Boquerón del Padre Abad

The Boquerón is a cleft in the Cordillera Azul where the Yuracyacu river cuts through, and the road from Tingo María to Pucallpa runs through it - a gorge a few kilometres long with vertical forested walls and water pouring off them in dozens of thin falls, some visible only after rain. The best known is the Velo de la Novia, the Bridal Veil, which drops beside the highway and can be reached on a short path to a pool at its base, and the Ducha del Diablo, the Devil's Shower, is close by. The gorge is named after a Franciscan missionary credited with finding the route through the mountains in the eighteenth century, and it was the gap that made a road to Pucallpa possible at all. It is a roadside attraction rather than an excursion: vehicles stop, people walk five or ten minutes to a fall, swim in the pool and continue.

What you actually see

• The gorge - vertical forested walls where the road cuts through the range.
• The Velo de la Novia - the Bridal Veil fall, minutes from the roadside.
• The Ducha del Diablo - the second named fall in the same stretch.
• The route - the gap that allowed a road to Pucallpa to be built.

When to go

Falls run strongest in the wet months from December to April, but the road is worse then and landslides are common. May to September for easier travel. Two to three hours as a stop.

Honest expectations

This is a highway stop with truck traffic and roadside stalls, not a wilderness. Rocks around the pools are extremely slippery. Landslides close the road regularly. Smaller falls dry up outside the rains.

Nearby

Aguaytía is east; Tingo María and the Huallaga are west.