The last in my orange room in Chachapoyas. I took a tour to the waterfall of Gopta. With a drop of 771 meters, it is the third highest waterfall in the world. Certainly known to the locals, it was not on any map until 2002, when a German development aid worker hiked through the Utcabamba valley and discovered it.
Many myths entwine the waterfall suggesting that it is dangerous to go there. I did not want to take any chances and hence teamed up with Rocio and Candy to visit the fall! The bus would drop us at the small village of Cocachimba. We got some rubber boots, and followed the guide to the waterfall. Early into the hike, we stopped at a hut where indigenous people sold freshly pressed sugar cane juice. Yummy, Yummy. The elevation is at around 2500m and the air pressure and with it, the oxygen level drops. This becomes quite noticeable when undertaking physical activities like hiking.
The waterfall is quite impressing. The water rushes down, and it is so noisy that it is hard to understand each other. It generates a hefty, hurricane like wind, so most people go towards the fall reverse and with their back (and butt) first. The water hits the ground and parts of it somehow evaporates. These clouds then slowly rise along a steep wall into the sky.
On the way back, we ran out of provision. Luckily, I found some emergency chocolate in my backpack which kept us going until Cocachimba. There, we had an afternoonish lunch before taking the bus back to Chachapoyas.
In the evening, I boarded the bus to Cajamarca. Unfortunately, it was a simple bus with no first class seats that would have made the trip more bearable. Depending on whom I would ask, the duration of the trip varied between 8h and 11:00 h. It turned out that even the more conservative estimates still did not suffice. The gravel road was narrow. One side of the road is always close to the abyss, and there are no barriers — as it was dark it was not clearly visible. So, nothing to worry about 🙂
