Tuesday, January 14.Gocta Falls. A less energetic day than usual we had a leisurely breakfast and then read in the room and on the balcony until 11 am when we met up with Julio.
Gocta is a perennial waterfall with two drops. It flows into the Cocahuayco River. Although the waterfall had been well known to locals for centuries (it is in full view of a nearby village), its existence was not made known to the world until after an expedition made in 2002 by a German, Stefan Ziemendorff, with a group of Peruvian explorers. The waterfall, which can be seen from several kilometres away, has been christened Gocta Falls, after the name of the nearest settlement. The total height was measured at 771 metres, which ranked Gocta as the third-tallest free-leaping waterfall in the world after Angel Falls in Venezuela and Tugela Falls in South Africa. However, this was apparently based on outdated and incomplete information gleaned from the National Geographic Society. The World Waterfall Database list of the World's Tallest Waterfalls ranks Gocta as the 18th tallest. Seems like it depends on how you measure them gives different results.
Gocta Lodge Hotel
We spent two nights here, in a room on the second floor in one of the new extensions, with a great few of the falls.
The photos you see of the hotel and its views of the falls are not doctored, that is really what you see
The restaurant (you can eat either inside or outside) has a view of the falls. We enjoyed both our breakfasts and dinners here. Also nice for a Pisco Sour any time.
Serve is very friendly and willing, but, as with local staff in remote locations, can be a bit stuttering occasionally.
We did not walk all the way to the falls - we stopped at a cafe about half way. To a certain extent, it did not seem worth the aggro of hiking all the way there, when you get as good , if not better, view from this hotel.
We would have like to have stayed longer. The little town is still evolving, and the main reason would have been to enjoy the hotel and its grounds
Click on thumbnail photo below to get larger photo
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We went 2 km along the track to the waterfall which was still quite demanding, but at the lower altitude did not exhaust me nearly so much as previous treks. We stopped at a café where we had fresh cane juice and a better view of the waterfall. Then back to the town where David and I shared an omelet and wonderful fresh mango juice
In the afternoon I enjoyed another swim and read many installments of the Pitcairn scandal podcast. We enjoyed a rum and Coke and later went over to the café and had a Pisco sour. Then back to the room before a pleasant but far too large dinner.
Click on thumbnail photo below to get larger photo
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Wednesday, January 15. Gocta Falls to Chiclayo. We breakfasted at 7 am and we’re ready before 8 am to be picked up for a nine hour journey.
But as we had said to Julio the night before, Alfredo was once again late this time by 15 minutes and we were not amused. So we left after 8:15 am and then had a long journey but fairly interesting scenery for 3/4 of the way going up and down the ridges of the Andes.
The only options for lunch were at 11 am or to wait until 3 pm and we chose the latter. So we lunched in a Spanish colonial house at 3 pm, just 15 minutes away from our destination. We thoroughly enjoyed this lunch of rice with duck, sharing a platter between us and the passion fruit juice was delicious.
We took our farewell from Julio and David reminded him of the 32 Soles that he owed him: was this a memory mistake or a scam?
La Casa Andina, our hotel in Chiclayo, was very large and still in the town, not what I had expected. But we had a junior suite on the top floor, a tad faded, but quite spacious and agreeable. I went for a swim in the round swimming pool that was viewable from our window. We then had a rum and Coke in the room and later went down for a Pisco sour at 7:30. We sat outside the restaurant with a noisy Spanish group rather too close to us but we really enjoyed it and had a pizza too.
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