We were trying to think of a fun activity for my mom and Anthony while they were visiting us. We have visited the beaches and checked out the lighthouse area in Rincón with them, but there was something Britton and I had been wanting to check out for a while: the waterfalls of San Sebastian also known as Gozalandia (loosely: Enjoymentlandia).

Lots of photo ops

It’s not too hard to find these waterfalls. If you can find San Sebastian, you can find it and everyone in the town knows where they are. Basically you just go from the Walgreens up to the bridge and hang a right and keep going up until you see the signs and parking for $5.

These are very beautiful waterfalls and it sort of makes you feel like you are in some kind of tropical movie like the Blue Lagoon -especially because one of the rock faces actually looks vaguely like a skull face. There are virtually no rules and you are free to do pretty much whatever stunts cliff diving or swimming into the underwater caves. One of the waterfalls even has a rope with which you can swing and jump and you can stand behind the water as it falls. It was a little chilly for us to do much swimming in the cool river/spring water, but we watched the crazy cliff divers and we climbed around a lot.

It is not an easy climb to either of the waterfalls and so you would need to be moderately fit to traverse the wet and slippery steps and be able to hang on to the rope knots on the way down or fit your foot into tree roots. A helpful and funny man can walk you through it step by step if you need. But all the trouble getting to them is well worth it. Unlike most government sanctioned nature areas, this private park felt pretty much like it probably did when the native Taino Indians lived on the island and probably played in these cascadas. It wasn’t until just recently that the stairs were even installed!

The other lesser known waterfall has the rope and reminded me of the cenotes or sinkholes of the Yucatan in Mexico

I talked with one of the owners and he said it is a piece of property that has been in his family for many years and up until about 40 years ago it had been a 70 acre sugarcane plantation, but now it is just known for the waterfalls and natural beauty. He said that in the depth of summer on the weekends it can be crammed with as many as 150 full cars, so we enjoyed the relaxed and quiet vibe we had there on a January weekday with maybe 10 other people.

On the walk/hike to the secondary waterfall there are smaller dipping pools as well. I think I would like to go back and do some exploring under the water and do some jumping when the weather is a little warmer on a summer weekday. It was a stunning find and I would highly recommend it!

2016 Update: Here is our second trip to Gozalandia. Some improvements have been made to the property.