El Chorro de Giron

On Saturday we went to El Chorro. This is a place in the mountains with 3 large waterfalls. There are trails to the bottom of each waterfall. We went to the first and the second. The hike to the first one was pretty simple, one part up hill where you had to pull yourself up with your arms, but not too difficult.

Then we ate lunch. After this we set out to the second waterfall. The hike to this one is a bit different. We had a guide and we started out on the path to the falls. We got about half way and the guide noted the path was closed. So we went a different way. We hiked up the mountain through some very steep areas (my legs got very tired, very fast) for about 1 hour or more. We got to a place where we could see the falls, but we could not go any further and we were not close to it. This was a bit disappointing. Our guide tried 3 or 4 different trails to see if we could get to the falls from where we were, but no luck. So we turned around. On our way back, we walked past a cow pasture. The original path was on the other side of this pasture. Our guide, with some encouragement from our group, decided we could walk across this pasture and catch the original path which would lead to the falls. So we did. The problem with this was we had already hiked up the mountain for over one hour and this path would be close to one hour as well. This was a more difficult hike. At times we had to pull ourselves up with our arms, using tree roots or rocks. We made it to the second waterfall and it was worth it. It was beautiful.



In the photo to the left (with the waterfall in the distance) is of the second waterfall. You can see our path up the mountain. It is the lighter colored line in the middle of the photo closer to the bottom. After we hiked up that path, we hiked through the forest to the bottom of the falls.

The hike back to the car was a bit more interesting than the hike up the mountain. Those of you are hike in mountains, you know this, it is more difficult to go down than it is to go up. I did not fall this time, but I did slide down several times and I did sit down on purpose several times to slide down on my bottom (this was an easier way to go). Thankfully it was not raining, nor had it rained in several days, so the ground was dry. I am not sure I would have been able to maintain my balance if there had been mud.

The next day, my legs and arms were very sore. They still are a little (3 days later). But it was all worth it.

There are so many beautiful places like this one in Ecuador. Ecuador is a beautiful country with so much to offer in the way of scenery. I hope many of you get the chance to visit this beautiful place some day.