Cascada de Tamul — waterfall
Image by photobella from Pixabay

Cascada de Tamul

  • 1 min read
  • 21.801° N 99.179° W

Interesting facts

  • Tamul is a Tének word usually translated as the place of water jugs.
  • In the rainy season the falling water can spread into a curtain as much as 300 metres wide.
  • The boats to the falls are paddled upstream against the current, a trip of about an hour and a half from the landing at La Morena.
  • The Tampaón River born below the falls runs some 165 kilometres through San Luis Potosí and Veracruz before joining the Moctezuma to form the Pánuco.
  • The Gallinas River, which feeds the falls, gathers streams rising in the neighbouring municipality of Tamasopo.
  • On the San Nicolás de los Montes, a tributary of the Gallinas, three tall waterfalls are reported to remain unexplored.
  • The Pame people, whose lands meet those of the Teenek at the falls, call themselves Xi'oi.

Why it is worth it

In the Huasteca region of San Luis Potosí, the Gallinas River runs to the edge of a canyon and simply leaps off it. The Tamul waterfall drops about 105 metres from the lip of the Santa María River canyon, which is some 300 metres deep at this point, and is the highest waterfall in the state. It meets the Santa María at right angles, and below the falls the joined rivers continue under a new name, the Tampaón.

The usual way to see Tamul is from below, which adds to its drama. The approach is by boat up the Tampaón from the riverbank landing at La Morena, a trip of over an hour between the canyon walls, until the falls appears across the head of the gorge. Nearby is also a flooded cave of clear water more than 45 metres deep. In the 1960s people living nearby called the falls "La Sonadora", the noisy one, for the roar it makes in the rainy season when the Gallinas is in flood.

The rivers here also mark human boundaries. The Santa María divides the municipalities of Tamasopo and Aquismón, and the area around the falls lies where the lands of the Teenek, or Huastec, people meet those of the Pame. The whole region is unusually rich in falling water: within about 100 km of Tamul there are many other waterfalls, including the Micos falls near Ciudad Valles and the cascades of Tamasopo, along with underground rivers and the surrealist garden of Las Pozas created by Edward James at Xilitla.

Getting there

The Tamul waterfall lies in the north of Aquismón municipality, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The nearest city is Ciudad Valles, about 28 km away, from which the road leads via El Sauz to the boat landing at La Morena. The nearest international airport is General Francisco Javier Mina International Airport (TAM) at Tampico, about 146 km away.

Plan your visit

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The Most Beautiful Places in Mexico 56The Most Beautiful Water Wonders in Mexico 11The Most Beautiful Waterfalls 90The Most Beautiful Water Wonders 429

21.80139, -99.17944per Wikidata