Chachapoyas is a small town in northern Peru, relatively off the main tourist path, and my last stop in Peru before crossing the border into Ecuador.
Its popularity on the tourist circuit is growing mainly for being a good base for the Kuélap ruins, northern Peru’s Machu Picchu, and Gocta waterfall, which is on the list of the highest waterfalls in the world. Both places were on my list to visit when in Chachapoyas!
Swapping snow-capped mountains and high altitude in Huaraz for warmer jungle vibes in Chachapoyas felt strange but nice. Here’s what I got up to…
Gocta waterfall
The Gocta waterfall, made up of two falls: the first at 231m and the second at 540m, is a whopping 771m high! To visit them you can either go with a tour or independently.
With a tour, you’re looking at paying 45-50 soles (£10-12 approx). This will include transport, guide and sometimes lunch and entrance fee.
Going independently
Going independently is cheaper (30 soles – £8 approx), but really not by much. For me, it was all about the freedom that going independently brought me.
To get to Gocta, I caught a colectivo (5 soles), heading to Pedro Ruiz, and got off at Cocahuayco where there were mototaxis waiting to take you up the hill to Cocachimba.
Mototaxis cost 5 soles per person. If there’s only one of you, they will up the price – I didn’t know this and was told 10 soles by my driver. I decided to wait until someone else came along to share the ride with. Around 15mins later, no one else had come but another driver said he’d take me up. I got my own bumpy mototaxi experience.
In Cocachimba, there is an office where you register and pay the 10 soles (£2.50 approx) entrance fee for the falls. It’s also a good place to ask about the trails. There are two options. The first is the shorter of the two and the one the tours do. It’s a 5.5km walk from Cocachimba to the base of the second fall and returns the same way, taking 2.5hrs approx one way.
The second option is the long extended one. The first part of the walk to the base of the falls is the same. It’s the return journey which is different. You cross a bridge and walk up the steep other side of the valley to multiple other viewpoints and go to the first waterfall as well. You return to the town of San Pablo instead.
You can also do this starting the other way, San Pablo to Cocachimba.
I met a Spanish girl and Finnish guy who were also doing the walk themselves and were doing the longer route. I’d been planning on doing the shorter one, however we walked the first part quicker than expected, 1hr15, so I decided to join them for the longer route.
Getting close to the Gocta waterfalls is cool, they are impressively tall and as you get closer to the base the spray and cold air hits you. I got a refreshing mini shower and was way more cautious with my phone this time around. I didn’t fancy a repeat of Iguazu Falls (phone soaked, not charging, put in rice etc…)
From the base, you can’t see the first waterfall. To do so you need to do the longer route. It was a steep hot and sweaty uphill climb for about an hour (if you’re starting in San Pablo, you’ll be going down). I was super glad when we reached the top.
Once on the main path, we followed it right up to the first waterfall, which although isn’t as tall as the second is still impressive!
It was then just over an 1hr30 walk back to the town of San Pablo. Now we’d seen both waterfalls, this part felt more of a slog tired legs and all!
Back in San Pablo, we got a moto taxi from the main square down to the main road and only had to wait 5mins for a colectivo to pick us up.
It was a good long day of walking, it’s hard to say but I think we walked around 17km. The waterfalls were worth it!
Kuélap
Sat on a mountaintop at 3000m lies the ruins of Kuélap, a citadel built by the Chachapoyas in the 6th century.
Visiting Kuélap can be done with a tour or independently. A tour costs around 80 soles (£20 approx) and includes transport, cable car, entrance fee and guide. Lunch is sometimes included but also often not.
Going independently is cheaper (again not by much: total 64 soles – £15 approx – as opposed to 80 soles with a tour) and for me once again about the freedom and doing it in my own time.
To get to Kuélap independently, I first caught a colectivo to Nuevo Tingo (7 soles – £1.50 approx) from the colectivo Terminal Terrestre. Sometimes you get lucky with colectivos, you arrive and one goes in 5 minutes, other times you have to wait for them to fill.
I had the second experience with Kuélap, waiting 40mins to leave. Once on the road, it took just over an hour and dropped us at the cable car ticket office, which forms the second leg of the journey.
Previously, it was only possible to get to Kuélap by minivan along the windy roads, which added a couple more hours to the journey. Now, the cable car, built in 2018 in a bid by the Peruvian government to encourage more tourism in northern Peru with Kuélap as the focus, the journey is much quicker.
The return trip costs 20.40 soles (£5 approx) and includes a short bus transfer to the cable car. It’s all very smooth and organised! The cable car takes around 20mins and goes steeply down the valley and up the other side. They run from 8am-5pm and the last cable car down is at 3.30pm.
I then bought my entrance ticket (30 soles – £7 approx) for Kuélap and walked the 15mins uphill to the ruins entrance.
When wandering around, it’s hard not to compare Kuélap to its much more famous southern counterpart, Machu Picchu, especially when it’s often promoted as northern Peru’s Machu Picchu.
Positioning it as the second Machu Picchu sets expectations and is unfair to Kuélap. It’s almost impossible to see Kuélap without the shadow of Machu Picchu.
Whilst the ruins weren’t as impressive as Machu Picchu (sorry!!), the feeling and atmosphere that I got from Kuélap was intriguing. Although there were conservation works going on, for the most part Kuélap remains untouched.
With ruins overgrown with plants and trees, there is an abandoned feel to it and quite often on my walk around it was just me, surrounded by silence and the wind rustling through the trees. Really mysterious! I loved that part of it!
I spent 1hr30 exploring the ruins, then stopped for lunch on my way down and got the cable car and colectivo back to Chachapoyas, arriving just before 4pm.
I’d recommend going to Kuélap early rather than later for less people. I was there before 11am and the tour groups hadn’t yet arrived which was nice. Also if you’d like a guide, at the entrance you’ll find lots offering their services.
How to get to Chachapoyas
Chachapoyas isn’t the easiest of places to get to. It’s definitely the route less travelled.
That said, flying from Lima is possible as Chachapoyas does have an airport. Flights aren’t daily so you’d need to check the frequency.
The other option is by bus. From Trujillo, Movil buses have a daily bus that leaves at 4pm and arrives the next morning at 6.30am. The journey is around 14hrs and costs 65 soles (£15 approx) for a standard seat (on the second floor) or 85 soles (£20 approx) for a more reclining and wider one (on the ground floor). Seeing as it was a 14hr bus I went with the comfier option.
I also had plenty of time between my night bus to Chachapoyas and the night bus I’d arrived on from Huaraz.
To pass the time, I went to Huanchaco, a small beach town popular with surfers and where I’d originally planned to spend a few days. I’ve now got flights to the Galapagos booked so need to keep moving – Ecuador is calling!
With the hours I had, I ate a lot (banana milkshake, chocolate and banana pancakes, pasta) and watched people learning to surf. It was a great few hours!
Final thoughts
I would have liked more time in northern Peru; however with my flights to the Galapagos booked (eeek!!), I need to get my skates on! Chachapoyas was a lovely stop to get a taste for the jungly lesser explored north.
So impressively tall, Gocta waterfall was my favourite! That’s probably because I’m more of a nature lover over ruins – I gravitate to amazing landscapes!
I also enjoyed Kuélap and particularly loved the feeling and atmosphere enveloping the place!
If you’re heading north, Chachapoyas is worth a stop, especially if you’re next stop is Ecuador and Vilcabamba. Although still a long bus ride, La Balsa was the easiest border crossing I’ve done in ages!
