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The Seven Waterfalls, also known as Las Siete Cascadas in Spanish, is a collection of seven beautiful waterfalls in the Ruta de las Flores region of El Salvador.
The waterfalls are visited on a guided hike from the town of Juayua, although ‘hike’ is a generous way of describing it. In reality, it’s more like wading through rivers, scrambling over rocks and scaling 40-metre waterfalls!
This activity is not for the faint of heart, but it was an epic adventure and one of the highlights of our time in El Salvador. The forest was so lush and green, the waterfalls were stunning and there were barely any other people around.
We absolutely loved the experience, and in this guide, we’ll give you an insight into what you can expect from the Seven Waterfalls Hike, information on how to book the tour, what you should wear and bring, and how to get to Juayua.
Quick facts
- 📍 Location: tours leave from the town of Juayua
- 🚶🏾♂️ Guide: required
- 💰 Cost: tours cost between $20 – 25 USD per person
- ⏰ Duration: 4 – 6 hours
- 🥾 Trail length: ~ 4 mi / 6.4 km
- 🔋 Trail difficulty: medium – hard (climbing, scrambling and rappelling)
- 👙 Swimming: yes
About Las Siete Cascadas
The Seven Waterfalls, 7 Waterfalls or Las Siete Cascadas in Spanish is a collection of (you guessed it!) seven waterfalls in the lush Western Highlands of El Salvador.
Located just outside the town of Juayua in the popular Ruta de las Flores region, experiencing the 7 Waterfalls Hike is a fun and exciting adventure and one of the best things we did in El Salvador.
These aren’t just any old waterfalls. You can’t jump in the car and drive to a viewpoint.
You have to take a guided hike with a local, where you’ll wade through rivers, clamber over rocks and at one point, climb up the side of a 40-metre waterfall!
You’ll get soaked and muddy and probably come out with some minor cuts and bruises. It’s not for the faint of heart, and it certainly wouldn’t meet any kind of OHS or safety standards at home in Australia, but we loved every minute of it.
What to expect on the Seven Waterfalls Hike
Getting to the trailhead
Our guide, Edy, met us at our hotel in Juayua (more on organising a guide below), and we walked together to the trailhead. It took about 20 minutes before we reached the edge of the forest.
I know some tours will drive you to the trailhead, but it really wasn’t necessary for us as the walk was flat and easy.
Edy popped into a small local house to grab our gear for the day, ropes and helmets, before we started the real hike!
We left the cobblestone streets for a natural jungle trail and were soon swallowed by the dense green forest. The trail passes by many coffee farms, as this region produces a lot of El Salvador’s coffee.
It wasn’t too long before we picked up two furry friends who chased each other up and down the trails.
After about half an hour the trail disappeared, and we started wading through a shallow river where we got our first view of one of the seven waterfalls!
Waterfall one
The first waterfall was one of my favourites. It was a black rocky cliff with a thin layer of water cascading over it.
There wasn’t a ton of water, and it just trickled down into a very small pool below, but the sheer rock face with moss and greenery was gorgeous.
We couldn’t swim here, but Brayden walked right up to the waterfall and rinsed off in the spray.
Waterfall two
We continued walking up the river, hopping between large boulders and using fallen trees as bridges. The second waterfall wasn’t anything too impressive, it was quite small with little water. Edy told us it is known as the ‘dry waterfall’.
Waterfall three
The forest thinned out and the trail opened up to blue skies above our third waterfall. It was a huge rock wall, tall and wide, with a thin layer of water falling over it.
This waterfall is known as the ‘rainbow waterfall’, when the sunlight hits the thin sheet of water and creates rainbows.
We could walk along the slick and slippery rocks behind the curtain of water and soak up the spray.
I was absolutely loving the style of these waterfalls. They weren’t the biggest or the strongest, but the black rock and the light spray were a gorgeous contrast to the green forest.
Waterfall four
It wasn’t long before we reached the fourth waterfall, and this is where the real fun began!
This waterfall was a lot bigger and stronger than the others, with a thundering river of water falling over tiered rocky ledges.
The trail seemed to end here, and we wondered where we were going next. Edy handed us a helmet each and pointed upwards. We were scaling the waterfall!
I’m not sure of the exact height, but I’ve read it was about 40 metres high.
It was quite easy to climb up, with a rope to use in the steepest sections and lots of natural steps and ledges in the rock. We needed both hands free, and it was slippery in parts, but it was nothing too crazy.
We loved the challenge and the thrill! We were totally soaked at this point as the strong waterfall was splashing and spraying us as we climbed.
Waterfall five
You see waterfall five out to your right, during the climb up waterfall four.
This gorgeous waterfall was in an open canyon, with water pouring down a steep rock wall into a sea of green below.
We didn’t really get close to it, but I thought it was one of the prettiest falls we saw. There were even little pink flowers growing along the side of the fall, which felt fitting for the Ruta de las Flores!
