Las Cascadas

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Las Cascadas

Las Cascadas (or the waterfalls) is a small town on the eastern shore of Lago Llanquihue named for the beautiful waterfall that comes spilling over the side of Volcan Osorno. When you drive into town you take the only road going east and drive 3 km back into the forest on a dirt road to this small privately owned park. Entrance fee is voluntary. There is a bathroom which is 200 pesos to use and sometimes a small snack bar is open during the tourist season. The hike up to the waterfall is an easy 30 minute walk. The only harrowing part of the walk is the little log and wood bridges which cross over the river but these have been recently updated and are a little safer.

All the bridges are the homemade variety

Not handicap accesible!

The river runs through a gorge with steep sides covered in bamboo and nalca which is the big leaves you can see here

Some of the path skirts the river which in the winter can be high so you may have to wade through the water

A log bridge which is one of the strudier bridges

The waterfall must be about 100+ feet

Here is Andrew walking behind the waterfall

He got quite wet and cold

It was a warm day in the 70's but in the gorge next to the waterfall it was very cool and started to rain on and off from all the water in the air and the rumble of the water falling is quite loud

Very impressive!