Gravity Falls Cachoeira Salto Canyoning

This was the perfect activity for adjustable adrenaline! High for my 18-25 year old boys and medium + for me and my daughter in law! There was another group of 3 with us that were lower adrenaline, so the guides were able to adjust for them as well. The repelling down to the first waterfall pool was required (and super fun) and then there were water crossings, and a variety of rock jumps from 5 ft to 30 feet (all optional). My boys are flippers so they did them all and loved it! I HIGHLY recommend this to families that are up for excited to get your heart rate up a little, smile, laugh and give you opportunities to be brave! The scenery is also so beautiful. Also, the hike out is a good workout!

+1

Gravity Falls Waterfall Jumping with Desafio Adventures was an awesome experience: rappelling into the canyon with waterfall views followed by several jumps up to 15 meters high. Our guides Arturo and David were both kind, fun, and interesting human beings, keeping us safe and entertaining us with many stories (+ David snapping great shots and videos of the experience). We’d do this or another adventure with them in a heartbeat!

Thanks to the guides, it was a lot of fun. 100% recommended. Great experience in wonderful surroundings!

My husband and I had so much fun. We were the only two waterfall jumping and everyone was super accommodating. The waterfall jumping is the easy part. Hiking back was the hard part. The lunch was super delicious and we loved the photos we got back.

We had read on a previous review that some folks were disappointed with their Gravity Falls Tour, and that ended up being the case for us as well. My boyfriend is experienced and wanted to do some rappelling, so we were pretty let down to learn this tour only has about 30 seconds of rappelling built into the 5 hour tour. There is just one single rappel next to a waterfall, and that’s it. The rest of the time, you’re simply walking downstream on a river. It hardly felt worth $130. If you’re not an outdoor river person, perhaps the novelty of this experience is worthwhile but I found it incredibly overpriced and boring.

Wow! What an amazing experience!! Not only did we rappel down a canyon wall, we jumped and dove into various pools as we followed the river. Our guides, David and Michael, did an amazing job explaining our rappel and each jump. They made sure we were safe and understood when I chickened out on the highest jumps-- my husband said they were super fun! On our short 4 wheel drive to the starting point, Michael pointed out two different types of toucans. On our climb out of the canyon, we spotted a monkey jumping between branches. Overall, an awesome experience! PS They took pictures and videos of us too, so we didn't risk losing our phones.

I’m sorry to leave a less than 5 star review as our guides, Eric & David, were amazing! We also had a fantastic driver, Alan, who took us to and from the activity and was very engaging and funny. From the customer service side of things this was a 5-star experience! However, the activity itself should be better described. We did the Extreme Gravity Falls Waterfall Jumping trip. Why 3 stars instead of 5? 1. We spent far more time in transit than on the expedition itself. I cannot overstate how differently we would’ve felt if we’d been made aware of this in advance. We were picked up at 9:20 and dropped off at ~3 p.m. so ~6hrs total. But only about 1.5 hours actually on the ground and only half of this time was in the river. 2. Lack luster lunch and lunch service. 3. Our confirmation email encouraged us to leave valuables behind as guides take pictures. No mention of an additional charge. We had the foresight to bring cash to tip our guides anyway (they deserved it!) but then were informed we could buy the pics for $15/per person, cash or PayPal only, after choosing to leave phones and non-tip cash at home. Not the end of the world, but again not clear. Read on for more detail about our experience. Times are approximate. From La Fortuna, it is about a 1 hour van ride to the meeting site where we got into the back of a 4WD pickup (with bench seats) and drove another ~20 minutes up a super steep mountain to the trail head. I do a lot of off-road, mountain driving myself and have to say that our guides handled it perfectly and professionally. It was a very picturesque drive, but we didn’t sign up for a scenic drive, we signed up for an outdoor experience. After parking, we followed our guides down a steep trail to the first (and only) rappel site. We were given good instruction and proceeded to rappel down the rock face (approx 150-200 feet). Super fun! We then made our way down the river and jumped off a series of platforms and rocks ranging in height from ~10-30+ feet along the way. 4 in total with the option to re-jump the bigger ones, which I definitely recommend doing after you get the butterflies out. The guides were super professional, encouraging, patient, engaging, supportive and attentive throughout. After the last (biggest) jump, we took a decently steep hike out through a very pretty jungle/rainforest. The thick vegetation is stunningly beautiful with giant trees and an easy climb if you’re in half-decent shape, but it’s not canyoning. Back down the steep bumpy road in a downpour in the back of the open truck bed (just a tarp roof), changed to dry clothes, into the van, 1-hr drive back to La Fortuna for a mediocre “Typical CR lunch” at their Hunter and Gatherer restaurant/headquarters where all the tours come in to eat a small buffet. The chicken and the pork were both super dry alongside a decent salad and black beans and rice. You had to pay attention and time things if you wanted to get a cup of coffee as the thermos was not regularly attended to. The mountain drive was super pretty and picturesque, but we (thought we) signed up for an extreme hiking/walking expedition and were not given any understanding of how much traveling was necessary for the relatively short trip. Overall, great guides and drivers. Fun, exhilarating-pushing-intimidating jumps. Safe and conscientious environment. But pretty low cost to value ratio in our opinion. If you want to do some cool jumps over a relatively short period and are ok with all the traveling then sign up! Otherwise I’d recommend spending your money on a different experience offered by Desafio as they clearly employ some high-quality guides.

Picked us up around 6:30, ~1hr to location with one stop for bathrooms. Experience was awesome! A bit scary, but felt very safe with the experienced guides. Eric & Dario were very knowledgeable & kind people, so I would recommend them to anyone. Food was also delicious!

The cost of the 2-hour drive and lunch exceeds the value of the canyoning experience. The forest walk isn't particularly engaging, and the canyoning itself includes just one abseil, a short walk through the canyon, and four jumps (4m, 2m, 3m, and 9m). Overall, it doesn't feel worth the price.

The Gravity Falls Waterfall Jumping Canyoning is a fantastic trip for families looking for adventure. The amazing canyoning team went above and beyond to look after my family. After days of monsoon rains, the powerful river running through the canyon was intimidating, and I was worried my 11-YO would struggle. The Desafio team went out of their way to make sure she was safe. We all had an amazing time!