World's 3rd Highest Waterfall

Nigel, Daniel, and I met up for breakfast and agreed that we didn't want to shell out so much money for another tour, so we decided to make our own way to the waterfall, Catarata Gocta. First we had to catch a collectivo to the nearby town of Pedro Ruiz, which is on the main road and where we would be able to catch buses to elsewhere. By the time we got to town Daniel had persuaded me to join him in a jungle tour in Peru rather than Ecuador, after all we were already quite close to the jungle. He had been working as a translator in the jungle of Ecuador and assured me that my information was wrong and in fact Peru was much cheaper, indeed, he had come to Peru to take a tour in the jungle to avoid the expense in Ecuador. Of course everyone knows that it's cheapest and best in Bolivia, but Joanne and I'd had no time for the jungle. In town Daniel and I bought tickets to Yurimaguas and Nigel bought one towards Huanchaco, and we left our big bags at the ticket office.

After a bit of lunch and some difficulty, we managed to get cheap transport with one local in a taxi collectivo to Cocachimba, the town nearest to Catarata Gocta. The driver told us that he would wait for us to return if we were prepared to pay for the empty seat too, on the way back. Considering we were well off the main road and transport would not otherwise be easy to get we agreed immediately.

Catarata Gocta from Cocachimba

The surroundings

Even from where he dropped us, reportely a two-hour walk from the falls, you could see it quite clearly. It is pretty high: 771 metres apparently, and the water falls from a cliff at the end of a plateau. The scenery was quite pleasant and it was much hotter and more humid than it had been at the coast. It felt like we were at the edge of the jungle and I started to feel quite pleased about the decision I had made. It was an easy trek, through trees and past some nice birds on the way. When we bought our entrance tickets, though, the woman in the office had made us sign a disclaimer because we had refused a guide. It was ridiculous: she was worried that something might happen to us without a guide, but it was just a stroll.

Catarata Gocta

3 men looking self-conscious infront of Catarata Gocta

Strange orange-hooded bird

Butterfly

As we got closer, we lost sight of the top part of the falls. I need to look it up, but I'm sure they are cheating to have the falls in two sections like that; it can't be a 771 metres drop in one go. The water hardly touches the bottom though: it just mist by the time it has fallen there, because there's really not all that much water going over the fall. It looks, from the erosion, like it might be more impressive in the rainy season, but a high waterfall really can't compete with a large volume waterfall like Iguazu Falls.

Bottom half of Catarata Gocta

Catarata Gocta

Me and Catarata Gocta

Nigel and Catarata Gocta

Catarata Gocta

A woodpecker

Another orange-hooded bird

The path back

Funny thistle-like plant

Then it was a quick ride back to town, where Daniel insisted we eat again. He was definitely a bad influence: I had been eating healthily and steadily losing weight I think, since ceviche became available but now we were away from the coast it was back to menu del dia and the three course cheap meals with chips. Normally I would only eat twice a day when eating like that, but Daniel seemed to be fixated with the idea that you need three meals a day, so I had now eaten four menu del dias in two days. Uh oh!

Humitas

Then it was overnight to Yurimaguas. Daniel was not impressed with the bus. Certainly, it was one of the cheap ones, but usually I find them more comfortable because they hasn't added all the extra "leg supports" and so on to make it more luxurious, which only really get in the way.

written by

The Happy Couple on December 2, 2009 from Pedro Ruiz, Peru

from the travel blog: Michael's Lonely post-Honeymoon

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