La Ciudad Perdida: Rainforest, Cocaine, and a long lost city

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Before I recount my daily journal entries from the past 6 days, I just want to establish the this was the hardest yet most beautiful and rewarding hiking trek I have even been on. I never thought I would actually be caught in the rain in the rainforest, see exotic butterflies with the number 89 perfectly painted on their wings by nature, or meet people who used to work in the coca fields making cocaine. Literally a once in a lifetime experience.

So let the trek begin....

Day 1: 50 degree inclines....The journey began this morning at 9 am when we piled our group of 7: Dan & Brianne (Canada), Janica (Miami), George (Switzerland), David (Belgium), Sim and I, into an antique jeep with a broken speedometer. The first 45 minutes were a smooth ride past parque Tayrona. However, after stopping for gas at a little tienda (store), our ascent began on a rocky, winding one-way road muddy road. We had to hold on tight as we slid into each other as the driver maneuvered in and out of the road's divets. The most ridiculous part was encountering another jeep coming up against us on the winding road with a cliff to the right of us. Stopping. Thinking for a second. And then finally seeing the other jeep reversing into a flat area to the side of the road behind it. Crazy.
When we finally arrived at the town of Mamey, we unloaded the truck of watermelon, pineapple, and all the food for the next 6 days before sitting down to eat lunch. After devouring our sandwiches, our first 4 hour hike began. The trails were muddy at spots, cow/mule poop ridden, and cut through the Buritaca river many times; however, the most challenging part was the 1 hour hike directly uphill at about 50-70 degree inclines in thick humidity. Needless to say, we were drenched. I had sweat running, not even dripping, but running off my chin and there was not one dry spot remaining on my tank top. We made it through and that last 2 hours weren´t as ridiculous. They were actually a lot of fun as the group got really close sharing stories and cracking jokes.
When we finally arrived out our camp, we went straight to the ¨piscina¨ (pool) for a well earned swim. The piscina was in fact a gorgeous waterfall and jump into a pool of fresh river water. Beautiful and sooo cool and cleansing.
After washing our sweaty clothes in te river and hanging them up to dry, we all changed and listened to another guide play music with a cement bucket and a hair pin on a rod, while Jason (our cook) made us dinner. Mm and it was an awesome chicken and rice dinner with yummy onion/potato sauce and a fresh salad on the side. Our heapin mound of food was accompanied by ¨ladel juice¨ a.k.a. Colombian fruit punch, which tasted vaguely of medicine. For dessert: chocolate Gol. Yum!
After dinner we asked about the tour to see the process of coca plant to cocaine paste and I bartered our price down in spanish so we could all afford it as a group. Now off to sleep in our mosquito-netted hamacas so we can get up early to learn about cocaine. woot!

Day 2: Cocaine and the indigenous Kogui...Woke up 7am. Chocolate con cafe = mocha. 10 minute trek through jungle to makeshift cocaine ¨plant¨a.k.a. 4 branches with black tarp and a bunch of buckets with chemicals. I don´t know if I should go through the whole recipe soI´ll just leave it at this: once in a lifetime experience and definitely extra incentive never to do drugs. The photos of the process and explain the rest.

In the middle of our trek today we stopped at another piscina with a 20-30ft. cliff to jump from. I was the first girl to take the leap so Jason and the other guides called me La Reina de la Buritaca.
We also passed the indigenous Mutangi tribe in their awesome cylindrical huts. They speak Kogui and we learned how to say hello: anchica. It turns out we pay the Mutangi to pass through their parts. They have also been integrating into our tourism because the guides hire some of them to carry food up to the next camp. They call them Mototaxis.
On our way to camp we got caught in the rain. There´s nothing like walking through the rainforest while it´s raining with a trashbag covering your backpack, wearing only a bathing suit and shorts with your sneakers sloshing through the mud. The wet jungle came alive with the hanging branches swaying with every lash of the relàmpago (lightening) followed by the trueno (thunder) 5 seconds later.
When we finally arrived at the base camp we went straight to the river to play since we were already soaking wet. The corriente (current) was super strong so I climbed onto a big rock in the middle of the river. The most incredible sensation: eyes closed. warm rock beneath me. the rushing sound of the water cascading down the waterfall next to me. and the cold drops of rain reaching my body and exploding off my skin. One of the highlights of the day.

Day 3: Real Jungle and skinning snakes....Today was definitely the best day of hiking thus far. The jungle became incredibly lush and we had to calculate every step up and over huge moss-covered rocks, roots bigger than the size of my thigh (& if you know me, you know that´s thick!), and traversing the Buritaca river over knee-high. Now we´re celebrating Jason´s birthday and our last base camp with nasty scotch/whiskey mix, bucket music, and improv singing and dancing. It doesn´t get better than this in the jungle.

