Cascada de Tamul 3 of 3 tourist stops (on the road to Valle de Bravo)

This is our last tourist stop on our way to Valle de bravo. The waterfall “Cascada de Tamul” is 105 meters tall and plunges into a different river “Rio Santa Maria”. It is the highest waterfall in the state of San Luis Potosi and one of the most beautiful in Mexico, for its height and its famously crystalline turquoise water. It is worth a visit, but go early in the morning to beat the crowds.

To get to Cascada de Tamul you have to take a boat (called a panga). We got to the tourist place at the river were there was plenty of panga’s laying in the water.

A panga has room for 23 persons, the rent is 800 pesos, but the minimum price is 100 pesos person. So if you don’t want to be stock in a crowded boat, then join a party of 8 people. We signed up on at list, because we wanted to wait until there was a party of 6-8 people. We were told, that they would come and get us, when other people showed up. Nothing really happen, but an hour later a Mexican couple stopped by our tent and asked if we wanted to go with them. We said “YES” and before we were ready there was 9 people ready to go on the panga. So we paid 100 pesos per person .

It was warm and humid, so it was great to be on the water… participating in the water fights with all the other panga’s

As far as we know the boats are owned by different people (two per boat). The owners row the boat (they like you to row too) and they are also your tour guides. The guides in our boat was really boring, they rowed all they could and stayed away from most of the other panga’s. It felt like they just wanted the trip to be over as fast as possible. No tips for the guides/crew. When we finally got to Cascada de Tamul, there was already 8-10 boats waiting to get up on the rock, all to get their picture taken with Cascada de Tamul in the background.

Everything went by the Mexican chaos system, and we got up on the rock. It is amazing how many people you can put on a rock in the middle of the river.

We did get the picture with Cascada de Tamul in the background and almost without any tourist in the picture! (The tour does not go closer to the waterfall)

Catching a picture of Cascada de Tamul in Esben’s sunglasses

On the way back we stopped a some kind of cenote (A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath). There were a lot of other boats (left picture), and when we got to the cenote people were standing in line just to get into the water.

The trip on the river is beautiful, and even in the dry season the waterfall is beautiful. I can’t imagine how big the waterfall will be during and after the rain season. This is our advices after visiting Cascada de Tamul:

1. Find other people to go with. Look for other people and ask them if they want to go with you.
2. Ask for guides, who want to have a party on the river.
3. Go early in the morning so you beat the crowds.
4. Bring a good lunch, water/soda and snacks.

On the panga trip to Cascada de Tamul we got really tired of all the tourists. We know that we are tourists too, so at the same time we were tired of feeling like tourists. It is time for a little change, so the next morning we packed the motorcycles and headed for Valle de Bravo.

We did get an early start… but, did we make it all the way to Valle de Bravo that day?

“NO” – we knew that it would be at long day on the motorcycles. But first we hit a lot of traffic and combined with a great twisted and curved road (Highway 85, left picture), we were not putting enough miles behind us.

At lunchtime we decided to camp on the way to Valle de Bravo – we were not gonna make it

Because we changed our plans and our lack of attention, the GPS lead us through a town on the way to the campground. Over what felt like hundreds of speed bumps and through the afternoon traffic, we had been sitting more than 8 hours on the motorcycles and we were done…