About Salto Curet
Salto Curet is a secluded and off-the-beaten-path waterfall near the mountain town of Maricao at the western end of the famed Ruta Panoramica, which itself is a mountainous road cutting across the spine of Puerto Rico.
Because of its relatively remote location away from most of the tourist traffic further to the north and to the east, it almost felt like our own private waterfall.
Well, at least it felt that way during our April 2022 morning visit as it happened the day after Easter Sunday, which marked the end of Semana Santa (or Easter Week).
Salto Curet basically had an impressive 10-15m main drop spilling right into a large plunge pool (charco) that seemed perfect for a refreshing swim (which is a big deal in Puerto Rico).
This waterfall also had some hidden upper sections that we kind of spotted from the fringes of the plunge pool, but I’d imagine you’d need a drone to really appreciate such hidden tiers without the foliage getting in the way.
For such a secluded waterfall, this was a surprisingly easy waterfall to visit (physically speaking) as the only catch was that we had to be willing to get our feet wet.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning that the access road to get to Salto Curet was deteriorating.
As a result, we opted to park at a spot where we didn’t feel comfortable proceeding any further without a 4×4 vehicle (see directions below).
Indeed, we had to walk the last 3/4-mile of the access road, which involved crossing two short river fords before reaching a residence with some welcoming signs for Salto Curet at the end.
From there, we then waded further upstream on the Río Lajas (or Lajas River) for another 1/4-mile or so before reaching the large plunge pool fronting the impressive Salto Curet Waterfall.
Aside from some hills to walk on the 4wd road, it was a mostly flat walk that Julie and Tahia didn’t have too much trouble with though we did have to watch out for slippery footing on the rocky sections within the river itself.
Overall, we spent about 2 hours away from the car to cover the roughly 2-mile round-trip distance.
However, I’d imagine that if you came well-equipped with a 4wd (I’d imagine most people aren’t), then you could drive all the way to the residence and reduce the amount of hiking by 75%.
Authorities
Salto Curet resides in the municipality of Maricao, which is near Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Parking and access to this waterfall is on private property. From what I could tell, there is no official website nor Instagram page so you may not be able to know the current conditions without actually going there yourself.
I’ll describe the driving directions from Mayaguez to the west since that’s how we did it (though I’d imagine you could also access this waterfall from the south by Sabana Grande).
From Mayaguez, we left the busy PR-2 and took the PR-65 road around the north end of the city before heading onto the PR-106.
As the PR-106 went into the mountainous twist and turns leading towards the town of Maricao, we followed this road for a little over 8 miles before deviating from the PR-106 for the PR-119 due south.
After about another 2 miles going south on the PR-119, we then turned left to go east on the PR-357 (we could have also gone further south to take the PR-105 east), which ultimately reached the town of Maricao after about 4 miles.
Continuing east on the PR-105 from the town of Maricao, we then followed this road over 2 miles before crossing over a bridge and intersecting with the PR-425.
Right after the bridge, we turned right to go south on the PR-425, which gradually deteriorated into ruts and potholes, and after about a mile, we’d eventually park the car next to a shipping container at the top of a hill.
The road deteriorated too much for me to feel comfortable to proceed any further, and it was here that we decided to walk the rest of the way.
Overall, this drive took us on the order of a little over an hour (even though we didn’t really go that far distance-wise).
If you’re going north from Sabana Grande, then you’d want to drive north on the PR-120 before joining up with the PR-105 near Maricao.
Then, you can follow the directions as given above to go east of Maricao and eventually arrive at the starting point for Salto Curet.
Overall, Mayaguez was about 26km (under an hour drive) west of Maricao, about 29km (roughly 30 minutes drive) south of Aguadilla, about 29km (under 30 minutes drive) northwest of Sabana Grande, around 75km (an hour drive) northwest of Ponce, and about 158km (over 2 hours drive) west of San Juan.
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Right to left then up and down sweep across the plunge pool and waterfall respectively
Clearer downstream to upstream sweep of the falls then panning and showing the hidden upper tier of Salto Curet
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