From Maya to Inca: Catarata de Gocta

Saturday 6 July 2013

Catarata de Gocta

I was up early the following day to go to the Gocta waterfall. If I'm honest, I don't really understand the excitement about waterfalls but the hike that I had planned was pushed back a day so I went. I ended up having a great day hiking in the jungle and chatting with a young Peruvian couple from Lima, and I started to realise that there are tourists here only they're mostly Peruvian. I have to admit to hardly knowing anything about Peru before I came here and this couple gave me some interesting insights into the development of the country over the past few years, not to mention a list of food that I should eat while I'm here, particularly in Lima. Something that strikes me so far, in my relatively short experience, is that Peruvians seem to be proud of their country in spite of the various problems and this is a refreshing change from all the complaining that goes on in Europe.

As far as the waterfall goes, they can certainly be proud of this, as it has been classed, at 771 metres high, among the highest waterfalls in the world, and the waterfall itself is really not bad at all. This is actually a relatively recent classification, as people only really began to take notice of this region from around 2005. To my mind though, the most interesting part is the two hour walk through cloud forest and tropical forest to get there. I hadn't realised how close I was to the jungle and I was told that if I was lucky I would see a yellow-tailed woolly monkey or a spectacled bear. I didn't see either but I did see a tarantula and that's good enough for me!

on the way

Catarata de Gocta

Me in my welly boots

baby tarantula

I wore the welly boots but I drew the line at the green cape. I was wrong. Rain is unpredictable in a rainforest. Or rather highly predictable.

Avid global waterfall followers. I think they got the wrong country.

Drops that fall accept their destiny, the ones that bounce try to change it.

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Interesting facts

Another slightly subjective fact. Peruvian mountain roads are among the most dangerous in the world.
Kuelap is a Chachapoya fortress in Northern Peru built before Machu Picchu.
Peruvian men are the most persistent men on the planet.
Blue zones are called blue zones simply because Dan Buettner and his research team (who first identified the blue zones) used blue ink to circle the areas on a map with the highest life expectancy. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Inca civilisation arose from the highlands of Peru sometime during the early 13th century.
Contrary to popular belief, Panama hats are not made in Panama but in Ecuador.
Ten of the volcanoes along the Avenue of Volcanoes are higher than 5000 metres.
Rafael Correa has introduced the "pico y placa" system in Quito, following the Colombian example, "pico" meaning "peak" and "placa" meaning "plate". Cars are restricted from circulating in Quito on certain days during morning and evening rush hours according to the last number of their registration plate, in order to ease traffic congestion.
Quito is 72 kms long and 10 kms wide.
Quito is the oldest capital in South America and lies 2800 metres above sea level.
The sex of the tortoises bred in the breeding centre in Puerto Ayora on the Galapagos islands depends on the temperature of the incubators. The eggs kept in incubators at 29.5 degrees celsius become females and those kept in incubators at 28 degrees celsius become males.
The giant cacti of the Galapagos islands are the only species of opuntia cactus in the world that grows like a tree.
Legend has it that the Incas discovered the Galapagos islands in the fifteenth century but no solid evidence has been found to prove this.
Slightly subjective. Playa del Carmen sells the most expensive ice cream in the world. But it tastes pretty good.
The piece of lime in the top of a bottle of beer was originally not for the taste. It was used to wipe the rust off the rim.
Mayan mothers used to wrap planks of wood around their children's foreheads to flatten them.
The dazzling blue ocean along the Mayan riviera is due to the fact that there are no rivers feeding into it. And because of the lack of nutrients flowing into the sea, there is also less animal life along this part of the ocean.