Day 4: La Ciudad Perdida, Infierno Verde (for the looters), Tayrona (for the indigenous Tayrona), and Tayuna (for the Matungi)... The city was gorgeous this morning. We woke up at 5am to eat empanadas for breakfast and begin the trek through the river at least 10 times. By this point we were used to putting on wet clothes so it didn´t even phase us. After climbing the fist 1,200 steps, we finally arrived at the first circular stone walls 1,280 meters above see level, and were greeted by military men carrying massive guns--obv photo opp. As Ariel (our guide) took us deeper and higher into the city, its vastness opened up to us with different steps and stairs leading in different directions. All of the circular platforms and foundations of indigenous houses looked so perfectly majestic in the jungle. It turned out that the Tayrona people didn´t bring the stones up from the river. They actually cut the stone into very precise squares using hot water to create the shape and a special type of wood that expands when it absorbs water, therefore cracking the stone in two when placed into the eroded crevice.
Ariel then described the history behind the city when the Spanish came in the 1510 and almost took out Tayrona with all the diseases they brought with them. However, the remaining Tayrona are said to have escaped to the northern parts of the Sierra Nevada at about 5,000 meters high. Ariel showed us two massive rocks where the Tayrona chiseled/eroded two maps of the Ciudad--one of the entire mountains showing the canyons, big paths, and areas of the 320 houses while the other displayed the minute details of all the paths and staircases of the lower part of the city that we were exploring. These maps are exemplar of how intelligent these people actually were. Ariel then went on to explain the history of the cocaine/marijuana period in the area and when the lost city was actaully discovered it the 1970s. So interesting.
It was definitely a strain, but I was really proud of myself for being able to translate the entire history lesson for the rest of the group. It was a true test of how my spanish and confidence is growing on a daily basis.
On our way back to the second camp I continued on my spanish streak by having an awesome conversation with Jason about Colombia´s current political and economic status. I have probably been more in the loop for the current Colombian elections than I was in my own US elections. Although the current president, Alvaro Uribe, has taken great strides in eradicating the paramilitaries and farc, it seems there still remains a lot of corruption in the government, which is really holding the country back.
At this point we had been caught in the pouring rain again so our descent was insanely slippery. After a few slips here and there, I literally skied down the mud since my sneakers were already caked with it. I arrived at the second camp with mud face paint, mud up to my knees, and a muddy handprint on my stomach, compliments of Brianne´s first mud slip of many. So much fun. I learned so much today=great day.

Day 5: The Final Descent...Today has been full of adventures. We began our final descent from the second camp at 7am and were all exhausted by the time we reached the first camp at like 10am. However, after about an hours break, George, Brianne, Sim and I continued on to the end. The trails were absolutely demolished and sooo muddy. My knees and thighs were screaming at me from running down the steep declines. Blisters amounted. Simonne was also really grumpy because we had breakfast at 6:30am and we were not getting ny naranjas (oranges) or piña on the way down. We finally ended the downhill trek by about 1pm and were absolutely ravenous. My fried fish platter with a mound of rice, beans, and salad never tasted so good.
By 2pm, Ariel advised us that he had called a car to come up the mountain to give a ride down. Little did we know, another adventure would ensue. It was too late for a truck to come up for us, so we went down via motos, one for each of us. Yes Dad, I somehow managed to mount another motorcycle. This time I made sure the muffler was covered and there was no where else I could potentially get burned. Moreover, I was so nervous: this was no nicely paved road that descended in a controlled fashion. I only recalled the tumultous truck ride up from Day 1. We were not excited. However, the descent proved to be a lot smoother than the truck and I was able to appreciate the gorgeous views of the surrounding Sierra Nevada and ocean up ahead. An amazing 45 minute ride. We even passed the groups that were ahead of us in cars. One group was even walking down part of the way because apparently their truck´s breaks weren´t handling all their weight down the muddy slopes.
When we finally arrived back at the tienda on the main road with smiles on our faces, we found out we were taking a local bus with Ariel´s cousin, Gabriel. By then it was about 4pm and after waiting another 15 minutes, we finally boarded this rickety bus, where I got ridiculous stars, partially from my light skin/height, but probably more for the sweating aroma I was emitting and my mosquito eaten legs, which made me look like I have chicken pox. I was defo not a pretty sight.
After a 20 minute ride, we parted with the rickety blue bus at the entrance of the National Tayrona Park. We got inspected my military men, paid our $17 entrance fee and bused up to Cañaveral. We were hoping to stay here because we were so exhausted at this point, but we ended up having to trek another 45 minutes to Arrecife through the jungle to the camp site. At least we got to see loads of monkeys and grasshoppers alond the way. Now we´re finally chilling after setting up our hamacas, again in the jungle, watching Direct TV in an outdoor campsite restaurant after one of the most eventful days of my life. Oy.

Photos coming soon...my camera died half way through so I´m waiting to receive a few from friends...

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