By Adriana Pons
From the clear blue waters of the idyllic beaches to the lush green tropical El Yunque Rainforest, Puerto Rico is a small Caribbean island with many beautiful attractions. The island has been a U.S commonwealth since 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American war, when the Spaniards were forced to forfeit Puerto Rico. More than a century later, the influence of the U.S culture is pervasive throughout the island. While Puerto Rico certainly has plenty of large U.S-style shopping malls and huge SUVs, remnants of its …

Genny Ross-Barons explains how she was pulled in by the Roatan Vortex.

The Gruta de Guagapo is one stop among many on most local tour companies’ itineraries, and according to our guide the place swarms with tourists on the weekends. But on a sunny weekday morning we stood at the mouth of the cave alone but for our guide and the taxi driver who had brought us there, the four of us dwarfed by the entrance. We didn’t see another soul until we left the cave an hour later. A trip to the Gruta de Guagapo in the Peruvian Andes is not just a chance to get off the beaten path, it’s an opportunity to pierce deep into Peru’s heart.

Our guide was Antonio, a retired high school history and geography teacher who has worked for 30 years as a guide around Cajamarca. His passion for the place is infectious: he knows every square inch, every foot path, every petroglyph. He began picking up garbage along the trail the moment we set foot on it, and by the time we returned he had a plastic sack full of Inca Kola bottles and candy wrappers. He seemed genuinely sad and angry that these people exist who would come to visit a place for reason of its beauty, then carelessly toss their water bottle aside while they admire the view.

Señora Teo’s story was on the surface a cautionary tale about the caprices of mystical creatures, but stories like this one could help explain why a waterfall as tall as Gocta remained unknown to the outside world until 2006. It’s location in a blind ravine in the remote Peruvian province of Amazonas might help, too: Amazonas’ capital, Chachapoyas, was unreachable by paved road until a few years ago, and the airport has been in sporadic operation since 2003. At 771 meters (2,531 feet), however, Gocta Falls ranks among the world’s giants, and since its introduction to the world, a small tourism industry has sprung up.