped off directly at the river in Santa Clara. We paid 3 SOL per person for the bus.

From this point, you can choose to go to a few different beaches. We asked for a collectivo boat to Tipishca and after waiting a bit for other passengers we set off on a 20 minute boat ride directly to the beach (cost 5 SOL per person).

At the beach

The beach requires no entrance ticket but there are a few people that live there during the dry season. They cater to tourists with food and drinks and you are expected to buy a drink from them (we had a Cola). They offer you seats and tables close to the water. We loved the beach so much that we spent almost 6 hours there and bought two fish with banana for lunch and another coke!

We were surprised at how few people there were. Aside from us and a family from Iquitos arriving an hour or two after us, there was not a single visitor that day. Truly a hidden gem!

Heading back

At the end of the afternoon we took the boat and bus back. For the entire beach day (transport, food and drinks) we spent only $12 per person! A wonderful and affordable way to experience a unique side of the Amazon.

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