Huarmey

Huarmey is a coastal town in the Ancash Region of Peru, one of the five districts of Huarmey Province and its capital, created by law 24034 on 20 December 1984. It lies on the Pan-American Highway, going from south to north after leaving the department of Lima at Paramonga, 82 kilometres from the Fortaleza River and 83 kilometres from the next major city, Casma. At certain times of the year settlers fish abundant shrimp in the Huarmey River, which fertilises the valley as it flows from south to north. The port of Huarmey is 5 kilometres to the south by a detour from the highway. The city is largely undeveloped, although it is one of the main cities of the Ancash Region, with its own beaches and facilities for camping and surfing; the water is very cold all year despite the high temperatures of the town. Huarmey is the site of the Punta Lobos massacre, a fourteenth-century pre-Columbian Chimú human sacrifice and mass burial.