The caballito de totora — literally "little horse of reed" — is a narrow bundle-reed boat that Huanchaco's fishermen have used for at least two millennia. Shaped like a crescent, paddled from a kneeling position, the boats are ridden through the surf in the early morning and pulled up on the beach to dry in the sun each afternoon. The sight of a dozen of them stacked vertically on the sand, golden against the Pacific, is one of northern Peru's iconic images.
The fishermen launch between 5am and 7am, depending on conditions, and return two to three hours later riding the waves in on the same boats they launched from — the technique unchanged for thousands of years. Local fishermen take visitors out for short rides; ask along the beach.