Illescas is a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 in northwestern Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

. It forms the southern boundary of the Sechura Bay, the largest bay in Peru. Sechura Bay also includes the northernmost portion of the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 that is under the influence of the Peru-Chile or Humboldt Current

Humboldt Current

The Humboldt Current , also known as the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north-westward along the west coast of South America from the southern tip of Chile to northern Peru. It is an eastern boundary current flowing in the direction of the equator, and can extend...

. The Illescas Peninsula is located in the department of Piura

Piura

Piura is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. The population is 377,496.It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the third Spanish city in South America and first in Peru, San Miguel de Piura, in July 1532...

, and is scarcely inhabited. Illescas is also the name given to the highest point of the peninsula (500 m.), the Cerro Illescas.

A mountain between sea and a flatland desert

The Peninsula and Cerro Illescas are located more than 150 km west of the Andes, in the middle of a flatland desert, the Sechura desert

Sechura Desert

The Sechura Desert is located south of the Piura Region of Peru along the Pacific Ocean coast and inland to the foothills of the Andes Mountains...

. The cerro is a series of small hills (up to 500 m. in elevation) interspersed by narrow and short valleys formed during rare rain events. Vegetation cover is extremely reduced in the peninsula, and only a few shrub and tree species grow in the area, especially mesquite

Mesquite

Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...

 trees and shrubs locally known as zapote. An endemic species of fox, the Sechura desert fox is found in the peninsula. Along the coast, and at its westernmost point, there are colonies of sea lion

Sea Lion

Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear-flaps, long fore-flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short thick hair. Together with the fur seal, they comprise the family Otariidae, or eared seals. There are six extant and one extinct species in five genera...

s, blue-footed boobies

Blue-footed Booby

The Blue-footed Booby is a bird in the Sulidae family which comprises ten species of long-winged seabirds. The natural breeding habitat of the Blue-footed Booby is tropical and subtropical islands off the Pacific Ocean, most famously, the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.- Etymology :The name booby...

 and Humboldt penguin

Humboldt Penguin

The Humboldt Penguin is a South American penguin, that breeds in coastal Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African Penguin, the Magellanic Penguin and the Galápagos Penguin...

s.

Regions

The only human settlement of the Illescas Peninsula is the fishermen town of Bayovar.

Geographic Features

• The Punta Aguja is the westernmost point of the peninsula, and is inhabited by colonies of marine mammals and seabirds
• At the south end of Illescas, Playa sin fin extends for more than 100 km, and is the largest, ininterrupted sandy shore along the Peruvian coastline
• The Bayovar depression is an area north of Illescas, where a large area of the ground is below sea level (-34 m.). Large deposits of phosphorus ores and diatomite are found near the Bayovar depression
• The Estuario de Virrila is a 30 km long canal entering the Sechura desert
  Sechura Desert
  The Sechura Desert is located south of the Piura Region of Peru along the Pacific Ocean coast and inland to the foothills of the Andes Mountains...
  
   from the Sechura Bay. Despite its name, it is not an estuary
  Estuary
  An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
  
  .