Juayua is a decent sized village high in the mountains of El Salvador surrounded by coffee plantations. The chill in the air was a welcome change from scorching heat of El Tunco, as was the ambiance. While the tourism industry flourishes, almost to a fault, in El Tunco, it has barely touched Juayua. There are only a hand full of nearly empty hostels and hotels, and nary a gringo to be found. This was actually one of my favorite aspects of El Salvador. Aside from El Tunco, nearly every other place we visited in El Salvador was off the beaten path of the well traveled Gringo Trail.

After settling in at Hotel Anahuac and swaying in the courtyard hammocks for a bit, we booked a hike to explore Juayuah’s main attraction, Siete Cascadas (for the Spanish impaired, that means 7 waterfalls). What I was expecting was a leisurely stroll through the woods with some viewpoints to look at the waterfalls. What we got was something completely different. The path, if you want to call it that, was actually just very narrow walkways that the farmers used to tend to the coffee plants on the hillside. One misstep and you were in for a good tumble. Thankfully we had a guide, otherwise I would have lost the trail, and likely some blood from the randomly interspersed barb wire right around neck high. After a while we arrived to the top of the first waterfall. Great, looks cool, now let’s backtrack to look at the rest. Nope, not today. At this point the guide unfurls a rope, attaches it to a tree and throws it down the waterfall. Only one way down from here. The guide goes down first, showing us where to put our hands and feet as the water rushes over us. After we finish one length of rope, he climbs back up, retrieves the rope, and climbs down to us where we repeat the process several more times until we reach the bottom of the falls. I had to wonder how many people had taken a watery fall to their deaths, or at least severe injury, on these treks. It couldn’t have been insignificant. When we booked it, there was no waiver, no warning, or even an explanation of what was in store for us. This would certainly not fly back home, and for this reason I loved it. If it was over regulated, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Once we got to the bottom, it was a leisurely stroll through the bottom of a misty jungle canyon, surrounded on all sides as water slowly cascaded down the glistening rock walls. But, what comes down must go up, luckily not through the waterfalls this time. We closed out the hike traversing our way up through the coffee plantations with gorgeous views of mountains all around us.

I set out on this hike with zero knowledge or expectation of what was in store for us, and for this I am grateful. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.