Cascade El Chorro

After our hike in Cajas National Park on Thursday, we took it easy and just strolled around Cuenca seeing sights around the city. It seemed almost like we were in the U.S. on Saturday because “gringos” seemed to be on every street corner. We met a couple of women walking down the street that were from the U.S.  One had lived in Cuenca for 5 years, and the other for 2 and 1/2 years.  Every high rise building we see we wonder if it is part of “gringolandia,” or where a lot of expats live.

On Monday, we decided to take a trip to see Cascada El Chorro (El Chorro waterfalls). It is near Giron, which is about a 1 hour bus ride from Cuenca. So off we go again to Terminal Terrestre, the main bus terminal in Cuenca. Figuring we needed to purchase a bus ticket to Giron before boarding the bus, we began our search for the vending booth from which we needed to purchase our tickets.   We had to purchase bus tickets prior to boarding the bus on the 2 previous occasions that we have taken a bus. After a short, futile search to find the appropriate vendor, we stopped a security officer and said “Giron” with a lost, puzzled look on our faces. He took us to a turnstile where you have to deposit a dime to go through to board a bus.  We tried to explain to him we were not ready to enter the boarding area yet as we did not have a ticket, and we need to know where to buy a ticket. He then got a worker at the turnstile involved in our discussion, and the worker seemed to understand some English. He was able to relate to us that we don’t need a ticket to go to Giron, we just need to board the bus, and the driver would collect the fee, which was $1 per person. Once again, about the time we think we are starting to understand the process, a curve is thrown at us.

We made it to Giron, and the waterfall is about 4 miles, up a steep hill, from the city.  In Ecuador, there are white trucks with a green stripe on them, and we were told these are rural taxis. As soon as we got off the bus in Giron, we saw one sitting at an intersection. He had his window rolled down and looked at us and said “El Chorro?”  We said yes, and again jumped into a vehicle with a stranger who could speak no English.  We are really starting to get good at that. He took us to the entrance of the waterfalls.

El Chorro falls is a 3-tiered waterfall. We walked about 5 minutes up a short, steep trail to get to the base of the lower falls. The waterfall and surrounding were magnificent and beautiful. It is also possible to hike about another 1.5 hours to get to an upper falls, but with the luck we had at Cajas, we decided not to go any further than the lower falls. Below are some pics of the falls and the surrounding area.

Also, we were able to walk across this swinging bridge.

Just kidding. Most of you know how funny that really is, especially for Lisa.

However, we did decide to hike the 4 miles back down to Giron. We’re glad we hiked down because the scenery was beautiful, and we would not have been able to enjoy it as much in a vehicle. Below are some pics of the scenery and some flowers we got to enjoy.

Our hike took us through a neat little community named Chorro del Carmen. Pics of a church and mission below.

When we got back to Giron there just happened to be a bus pulling up to the bus stop that was heading back to Cuenca, so we hopped on it with no waiting. As Lisa has pointed out several times on this trip, I got lucky again. My job for this trip was to plan some things we could do while here. Well, me not being much of a planner, I really did not have anything planned beforehand. I’m more of the type that likes to leave the slate clean and just “wing it” each day. So far on this trip, I have been lucky and the things that we have decided to do on the spur of the moment have gone smoothly.

We made it back to Cuenca, both hungry. We set out walking from the main bus terminal back to our apartment eyeing every restaurant as we passed. We now tend to prefer the little mom and pop restaurants that have no more than 10 tables in it. We spotted one today that did not have a name on the outside. However, it had a sign out front that showed $2.50 “Almuerzos,” and there were people inside eating. That’s our winning combination, so we ate there. The food was very good, and the drink that was served with our meal tasted similar to tea. I asked the waitress if it was tea (yep, did it in Spanish), and she said no. She then proceeded to tell me in Spanish what the drink was, and out came my deer in the headlights look - no idea what she said. She then got a young girl to come out of the kitchen who could speak a little English, and she told me it was a traditional drink from the Amazon. I still have no idea what we drank today, but it was good. No hallucinations yet🤪