Cascadas de Tamanique

You leave Tunco at seven, climb forty minutes inland through cafetales and pasture, and the road ends at a footpath above the village of Tamanique. From there it is a thirty-minute hike down to the first cascade. Then another. Then another. Seven pools in a row, each one colder than the last.

Locals call the upper pool la teja, flat-rock at the lip and deep on the far side, sunlit by nine in the morning. That is the swim. Wear sandals you can climb wet basalt in and leave the cotton at the resort. The hike back out is steeper than the way down, but shorter than it feels, and you are back at the beach by eleven with the rest of the morning ahead of you.