About Catarata de Yumbilla
Catarata de Yumbilla was a thin 890m waterfall plunging in several tiers.
Although it was said to be taller than Catarata Gocta, we were only able to see about 600m of its overall drop.
Its volume was also much less in comparison so that made us doubt that it would last year-round.
In order access this waterfall, we needed to hire a local guide to not only support the economy here, but also to avoid getting lost or trespassing as the paths were unmarked.
The guided hike was along a very muddy uphill trail for about 1.5-hours from the small town of Cuispes.
The trail ultimately led us to a mirador (viewpoint) of the waterfall (see photo above).
From the town, we had to hike between quite a few residences and even one aggressive dog that nearly bit our guide.
We would then go through what looked like someone’s farm before we finally joined up with the trail leading us to Yumbilla.
Along the trail, our guide showed us a rock with some fossilized sea shells on them (similar to what we’d eventually find on the Gocta Trail).
Other than that, the rest of the hike provided us some panoramas of rolling hills as we looked north, but there really wasn’t much else to say about this hike.
The muddy and humid conditions were a bit difficult for us because apparently the area received some pretty heavy rains prior to our visit.
Thus, the ground was saturated with water so the trail was a bit slow going.
That played a big role in our decision to not go the extra hour (each way) to the base of the falls from the spot where we got the view you see at the top of this page.
Had we done it, the entire round-trip time commitment would have been on the order of about 5 hours.
Authorities
Catarata de Yumbilla resides near Chachapoyas in the Amazonas Department of Peru. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try to visit their website.
It took us about 2 hours to drive from Pomacochas to Cuispes via Pedro Ruiz.
However, some of that time was spent in the town of Pedro Ruiz to stock up on lunch and also to wait for a local guide in Cuispes.
So in actuality, we probably only spent about 60-90 minutes on the road to get here.
Since we were guided, I can’t provide exact directions, but our hike began from the village center in Cuispes.
For context, Pomacochas was 272km northwest of Tarapoto. Tarapoto was an hour flight from Lima, or 3 hours flight from Cusco.
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