A lost city, a cocaine factory, lots of jungle and even more steps

Ciudad Perdida - "The lost city" the city we are talking about was build by the Tyrona Indians a long time ago and was abandoned four centuries ago when the Indians got wiped out by the Spaniards looking for Eldorado. It is the biggest Pre-Colombian city ever found in South America. At the peak the city had somewhere between 2000 and 4000 inhabitants (Machu Picchu had only 1000).
You might have heard of the city in 2003 as some tourists were kidnapped while doing the trek there by the local Guerillas.

The big surprise is not that the city got lost it is that anyone found it again. You can believe me when I say that it is in the deep jungle after you crossed a river eight times and went up a million steps up on a mountain. It was at the time of the discovery completely covered in jungle and I would have walked right past it without noticing it.
The honor of rediscovering goes to treasure hunters (a polite name for grave robbers) in 1975. The irony is that the grave robbers for all their work never found the gold they believed would be in the tombs within the city. The only thing they really got was trouble as they were later shot at by other grave robbers and the military.
Today you have it a bit easier than the initial grave robber and can do a 6 day trek to the city (3 days to and 3 days back to be exact).

I knew from Pelin (which left me in Bogotá) that a trek would start on Tuesday but I didn’t have any hope of catching it as I left San Gil Monday evening and would only arrive in Santa Marta (the start point) early in the morning after a 13 hour bus ride. I decided to go to the office anyway to enquire about when the next trek starts. To my surprise the question on when the next trek starts was answered with “15 minutes” and shortly after the group arrived. The next 15 minutes were then a bit hectic as I had to pack a small backpack with everything I need for the next 6 days but I was happy not to have to wait for the next trek to leave.
Off we were all 17 of us and nearly on time (if you use South American standard slow time). The group was a nice mix of nationalities (Germans, Dutch, one very annoying Dutch, Nice Israelis, English, one American, Pelin and I). The first day of the trek was not that exciting as we drove for 1 1/2 hours to a small village in which the trek starts and after that we started walking up a hill which didn’t seem to end. Finally after 3 hours we arrived at our first overnight stop. The accommodation is as can be expected quite simple, just a few hammocks strung up under a roof. The bathtub however was fantastic being a small waterfall with swimming hole.

Next day it was same same again just with more walking. Before we set of to the walk we had the opportunity to see a working cocaine factory. Yes I don’t understand how you can have a cocaine factory of which everyone knows the whereabouts but that’s the way it is. I guess no one touches it as the factory and most of the trek are in Paramilitary territory and the police and military do not come here. The “factory” itself is not that big and Mr. Coca the owner produces only 5 kg per year which he has to sell to the local Paramilitaries.
If you are curious how you get from a green leave to a white powder then let me explain how it is made. First Mr. Coca puts the coca leaves in a big concrete basin and uses a law mower to cut down the leaves. After that he tramples on them to make it even finer. Then the real processing starts with adding petrol and some other stuff. The petrol takes the cocaine substance out of the leaves and is later mixed with nasty sounding acid and with water. The Acid helps to transfer the cocaine from the petrol to the water. The water is then drained out and then you just have to add some other stuff to neutralize the acid (should have listened in Chemistry class), whack in even more chemicals and viola you have a very high percentage cocaine powder. This powder is then later cut down with some other nasty stuff which is apparently highly explosive (not sure if he took the piss here). If you are a curious person like me then you will be interested to hear that a kilo of the stuff he produces costs 6 million pesos (around USD 2000) and he needs about 1 tone of coca leaves to produce it.

After such an education we set of to the second day of trekking. The first half of the trek was not really that beautiful as we walked through freshly cut down jungle which they cleared to plant whatever they plant here. Fortunately it got better during the second half where we entered pristine rainforest again. From then on it was continuously green and we were always surrounded by dense rainforest. The jungle here is still quite untouched and the only (few) people who live here are descendants of the native Indians. Sometimes we saw them on the trek walking from somewhere to somewhere. The women normally always carry a baby in a bag where the strap is wrapped around their head and with their hands they are busy making new bags. All that while they are walking. No idea how they can do that as I was mostly busy not to stumble over roots and rock while walking.

The third day was the longest with over five hours of walking. All again through rainforest and crossing the same river eight times... and then finally we were there at the base of the steps leading to the lost city. If those people should be known for one thing then it’s for building very long, ridiculously steep stairways with tiny steps. We climbed those steps for at least 30 minutes before we reached the first outskirts of the city after which we had to climb more.
The city itself was build on a hang of a mountain, consists of over 150 circular terraces which were mostly used as bases for houses. Then there are also millions of stairways which connect the different levels of the city. No other structures exist anymore as they used wood to build all buildings and it rotted away a long time ago. The setting is just amazing as you have a view over mountains and valleys filled with lush rainforest and you can even see a couple of waterfalls.
I would suggest you have a look at the video I uploaded. As usual check out here How to play the videos on how to view it.

After a short guided tour (once you seen on circular terrace you’ve seen them all) in the morning of the fourth day we set off to go back the same way we came.

The trek was certainly one of the best things I’ve ever done. Not sure though what was better the walk through the jungle or the city itself. Being away from all civilization was just nice.

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