Yasila Beach

In another one of our trips along the coasts of Peru, we were told another legend about Piura, called Yasila Beach, and so it goes:

Yasila is a beautiful beach, near Paita. Its name comes from a young man called Zila that used to live on this beach and when his family would call him out they would yell “Ya, Zila!”

Others said that the name comes from the times of the last Inca of the region called Chinchasuyo. Back then, there was a well respected family and the oldest son stood out as a very wise man, known as the Amauta. In those times, the tribe named cacique a man named Yucay, who was the Amauta’s enemy.

Since he was a child, the son stood out because of his wits and he was called Huayna.

While Yucay was envious and always looking to mess up Huayna’s work, but since Huayna was more skillful, Yucay never could.

A few years passed until Yucay did enough merits and was named cacique. The first thing he did was to throw out Huayna’s family and ordered them to leave at night in secrecy.

The journey was painful, until they reach a solitary beach were they decided to stay and build their house.

A given day, unknown and uncivilized natives arrived and attacked them. In order to save themselves and without thinking, they jumped onto a big boat, yelling and screaming for help.

The Huayna family continued to sail on their canoe, singing anthems to the Sun and on their songs they would repeat over and over: Yasila, Yasila. That’s why people starting calling this place Yasila.