Waterfall six
We had another small climb up the sixth waterfall. It wasn’t as high or steep as the other one, but it was another fun opportunity to get wet!
Waterfall seven
This is where the counting starts getting loose, and I think we saw waterfall seven, eight and maybe even nine in this area!
After the final climb up the previous waterfall, we reached the ridge of the trail and were as high as we would go.
It felt like we hit a wall with different mini waterfalls everywhere you looked. The water was actually pouring from gaps in the rock, rather than from a river which was really interesting.
The slick rocky wall was covered in a sea of green vines and there was water flowing from every angle!
Edy showed us a cute little carving someone had done into the rock (I think it looks like a pig, what do you think?), where a stream of water was pouring out like a tap. Apparently, this natural water source constantly flows and it’s eroded the rocks below. Edy scooped up some mineral-rich mud which we lathered on our skin.
We also got some gorgeous elevated views over the forest from this point, and spotted waterfall four (I think?) in the distance, that we had scaled!
Los Chorros de la Calera
The final part of the hike led us to Los Chorros de la Calera.
These waterfalls are also accessible directly from town, with only a short walk, so it’s a popular spot for locals and families to visit without a challenging hike.
They are the biggest waterfalls, with a large manmade pool below where you can properly swim around, and even jump in.
There were two sets of chorros (meaning jets in English). The first was smaller, with a shallower pool, but the second set had a huge deep pool and was the most impressive waterfall of the day.
The waterfall was so pretty! It isn’t big in terms of height, but it spans vertically. Water rushes down the rocky cliff face dripping with greenery, I couldn’t get enough of the view!
The water was cold but refreshing, nothing like the steaming thermal waters we encountered at another waterfall in the area, Salto de Malacatiupan.
Edy prepared our lunch, and we enjoyed some delicious sandwiches.
If you’re travelling through Central America for any length of time, you’ll know good bread is hard to come by. These mini French-style baguettes were the best bread we had tasted in months! Although simple, with just boiled eggs and some vegetables, it was so tasty. Edy also cracked open a fresh watermelon and had some aguas frescas for us too.
Picnic lunches in a beautiful spot after a hike are always my favourite. Somehow the two doggies who were with us on the trail earlier appeared again (don’t worry, they didn’t scale the waterfall), and of course, we had to share our lunch with them too.
🥖 We found out where the baguettes were from! Panaderia Vicky’s in Juayua. It’s just a hole in the wall at the front of a local lady’s house, and she only makes these mini baguettes, but damn they are good. We went every day for the final few days of our time on the Ruta de las Flores and picked up dozens of rolls at 10 cents a pop for our lunches!
Back to Juayua
After we finished lunch and had a final swim in the waterfall, we started the walk back to Juayua.
I was completely oblivious to the trails and which direction we had come from. We tend to do that when we’ve got a guide and don’t need to navigate, but we weren’t too far from where we had started.
Edy dropped us back at our hotel and we said goodbye after an amazing adventure. All up, we were out for around 4.5 hours.
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Do you need a guide?
As I’m sure you might be able to tell, you definitely need a guide for the 7 Waterfalls Hike.
We always prefer to do things independently and internally cringe when we read we have to take a guided tour, but I promise this one doesn’t feel kitschy or boring or anything like that!
Salvadorans are the kindest and warmest people and it was actually a great reason to spend the day interacting with a local and getting to know about their culture and society. In addition to being able to do an epic hike in a gorgeous place, that we wouldn’t have been able to do ourselves.
The trails aren’t marked or obvious to find. And there’s no way you would be able to work out where and how to scale the waterfalls without a local expert who’s got helmets and ropes for you and has also done it dozens of times!
However, the other very important reason that you need a guide for this hike, is that a lot of it is on private property. As is common all over Latin America, a lot of natural attractions are on private land, and we encountered a lot of fences and gates.
The local guides (presumably?) have permission to access the private land, and some have keys to the gates so the tour groups can get in each day. You shouldn’t be wandering around on private property without a local guide who knows what’s going on and can speak with the landowners if need be.
Organising your tour
Any accommodation around Juayua or neighbouring towns can organise a guided tour for you.
We were staying at Hotel Anahuac in Juayua (the best hotel on the Ruta de las Flores!) and we booked the tour with them.
We paid $20 USD per person, and it was just Brayden and I.
They work with several local guides and organised for Edy to take us. He was one of the kindest people we met in El Salvador and we thoroughly enjoyed our day together. He was super patient practising our Spanish with us, and we highly recommend him.
Maria from Hotel Anahuac sent Edy off with our packed lunch, and that’s how we got the inside tip on the bakery!
I highly recommend not only booking your tour with Hotel Anahuac but staying there too. We visited all the towns on the Ruta de las Flores, and Juayua was our favourite, and the hotel was so so lovely with the kindest owners and prettiest gardens. It was perfect.
The other option that is quite common is to book with Elizabeth Hernandez, a local guide who runs a small tour company Gaviotita Tours Aventuras. You’ll see Elizabeth’s name mentioned a lot in blogs, Google Maps and AllTrails reviews and she gets fantastic feedback.
