Day 387 – Chachapoyas
Hiking to Gocta Waterfall
Getting to Gocta Waterfall Hike Starting Point
After a self made breakfast at our hostel, Chachapoyas Backpackers, we walked to the Chachapoyas Collectivo Terminal. From here we caught a collectivo to Cocahuayco. When you tell the collectivo driver, they know where to stop.
Just a random street in Chachapoyas
The road felt similar to the way to Kuelap (Day 386), with lots of bends along the river. The collectivo cost 10 PEN ($4.44 AUD) per person (p/p). Once we got to Cocahuayco, a motor taxi took us the rest of the way to the town of San Pablo. This motor taxi cost both of us 10 PEN ($4.44 AUD). It’s worth the price, as it takes you up almost 500m to an altitude of 1,930m above sea level.
Drop off point to get a motor taxi
You can also begin at Cocachimba, but it means you have to climb from 1,800m to 2,340m to see the top portion of the waterfall. Starting from San Pablo is definitely easier.
Gocta Waterfall
The town of San Pablo is really small. The motor taxi dropped us off right in front of the ticket office. Here we paid an entrance ticket of 10 PEN ($4.44 AUD) p/p. We had to walk through the town for 15 minutes, before we reached the actual path. The app MAPS.ME is really useful to use as a guide so you don’t get lost.
We found a friend early into the hike!
There are numerous viewpoints that are great to see the beautiful scenery from. A bit later the path takes you in between tall trees.
We reached the top waterfall at midday, which was 2.5 hours after we started hiking. There wasn’t anyone else up here when we arrived. You can get really close to the freezing water. The waterfall is really nice. There isn’t a lot of water, so it looks like the water is floating down the side of the rocks gracefully. Since it’s just floating, the wind catches the water and can blow it away. Standing around 15m away from the waterfall, would occasionally feel like standing right under it.
We had some sandwiches that we had made at the hostel, before walking down to the bottom waterfall. Along the way are amazing viewpoints that allow you to see both the top and bottom parts of the waterfall.
It’s really cool. However, there is a really steep section from the top to the bottom. It’s because of this one section that I recommend starting from San Pablo.
We reached the bottom waterfall, which was a lot more busier at 3pm. Similar to the top waterfall, the water was floating down so gracefully. You can apparently swim here, but the water is ice cold so I didn’t see anyone brave enough to try.
After spending some time here, we headed towards the town of Cocachimba. Despite being the same elevation, as the base of the waterfall, the hike was constantly up and down hill.
We stopped for some juice at one of the stalls near the end of the hike. The juice was delicious and the servings were super generous for only 1 PEN ($0.44 AUD). We arrived in the larger town of Cocachimba, which seems to be where most of the tours start and end from. It took us around 1.5 hours to get here.
End point town of Cocachimba
Getting back to Chachapoyas
From Cocachimba, we caught a motor taxi back to Cocahuayco. This motor taxi cost us 15 PEN ($6.67 AUD) between 3 people. We had met another couple along the hike, who were also from our hostel.
From Cocahayco, we bought tickets from the small restaurant for a collectivo back to Chachapoyas. The tickets back only cost us 5 PEN ($2.22 AUD) p/p with ETSA Sol Amazonense.
The collectivo was packed but otherwise the journey back was uneventful.
Chachapoyas
Later in Chachapoyas, we had showers and relaxed. We heard about an Amazon themed restaurant, that we decided to try out. It was a little pricey, but the experience was very unique, from the decor to the serving platters. We were really impressed and enjoyed our meal. The restaurant is called El Batan Del Tayta.
Map for reference from iPeru
