The Gocta Falls

By Gary Tomlin

Cocachimba, Peru — The few streets are unpaved in this little known, mountain-side village of simplistic and rough-hewn charm. There’s a horse stable and soccer field in the town center. There is one road south, down slope, to civilization. On the north side is the trailhead to the stunningly high Gocta Waterfall. According to whose list you read, the Gocta is somewhere between the fourth and the 18th highest Falls in the world. Whatever its rank, the water falls 2,500 feet and most of it evaporates before it gets to the bottom.

The place remains a secret because the beautiful blond mermaid who lives in its waters, will curse the charmed village if they tell.

There are a few modest guest houses, a couple of souvenir shops, and several Peruvian specialty coffee shops with simple menus for food, and like everywhere else in this part of the world, lots of street dogs. A young, medium size Rottweiler patrols freely and has taken a liking to me. When it sees me, it ambles up nonchalantly, without threat, and nudges my thigh with the side of his head, which is mostly jaws and teeth, as if to say, “Be cool, and I won’t eat you.”

He’s just one of a mostly mellow pack that keeps their collective eyes on everything. There’s some German Shepherd blood, some Bull blood, and some Chow blood mixed among the squad. They own the street. They siesta in the middle of it, and the few cars and tuk-tuks will go around them.

The breakfast table on the patio of the Healthy Stay Gocta Guest House gives a full frontal view of the Falls, and the folks who walk past offer cheerful greetings. “Buenos dias! Como estas” This is a calm and happy place. I came for one night and stayed for three.

The trail to the base of the waterfall is a 6 km hike: 7.2 miles round trip. It descends and climbs three steep ravines There’s a horse option to the hike. For about $22, you can rent a gentle old nag, and someone to lead it. I seriously considered this option, but at the decision time, they wanted to charge me an excess weight fee. That hurt my feelings, and it would be dirty and impure to ride a horse on a hike, so I passed.

There were benches and welcome rest waiting at the Falls.

There was not much water flow out of the small pool, and looking up, I could only see the lower two-thirds of the Fall from where it came over the second lip. It had a jagged crag that dispersed much of the water into a mist, and most of the flow never gets to the bottom. White puffs of vapor that looked like look Spirits were coming out of the water and dissipated into the air— freaky. Even though very little of the water reaches the ground, the air has a sweet, humid, rejuvenating energy as only a waterfall can give.

Crossing the ravines was type-two fun that I had not anticipated. The long, steep, descents tortured my knees and hips, while the climbs ravaged my lungs and leg muscles.

After the last ravine, I took a long rest and that waisted the last bit of daylight. I could still see the trail, but I was going to have to get my flashlight out to finish.

There were distant markers every kilometer, and I could see the lights of the village, so I knew I only had about a half a click to go.

The old man who collected the maintenance fee at the trailhead, came looking for me with a light. He had the concern and made the effort. A younger Gary would have been annoyed and not even acknowledged that the help was a nice gesture, but old men are so much kinder to each other than are young men. I didn’t let him know that I had a light and validated his belief that he had rescued me.

I was out of drinking water and in the beginning of stages of dehydration at the conclusion. I went straight to a coffee shop, rehydrated with cool aqua and had a huge plate of fresh grilled trout and trimmings, prepared by an extremely talented chef, and it will probably be my strongest, long-term memory of this day.

From this hike I got a solid evaluation of my current physical limitations. Hurt as it did, a real fine blessing to receive now and know for what is in front of me, on the upcoming rainforest trails.

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