![]() The new waterfall, dubbed Gocta after an ancient Chachapoyan village, is deep in one of the many blind valleys they inhabited between 8.Īccording to the press release, the government of Peru was hard on the case, promising safe tourist access and basic accommodations, hopefully starting in 2007 (don’t count on it). This high, dry tropical Shangri-La was the domain of the Chachapoyas, a mysterious Andean race that predated the Incas. Who cares? If it was that big and that remote, I just wanted to get there before they bulldozed a road, built the hotels and generally tarted up the place.Īnd so in September, I set off on the most harrowing waterfall side trip of all: an overnight flight from Washington to Lima, a dawn hop to the northern coastal city of Chiclayo and a 12-hour drive over dicey mountain roads to Peru’s impossibly secluded upper Amazon basin. A 250-story waterfall that instantly climbs up on the podium with Venezuela’s Angel Falls and South Africa’s Tugela Falls? How did that avoid the unblinking eye of satellite cartographers? ![]() ![]() But the major landforms were all mapped out long ago. The biggest things they discover these days are new species of beetle and, every now and then, a forgotten cable network. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menuīut the press release that crossed my desk last spring was darned near irresistible: “World’s Third-Highest Waterfall Discovered in Peru.” Howzat? Discovered? The Age of Discovery was ages ago.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |