Gocta Waterfall

The Gocta Waterfall (Spanish: Catarata del Gocta), a perennial waterfall with two drops, has been known for centuries to the local residents in Peru's province of Chachapoyas in Amazonas, which is approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) to the north-east of Lima and flows into the Cocahuayco river. Its existence was made public following an expedition made in 2005 by a German, Stefan Ziemendorff, with a group of Peruvian explorers. At the time of his discovery he successfully persuaded the Peruvian government to map the falls and to measure their height. On 11 March 2006, following his third expedition to the falls, he held a press conference, the contents of which were published by several of the world's wire services. He stated that the total height was accurately measured at 771 metres (2,530 ft), although this was apparently based on outdated and incomplete information gleaned from the National Geographic Society, which ranked Gocta as the third tallest free-leaping waterfall in the world after Angel Falls in Venezuela and Tugela Falls in South Africa.