Hiking in Shilcayo Natural reserve park

The valley of the Shilcayo river is an incredible place. The surrounding mountains, the river, the forests, the wildlife. Simply amazing.

The entrance of the park can be easily reached from the city, either by a one hour walk or by Motocar (Around 20 Sol, could be less if you can negotiate but I think that’s a reasonable price) Before you reach the entrance you already have a nice surrounding and if you feel like it you can already jump into the river to cool yourself down.

The failed attempt

When I first came here I wanted to walk up to the Tamushal Waterfall, but I underestimated the difficulty of the hike and it wasn’t possible to reach it in time. I was practically running for an hour and still couldn’t make it half of the way.

Second Attempt

On the next day two people joined me from the hostel to visit the waterfall. This time we left a bit earlier and we took a motokar instead of walking, and during the hike at some point we were still close to call it off.

The hike is extremely difficult. We have to cross the river multiple times, we go up and down very steep paths and the hardest part is that there are know signs. Every time we crossed the river we had to search where the path continued.

After two hours of walking we had to make a decision. We either give up, or we will be late. (The park closes at 5 and hikers are advised to leave the park until 5)

Well we decided to continue. All together it took us almost 4 hours to reach the waterfall. Some more river crossing, some more up and downs, climbing on huge rocks, but eventually we arrived and it was definitely worth the effort. Since we were late. We were the only one there. We swimmed in the lake under the waterfall, we chilled on the rocks and didn’t care about the time anymore. The only important part was that we had to get back to the entrance before it got dark. Getting lost in the jungle isn’t fun. Not even for me.

On the way back we took a different road. We assumed that it would be easier, but well, it wasn’t. It’s true that we didn’t have to cross the river a hundred times but instead we had to climb up a couple of hundred metres and walk on narrow roads on steep mountainsides. The view was breathtaking though. I loved the whole trip.