We came across her tour while we were on the trail, and she seemed lovely. Although, her group was quite big. I think because she is quite popular, you should expect to have a group tour, whereas it was just Brayden and I with our guide Edy.
Do note that however you book your tour, your guide will most likely only speak Spanish. Ruta de las Flores is a popular area to visit in El Salvador, but it’s hardly bursting with foreign tourists.
Best time to visit the Seven Waterfalls
I would recommend planning your visit to the Seven Waterfalls and El Salvador in general during the dry season, from November to April.
I can imagine this hike would be a lot harder and potentially dangerous after heavy rains in the wet season.
We visited in mid-March, which is coming to the end of the dry season, but there was still plenty of water in the waterfalls.
The way our plans worked out, we ended up doing the hike on a Saturday which we worried might be busy. It wasn’t. It’s not a super popular area, and most locals only visit Los Chorros and don’t do the entire hike. We only encountered one other group on the trail.
What to wear
You are going to get wet, so wear something you are happy to get wet in!
There is nowhere to get changed on the trail or at the waterfalls, so come dressed in your water gear.
Brayden wore swim shorts and a t-shirt, which he took off when we got to the first waterfall.
I wore my bikini underneath, with bike shorts and a singlet, which I also took off when we started getting wet. My bike shorts have sturdy pockets, which was great to keep my phone close for photos but keep my hands free for climbing.
You need to wear sturdy shoes that you’re happy to get soaked. Flip-flops aren’t good enough. Brayden wore water trainers and I wore my Teva sandals and was comfortable in them.
We didn’t bother packing a change of clothes as we walked straight back to our accommodation in Juayua, but if you need to travel further, you might like to pack a dry pair.
What to bring
- 🎒 Waterproof bag: I repeat, you will get wet, so make sure you’ve got a sturdy dry bag to keep your gear dry. I brought my camera and put it away in the dry bag between each waterfall.
- 🧖🏽♀️ Towel: it was nice at the end to dry off after swimming in Los Chorros, one was enough to share between us and we didn’t use it throughout the hike.
- 💧 Water bottle: you are scaling waterfalls, you’ll be thirsty!
- 📸 GoPro or waterproof phone case: I don’t worry about my iPhone getting wet with fresh water, but bring whatever you’re comfortable to take water photos with.
How to get to Juayua
The Seven Waterfalls Hike starts in the town of Juayua on the Ruta de las Flores, which is easily accessible from other parts of El Salvador (don’t visit just for this tour though, stay for a few days!).
BY BUS 🚌
If you’re coming to the Juayua and the Ruta de las Flores region from another part of El Salvador, it’s very easy to get there by bus.
- From Santa Ana: if you’re in Santa Ana, there is a direct bus to Juayua, #238. It leaves every couple of hours from the Bus Terminal Francisco Lara Pineda.
- From San Salvador: take the #205 bus to Sonsonate from Terminal de Occidente. In Sonsonate, switch to the #249 which runs all the way along the ruta, including a stop in Juayua.
- From El Tunco/El Zonte/La Libertad: if you’re on the coast, you need to take the #287 bus to Sonsonate which passes along the highway. It only leaves twice per day, once quite early in the morning and once after lunch. In Sonsonate, switch to the #249 which runs along the ruta, including Juayua.
BY CAR 🚗
If you’ve rented a car for your time in El Salvador, you can drive to Juayua:
- From Santa Ana: 1 hour
- From San Salvador: 2 hours
- From El Tunco/El Zonte/La Libertad: 2 hours
🚙 Browse for rental cars in Santa Ana, San Salvador or the international airport
BY SCOOTER 🛵
Although I would recommend staying on the ruta, the 7 Waterfalls Hike is a common day trip from Santa Ana.
There is a hostel in Santa Ana that rents scooters, Rick’s Rentals and it’s becoming quite popular to drive to Ruta de las Flores by scooter, then you can explore the road and towns on your own terms once you arrive.
Seven Waterfalls Hike El Salvador: Worth it?
Absolutely yes! We loved every minute of our time at Las Siete Cascadas.
The forest was so dense and green, passing by the coffee plantations was so emblematic of the area and we loved the adventure of navigating all the waterfalls.
Yes, it’s a little sketchy. Yes, you will be wet, muddy and probably at least minorly cut and bruised. But it’s a whole lot of fun! You get to spend the day with a Salvadoran guide (aka the friendliest people on the planet), soak up green and beautiful nature and swim under beautiful waterfalls. What could be better?
This is one of the most popular activities on the Ruta de las Flores, but promise me it won’t be the only one you do! The region has so much to offer, and it’s really worth a few days of your El Salvador itinerary.
If you want more waterfalls, El Salto de Malacatiupan is a unique hot springs waterfall not too far from Juayua. For more thrills, go and ride the famous rainbow slide at Cafe Albania.
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