Paita sits in a wide sheltered bay about 55 kilometres west of Piura, backed by pale sand cliffs and facing the open Pacific. Once one of the most important harbours on the entire Pacific coast of South America, it was raided and burned by the English privateer Thomas Cavendish in 1587 and never quite recovered its colonial-era prominence. Today it is a working city — fishing boats, tuna canneries, container terminals — but the seafront malecón has been tidied up and there is enough here for a half-day excursion from Piura.
The colonial church of La Merced is the architectural highlight, a modest whitewashed structure that has survived the town's various misfortunes. Near the waterfront you will find a small museum dedicated to Manuela Sáenz, Simón Bolívar's partner and political collaborator, who spent the last twenty-four years of her life in exile in Paita. She supported herself selling sweets and writing letters to South American revolutionaries until a diphtheria epidemic killed her in 1856. The museum is small but the story is remarkable.
The real reason to come is the food. A handful of simple restaurants near the port serve ceviche made from the morning's catch — among the freshest you will eat in northern Peru. Pair it with a cold chicha morada and the view over the bay, and Paita earns its half-day without difficulty.
Combis and colectivos run frequently between Piura and Paita throughout the day, taking about an hour. Colán, the beach village with South America's oldest church, is just north of Paita and combines well into the same trip.