Gocta Waterfall — Attraction in San Carlos

Visited 6/6/23. The falls themselves are stunning, however a few other things weren't quite ideal so I'd thought I'd share! The roads to both San Pablo and Cocachimba are closed for roadworks between 8-12:30 & 13:30-17:30, for all cars, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and walkers. The ticket for the bottom of the falls is S/20, not S/10 as on lots of blogs online. (couldn't find a website to check beforehand) Taxi/Tuk-tuk from La Pista to Cocachimba is S/10 per person. We got the last one back to La Pista to Cocachimba at around 18:30. Collectivo to/from Chachapoyas is S/10 per person and takes 40-60mins. Walk from Cocachimba to the falls is 2.5hrs, 2hrs for the way back. Do not eat at the restaurant at La Pista, the junction between the main road and the road to Cocachimba. We were told there was no Menu del Día, only main plates that didn't come with soup, juice or anything else. We had chicken with rice and chips for S/20 each, a rip off but we had no other options. We waited 30mins for our food during which we saw locals get served a menu del día. Overall, if we were to do it again, we would get an earlier bus to arrive at La Pista for 7am, rather than 10am. Get a mototaxi to San Pablo and walk from there to the top of the falls, down to the bottom and back to Cocachimba. Take your own lunch and lots of water and limited places...

Gocta waterfall - both levels without a tour guide From Chachapoyas take a colectivo heading to COCAHUAYCO ( also on route to Pedro ruiz) there will be a turn off to San Pablo where you will begin your hike. I was told that there would be Moto taxis that would take you the 6km to San Pablo for s/.15 however I don't didn't see any there (this might have been because the road was currently under construction 25/6/24/) I managed to hitch hike to San Pablo on a construction truck. From San Pablo you can buy your ticket for s/.30 for both waterfalls. The path is easy to follow and is 6km to the end. You then backtrack 2km to get to the path that leads to the lower level. This part is extremely muddy and slippery- take care. From the turn off the top path it is 2.5km until the lower waterfall. From the lower waterfall it's 5.5km to Cocachimba which involves lots of up and down. Unfortunately the road which joins Cocachimba to Cocahuayco is under construction until 5.30pm every day apart from Sundays when it's open all day ( apparently) so I walked the 5km from Cocachimba to the main road and flagged down a colectivo for Chachapoyas. Hopefully this helps you get there without a tour (which often only go to the...

The waterfall is really amazing! You can also do a more intense hike from San Pablo to Cochachimba or vice versa to see also the first fall. It is 18km and take around 5-6 hours.

If you visit independently, make sure to buy your tickets at the office in Cochachimba, which is across Restaurant La Charapa, before you head to the trailhead.

By November 2023 there were road constructions both at the roads to Cochachimba and San Pablo from Cocahuayco. If you want to visit on your own, you can only access at these hours: Before 8 am, at 10 am, between 12.30 and 1.30 pm after 5.30 pm the roads are open again. Make sure to check on this before going so you don't have to wait at Cocahuayco for hours. They told us, these constructions might continue till May...