Gocta Falls (day 19)

On Thursday we had the bright idea of visiting Gocta Falls, the recently "discovered" (at least by the tourist industry and the general public) falls which are considered to be the third-tallest in the world.

The excursion to Gocta involves a two hour drive on dirt roads to the small village of Cocachimba, where one of the locals can be hired as a guide for the three hour trek to the falls. The trip can be done in one (very full) day. One nice aspect of this trek is that the money paid goes directly to the people of the village.

I ended up going alone since Daniel was still suffering from some stomach ailments. We had a group of eight, plus the guide from the village and most importantly, the true guide: a local dog who apparently joins every group that makes the 6-7 hour excursion to the falls from the town. Since they are doing work on the road, we had to park the combi about 30 minutes walk from the town. From here we could already see the falls. Hard to believe that something like this was a "secret".


This hike was actually a pretty miserable experience. It is a fairly grueling up and down trek, crossing three large hills, several rivers, and involving some steep switch-back paths. All in the heat of mid-day and under strong sun. Until we reached the jungle part of it, at which point it started to rain on us and the already muddy trail began to erode into the mucky river beds. To top it off, my hiking pants were at the laundry, leaving me with no choice but to wear jeans (a definite hiking no-no).



I can't say that the falls were really worth the effort of traversing all that steep countryside. The views on the way there and back were stunning, but the falls themselves were... well, just a waterfall. If you're really into waterfalls, maybe this is a more worthwhile trip. If not, you might consider a different day trip from Chacha.

Close-up of the lower part of the falls as seen from the trail. See 2 itty-bitty people at right center for scale:

By the time we reached the falls, I was cold, slightly sunburned (although I diligently applied sunblock, I was sweating so much from the trek that it just didn't stick), fatigued, and soaking wet. I stayed at the falls about 10 minutes and then headed back along the trail with my faithful companion, the little dog, who waited for me at the top of every hill.


In the jungle:

The entire hike back, the only sound in my head was that stupid Bon Jovi song I'd heard the night before... "whoa-oh, half way there..."

I got back to Chacha around 8:30 pm, where we headed to dinner at a restaurant popular with the locals and I had a well-deserved shower!