📷 Chilean Inverted Waterfall

Waterfalls are beautiful in themselves. I can endlessly look at them, as at any flowing water, I can listen to them, whether they murmur quietly or roar at the full power of their water jets. I can even stand or swim under them. But not under all: some, as if violating the laws of gravity, flow not down, but up. At least sometimes :) Like this wonderful waterfall in Chile — Inverted Waterfall (or Cascada Invertida in Spanish). The water falls, but at the same time soars up.

It all started quite normally: we moved from Argentina to Chile during one of our trips to both countries. This time we crossed the border at Paso Pehuenche — an Andean mountain pass and international border crossing, located at an altitude of about 2500 meters above sea level. We crossed the border, and after driving less than 30 kilometers through the territory of Chile, we stopped at a small parking lot, rather spontaneously arranged in the widening of the highway shoulder.

Dima, the organizer of the trip, promised to show us a surprise — a real miracle. What is unusual, before the miracle it was necessary to walk only 200 meters from the road through a picturesque area surrounded by mountains. I wonder how miracles can still be so close to us?

We walked along a narrow, but quite distinct path and came across a small river, through which we had to cross. And a little further beyond the crossing ... a vertical wall of water rose up! As if a geyser from somewhere below gushes almost continuously.

Attention! Crossing to the other side of the river is not too difficult, but not everyone can just overstep, and jumping over can be dangerous: the stones are wet and slippery. Therefore, it is most convenient to do this as in the photo: the tallest man with long legs helps the others to get across the river, and on the other side someone else insures, meeting the jumpers.

Having crossed to the other side, we go a little ahead and find ourselves on the steep edge of the cliff, from where the river falls into a picturesque valley. Waterfall! But it does not just fall down, but also often interrupts its fall: the water jets seem to hang in the air without touching the stones below, and instead of falling, they fly up a dozen meters above the cliff, and even tend to fly back to the side from where the river flows. Indeed, a real miracle!

To better appreciate the picture, you need to move further to the right along the cliff, then the entire waterfall, along with the panorama of the valley, opens before your eyes.

Magic? No, physics! Although gravity is relentlessly pulling water down, strong winds creating updrafts near the cliff literally blow the water upward, throwing it back. Theoretically, this can happen anywhere, depending on strong gusts of wind, but in practice this rarely happens, and this waterfall is notable for the fact that such a wind happens here often — it was in this place that various natural circumstances somehow coincided. So often that it was reflected in the very name of the waterfall — Cascada Invertida.

Here is a small video from the phone, so you can watch the process in motion. And at the same time you can clearly hear strong wind that competes with gravity for the right to control the flow of rivers :)

When the sun emerges from the clouds, the landscape becomes even more beautiful with a backlit veil of water above the ground. The river below, into which our little river (it is called, if Google does not deceive, Ester Aguirre) flows almost immediately after falling from the cliff - this is the Maule River, one of the most important and famous rivers in Chile, in its upper reaches. The region in which we are now is named Maule in its honor.

In addition to the inverted waterfall, there are several other waterfalls in the vicinity that can be reached on foot, as well as the unequipped thermal springs of Baños termales Campanario. We didn't go there, after all, it would have been quite a long time, but in general, to go hiking, visit several waterfalls and thermal springs as a reward at the end of the path — why not spend a free day like this? :)

Moreover, the places around are uncrowded and beautiful: mountains wherever you look. And when the sun peeking out from behind the clouds illuminates the tops of the mountains, the play of light and shadow is a bewitching sight.

There are places to go for a walk, what to see and what to photograph.

Of course, an inverted waterfall doesn't always look so impressive. We were lucky that we were able to see it just like that — when there is no wind or it is not so strong, the waterfall looks quite ordinary, pretty, but modest. It's good that the wind happens here quite often :)

There are few such waterfalls in the world where this phenomenon can be found with noticeable frequency, but they still exist. Among the most famous are Kinder Downfall (or Kinder Scut) in the UK and Vaipugia Falls in Hawaii. It would be nice for me to get there, for comparison :)

While we were here (not less than an hour), we met only a lone bike traveler — this is his bike, left on the way to the waterfall. So the place is not very famous and not crowded with tourists. This is a big plus. Definitely, crossing the border with Argentina in this place, it is worth stopping by and trying to catch the waterfall falling upwards. It will not take long, but the impressions are simply breathtaking!

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OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
Exposure time: 1/30 sec
Aperture: F 8
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Focal length: 12 mm
35 mm equivalent: 24 mm

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You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo

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