7 Waterfalls Tour El Salvador – Video Ep. 11

| by Aracely | 27 Comments » | Central America, El Salvador, Travel Videos

When we decided to begin our journey in Central America, El Salvador was the country we decided to avoid. The decision was not based on any specific reason, we simply preferred a more direct route south and planned to travel from Guatemala to Honduras to Nicaragua and onwards. However, with Honduras’ political instability, which was causing some border issues, we decided to take a detour through El Salvador instead.

Juayúa, El Salvador

Small towns and villages in El Salvador surprised us with their cleanliness, friendly people and active community events. Juayúa was the highlight with its weekend food festival, colorful street buildings and amazing surrounding landscapes and towns. If you enjoy coffee plantations, Juayua is a great base to visit nearby towns to tour and taste coffee beans.

Hostels in Juayúa

Hostels in El Salvador

Hotel Anáhuac in Juayua, El Salvador

Our style of travel thus far has been extremely spontaneous; we do the research of where we are going the day before we get there. It has worked out well so far. As usual, we consulted our twitter followers and fellow travelers for their suggestions in El Salvador and they brought us to Hotel Anáhuac in Juayúa (don’t worry I still have some trouble pronouncing that myself). Once again, we’ve found a gem in an unexpected place.

Fotos de El Salvador

Iglesia Juayúa, El Salvador / Juayua Church

Juayúa is located two and half hours from the west coastal Guatemalan border. It’s a small town in the Routa de las Flores (a compilation of picturesque towns) with much local charm and is most widely known for their weekend food fair. The hotel is perfect: it’s very clean, has a gorgeous open courtyard filled with tropical plants, and the walls of the room display varying local art. Anáhuac also provides walking and adventure tours to neighboring natural attractions, one of them was the 7 Waterfalls, which we eagerly signed up for.

7 Waterfalls Tour

Nature Pictures

7 Waterfalls Tour in Juayua, El Salvador

Our guide, Mario, met us at Hotel Anáhuac at eight in the morning. He led us through the empty Spanish streets of town towards its outskirts where we would begin to find our way into the thick forest. Before the hike began we stopped at Mario’s house which was at the foot of our hike. Mario and his family live in a small structure built with metal roofing and wooden logs. His brother and five dogs accompanied us on our trek.

Coffee Plantations

As we made our way up the path to 7 Waterfalls Mario explained the different plants and vegetation. During our hike we encountered large El Salvador coffee plantations where we learned about cultivating coffee and how elevation increases a coffee’s grade. Mario told us that most of El Salvador’s high quality coffee is exported elsewhere in the world. Only the lowest grade of coffee stays in the country.
Previous hikes have had at a minimum wooden steps or rock laid into steps to reduce difficulty and risks. On this hike not one single portion of the trail is built up and it’s not well maintained. There are large branches to climb over, thorn filled trees to duck under, rivers to cross, rocks to hop over, and waterfalls to repel down from. The reward was majestic views of nature in its purest form.

Waterfall Nature Pictures

El Salvador

Chorros de Calera - 7 Waterfalls Tour

Once we arrived at the top of the mountain there was yet another large wall of waterfalls that fed a pool of fresh water where we swam. This area was popular for the locals to picnic, however we never passed any along our hike. We assume they take a different trek. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of trash around the swimming area. Mario explained the cultural challenge of changing this problematic behavior. Of course, since Mario benefits from tourism in El Salvador directly, he is able to see the benefit of a cleaner environment. We all enjoyed fresh sandwiches filled with tomatoes, onions, avocado, eggs and salt and pepper. They were probably some of the most refreshing simple subs we have ever had.

Ultimate Adventure Tour

Fotos de El Salvador

Stick Insect Landed on My Hand

As we ate, the local families were jumping from rocky cliffs into the water. Jason eyed the possibility of jumping from the waterfall. Mario escorted him up to a rock that stood out slightly from the wall. He jumped and softly hit the sand in the bottom of the pool. It was only about 9-10ft deep and the area that was safe to jump in was considerably small. Next, Mario climbed another 2.5 meters up the wall and dove head first into the shallow pool. As he entered the water he curled his body immediately to avoid being paralyzed. It was very impressive.

Water Channel Tunnels

Videos de El Salvador

Mario Taking Our Portrait With the Largest Waterfall

Along the hike Mario also explained to us that there were tunnels or caves we could explore. Once at the pools we realized they were man made tunnels bored for sending the water to a hydro station. At first I was up for it, but when we got to the opening of the tunnel and I watched Mario go in first, I decided to back out. It was very dark, the water came to his shoulders and there was hardly any head room. I knew Jason wanted to do it; I told him I would wait for them at the opening. After they returned and heard about their adventure, I was jealous.

Just as we began to pack up for our return, clouds rushed into the valley at our elevation and suddenly we were engulfed in clouds full of mist. The scene of the clouds squeezing into the valley seemed very Jurasic Park. It wasn’t a slow process, the clouds came in fast at five miles per hour. I still carry this scene in my mind. We could hear heavy rain hitting the leaves of all the trees in the valley, but we didn’t see or feel any on us. I can only assume it was raining below. We arrived back at Mario’s home where he changed again into jeans and a clean shirt to walk us back through town to our hostel. You won’t find any locals wearing shorts in the streets of El Salvador. The rain did catch up to us during our walk back through town, but it felt simply refreshing.

A Challenging Hike

Although we’ve already been on a few hikes during this trip, the hike to the 7 Waterfalls in Juayua was still unique due to its primitive trails, abundance of rivers and waterfalls and varying terrain. The trek was not difficult from an endurance perspective, but it was a hike that required a lot of focus and caution. It’s muddy, wet, slippery, itchy and wonderfully adventurous. Juayua is a must see in El Salvador, and the 7 Waterfalls hike is their hidden gem.

