Los Cuatros Estados Unidos

Monday August 24, 2015

We got up today and had breakfast at the hotel. They served the usual- eggs and bread with jelly/butter. We headed over to meet Jeffree and the rest of our tour group for the day!

We hiked to Gocta Waterfalls today, one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. Measuring over 700km, this waterfall was not well known to outsiders before 2005 because the locals feared a curse from the blonde mermaid that occupied the falls if they revealed it's whereabouts. 

It took about 2.5 hours from the van to the base of the waterfall along a well maintained pathway. We were lucky enough to have another beautiful day of sunshine as we explored the edge of the Amazon Jungle. The group of Europeans that we traveled with on Sunday opted to go swimming at the base, we decided to eat snacks instead.

Our guide Jeffree was full of fun facts and ensured us that if we came across a snake he would protect us from it!

That tiny stream of water about 5km away from us is the waterfall!

We hiked the trail with a Peruvian family and I couldn't help but snap a picture of this pose. They provided plenty of entertainment.

We celebrated the successful trek with fresh pressed sugarcane juice. It is certainly an unusual color, but the taste was nice- sweet but not overwhelming. The woman who makes it pressed a fresh pitcher while we sat and drank ours. It was refreshing after the long hike.

It was another wonderful day exploring the Peruvian highlands/Amazon jungle area. We boarded our van back to Chachapoyas after we ate lunch. We showered and boarded our bus to Trujillo at 7:30pm. A beautiful, exhausting weekend in Peru complete!