Following our exhausting 3 day journey from Quito, we checked in and dropped off our bags at the hotel by 7.30 AM. We asked the hotel staff how we can get to La Gocta. He gave us 2 options; we could either wait for the tour agencies to open or we could head to the bus terminal to get a combi1 to Cocahuayco. He told us that from here, we could get a moto-taxi up to San Pablo or Cocachimba. Cocachimba is the start of the trail to the base of the waterfall and San Pablo is the start of the trail to the upper platform. We opted to make our own way to Cocachimba so walked across town to the bus terminal and booked a combi for 5 PEN2 departing at 8.15 AM. The journey to Cocahuayco took about 45-50 minutes. As soon as we got off, there were several moto-taxis waiting to take people up. They all wear an ETSA uniform which was the same company as the combi so we took one up to Cocachimba for another 5 PEN. This is a 20-minute uphill journey which if hiked up would be very tiring. Cocachimba is a very small town that has a central park with shops and restaurants surrounding it. The ticket office for La Gocta is at the end of the park and no-one was here initially and the town itself was quite empty. After waiting a couple of minutes, we paid the entry tariff of 10 PEN and signed into the guestbook. The lady then told us that the start of the trail was at the end of the town past the office. We walked over there and found a park official who checked our tickets.
We began the trail at around 9.40 AM and the park official told us it would take about 2-hours 30-minutes each way. He also mentioned that we could rent horses a few minutes into the trail. Now the actual start of the trail is about 5-10 minutes further down and you’ll arrive at a point where the path splits to go down or continue upwards. We chose to go down but this led to some private property which looked like a hotel/restaurant. So we had to climb back up and lost about 10 minutes. Once you continue up the actual trail you come across the stable where you can rent a horse. You walk past that and then arrive at the signposted start of the trail. From here the trail is very easy to follow and has signposts with the trail kilometer. The path winds up and down and can get muddy/slippery at times. You’ll also go past a bridge and many streams. When we set out in the early morning it was quite chilly but it gets much hotter throughout the day. Therefore a sweater and sunblock are a must as well as repellant since there are many mosquitos. Once you pass the 4th kilometer, you’ll begin to get great views of the platformed waterfall La Gocta. As you get closer to the base of the waterfall, the upper platform will no longer be visible. We managed to reach the base of La Gocta in 1-hour 45-minutes arriving at around 11.30 AM.
At 540 meters high, the lower waterfall is massive and can be tricky to fit in a picture even with a wide-view GoPro. At first glance, the waterfall doesn’t appear to have much force but rather looks like it turns into a mist by the time it reaches the bottom. It also splits into two but the left one just trickles down the rocks. We went in August so maybe there wasn’t much rain throughout that month but it’s still a great sight. We decided to go across the stream to try and get closer to the waterfall. Beware though, because some rocks are very slippery. The water is also very cold so I wouldn’t recommend going for a swim although some people did jump in. We managed to get about 10-15 meters from the waterfall and at this point, you begin to feel the force of the water. It’s like being in a shower with high water pressure so you’ll get soaked if you venture this far. After taking some pictures and refueling with some snacks, we began our way back to Cocachimba at around 12.45 PM. We got back to Cocachimba at around 2.35 PM but there wasn’t any moto-taxi around to take us back down. We asked the ticket office staff to see if they could maybe call one for us and they said the moto-taxis normally come up every 30 mins. We waited and indeed one did turn up and we were making our way back down by 3.10 PM. Once at Cocahuayco, a combi had just arrived and had 2 free seats so we managed to take it back to Chachapoyas. The combis also come every half hour and we were told that the last one is at 5 PM.