Fotos de El Salvador

Weekend Festival in Juayua, El Salvador

How Can You Help?

When Mario isn’t conducting tours to the Seven Waterfalls he is looking for work doing odd jobs in construction, harvesting and anything else he can find. We kept him busy over the next few days, since we highly recommended the tour to every traveler that wandered into the hostel. We booked the tour through the hostel, but you can book the 7 waterfalls tour by contacting Mario’s family directly, providing his family greater income. If you plan to book directly, then please send an email well in advance (doesn’t have access to a computer daily) to douglas.martinez1203(at)gmail.com. I set up an email account for them and taught them how to access their mail. Mario and his brothers William and Douglas were the kindest of people and we encourage you to enjoy their tours and friendship. They speak Spanish only, so please email in Spanish as well.

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Written by Aracely

Co-founder of TwoBackpackers.com. Aracely has been traveling, writing and taking photos since 2024, when she departed on his first year long travel backpacking journey. When she isn't seeking new adventures, Aracely is usually building Excel models as a financial analyst professional. Visit my website

27 Responses to “7 Waterfalls Tour El Salvador – Video Ep. 11”

  1. Pete says:

    Great video, those waterfalls are stunning. I love that the hike is left in its natural state and that it is not maintained. These are the hikes that seem most rewarding and this one certainly looked challenging. The corn plants are cool too. Very interesting how they block the wind to protect the coffee plants. It’s unfortunate to hear about the trash around the falls, but it seems that it is a common thing in CA. We are constantly picking up trash on our beach from the locals, and hoping that one day they realize the impact they are making by leaving it all around. Great post, I will definitely try and make it here. Cheers!

    • Jason says:

      It is an exciting day hike to do, and mostly because of it’s natural state. But, this also did contribute to its difficulty. Well worth it.

  2. Loving the pictures and the story. Will definitely keep this hike in mind (with a name like ’7 waterfalls’ it might not be that hard to remember) for when we’re in El Salvador.

  3. I have a soft spot in my heart for waterfalls. When I hear “waterfall” I think “how can I see it!?!” So while we really don’t have any plans to visit El Salvador in the near future, that might need to change. ;)

    • Jason says:

      I have the same problem. In this video I say, “These are the most beautiful waterfalls I have every seen.” Aracely points out to me that I say every time I see a waterfall. It’s true, I do say that.

  4. Anthony says:

    Great to see you guys are back with a new video. Looking forward to seeing more!

    • Jason says:

      I know, it’s been a terribly long time. Aracely has been pressuring me to get them out. I was going to wait for the new website design, but that is taking longer than expected too.

  5. Dave says:

    I like the new introduction, and end credits. I’ve jumped from a few waterfalls, but the higher one the local did looked super sketchy!

    • Jason says:

      Glad you enjoyed it Dave. Right now we have 3 different intros that we alternate in each video. Currently in the process of updating all the old video posts with the newly edited videos.

  6. carole levinger says:

    could almost feel the water spray and thought the info about the plants interesting also pics of wildlife. the print part is also interesting and colorful… Nice job… Miss hearing Jason’s choice of background music but understand copyright issues.

  7. Great video! I love adventure travel and you two are definitely adventurous! Sorry about the bruise on your foot. I hope it healed nicely. This makes me want to climb a waterfall now!

  8. “…the one spot where survival is possible.” Love it…glad you made it into that spot!

    And great vid! Looks like an awesome place!

    • Jason says:

      A little dramatic right? I was trying to remember back to how scared I was and that I didn’t speak Spanish. I could only assume I was to jump to where I could see white sand below. Everything else was rocks. What was most frightening was that I couldn’t ever get good footing on the moss covered rocks. As soon as I let go from behind I just jumped for fear that I would end up falling. It was a great adventure, but a crazy one there at the end.

  9. Ruth says:

    I have been to Juayua like 5 times and have never been able to go to the Chorros de la Calera. I tried to do once but locals told me I needed a guide for security reasons. I need to contact the guy who guide you.

    • Jason says:

      It’s a great day hike Ruth. It’s challenging, but worth it. They guys were wonderful, but do speak Spanish only. They actually live in forest, so they know it very well.

  10. Valerie says:

    I am absolutely amazed at your video editing skills!

    And what a beautiful location.

    • Jason says:

      Thanks Valerie, it’s much appreciated. We love doing videos… more than anything else. I wish you great success putting together your new travel blog.

  11. Wendy says:

    Love the video! Can’t wait to see more! The new introduction sequence looks good.

  12. Great video! We didn’t tour all seven of the waterfalls, as we did not have a guide and at some point it just got too slippery for us, so we turned around. I think one of the dogs that accompanied your hike also joined us on our tour ;-)

    • Jason says:

      Yes, very, very slippery. We are working on the Juayua weekend food festival video now. We tried to make that one adventurous by finding some armadillo to eat, but unfortunately we never found any.

  13. Looks like one great destination to visit. Great photos.

  14. JB says:

    I stayed at the same hostel and it was one of my favorites for all of Central America. It was also really easy to meet other travelers there (not sure why, but some hostels simply are better that way though you can’t point to any specific reasons why in general). Also did the waterfall tour with Mario and had a great experience. And, LOVED the weekend food festival. The only negative was that the food stops being served quite early and I wasn’t hungry after a big lunch in time for an early dinner!

    I would also point out the great amount of street art to be found in Juayua and surrounding towns along the ruta de las flores.

  15. Normand says:

    I just love your videos. They are fully original not too long not too short. Really enjoy watching these. And it makes me dreams of my own departure for latin america.

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