On the fourth day of our visit to Villa Estrella, Ismael organized a wonderful excursion to the El Cora Waterfall. The driver arrived at the arranged time and was very courteous. The drive to the waterfall was a beautiful trip through the Mexican jungle, every so often spotting the ocean from a cliff-top advantage courtesy of the Sierra Madre mountains before turning inland at El Llano toward Tepic and the waterfall.
The falls are about a 30 minute drive from Villa Estrella, driving north along the coast road toward San Blas and then taking the inland fork toward Tepic for another 15 minutes until the village of El Cora.
The lush forest was like something out of a movie. Our guide explained that we were going to walk down a gully to the waterfall and informed us about the area and the habitat we were to visit. We parked and then debarked for our short hike down to the waterfall.
The first thing to hit us was the view; such a magnificent landscape awaited us. It was a warm day, but there was a nice breeze that kept us energized and ready to take in the trek. The walk down was a nice stroll, not too steep, but also worthy of the term, ‘hike’. As we strolled, we took in the amazing vegetation and sounds of the birds in the trees (all the while thinking, I hope this was worth the drive). I was very soon eating my words (or thoughts) as we came to the impressive El Cora Waterfall.
The falls were not massive, but extremely picturesque and set a wonderful canvas of contrasting greens of the trees against the grey-blue of the water. I’m happy we remembered our swim gear (as I’m prone to forget important items on big trips). The water was so refreshing after the road trip up and the subsequent walk. We knew many people had been here before but the setting was so intimate and romantic that everyone has a chance to make it their own. I could definitely see someone proposing here (although they’d have to make sure to hold onto the ring as the waterfall basin is fairly deep).
After an hour or so swimming in the falls, we dried off on the side of the pool for a while and then made the trek back to the car. The way up is usually harder than the way down, but we couldn’t stop talking about how spectacular the experience at the falls had been and before we knew it, we were back at the car. The same was true for the car ride as the majority of the drive was spent on discussing how the waterfalls were above and beyond what we had expected.
After arriving back at Villa Estrella, it was time for more of Rosa’s wonderful cooking and then a Del Sol and a dip in the infinity pool. A wonderful end to a phenomenal day!
Written By Carl A., Villa Estrella Guest, January 2010
