vente siete charcos (27 waterfalls)

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Some friends from the capital came up to Santiago and we all took off for 27 waterfalls. I had heard about it, that it was awsome, but it exceeded my expectations by far. The beginning of the trail was in a quiet field of sugar kane. We walked about half a mile to the first charco where there was a little hut with beer and rum and a locker to put your valuables and dry stuff. Looking back, I shouldn't have taken my digital camera because it did get wet. But it still works perfectly, so no harm done.

The first waterfall was small but had a large pool to swim around in and a spot to jump in from about fifty feet above, lots of fun! Then going upstream, in many places the stream was deep that you had to swim and walls of rock on both sides sometimes ten or fifteen feet high. It was so cool. I caught a little snake and one of the girls that came along was totally freaked out with snakes so I didn't get a picture, oh well. The pictures don't do this place justice. A lot of tourists would only go to the first seven, or just hung out at the first pool and watch people swim and jump.

As we were walking back to the car on the trail, some locals were carrying a large pot of rice and beans. The old lady said my friend looked familiar and so he replied "Yeah, I'm your cousin and I'm really hungry!" and she laughed and gave us heaping plates of leftover rice and beans. Score!

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Photos

The first waterfall
Looking down from above. You can see the little hut and some onlookers waiting for the next person to jump.

why is this so fun?
The locals started yelling "Tarzan!" I'll take it as a complement. We had to be careful not to land on swimmers below, so they would yell at us up top to go or stop.

second or third waterfall
in between falls, which most were pretty dinky, there were these pools where we are standing. it dropped off and got deeper after that.

swim or sink
the guid and i took turns holding the camera above the water while we swam with an arm and two legs. these two are doing good. que chevere!

Walls of stone
like something out of a Tolkein book. it felt like we were in a different country.

The Last few falls and pools
That's our guide. it was like five bucks per person, he helped a lot. i think next time though we could do it alone. at his waste and back a hundred feet or so is a pool then a couple more up the way.

up a couple more looking back
look at the rock in the upper left hand corner with the sun on it. that is where the last picture was taken from and i am standing where the white and red shirt kids are up above in the previous photo, gives some perspective

bombs away!
look out below!

Comments

[luke]

salty dog
Hey brice where are all the pics of us slugging down presidents? and by the way how is MI?

[Bryce]

gimme a call you **********************
i'll see what i can pull up from the archives. how was Cuba? Michigan is for whimps.