Our Jungle Hike to the Lost City (Colombia's Ciudad Perdida)

We are back in New York and our trip has officially come to an end. How sad! We've spent the last week getting reconnected with the modern world, buying cell phones and getting a laptop, and going to happy hour with friends. We've gained back at least 5 lbs of the weight we lost on the trip, in just 1 week. We need to get ourselves back to the Southern hemisphere ASAP, where the pounds just melt off ;)

We've mustered the momentum to publish a final Colombia blog, about 3 weeks late but better late than never, no? Here are details of our exciting trek to the Lost City, or "Ciudad Perdida"...

The hardest trek I have ever done!

This trek was grueling, but not because it was technically difficult... it was just extremely hot and humid, and the hikes were long. We chose to do the return trip in 5 days instead of 6, so the last day was spent covering 2 days worth of ground. That meant 6 hours of walking up and down muddy trails, in oppressive humidity, in the same clothes we were wearing for 5 days. A real endurance challenge! It turned out to be an awesome experience and was the highlight of our Colombia trip.

A family business

There are several tour outfits that go to Ciudad Perdida, and as far as we can tell, they are all basically the same. The price is fixed at 500,000 pesos ($225) for the hike, whether it takes 5 or 6 days to complete, and includes lodging in hammocks and 3 meals a day. The experience seems to depend totally on the guide you get, and you probably don't have much say in who you get assigned. Our guide told us there are 7 guides with his company, and they go on a rotation so everyone gets a chance to earn some money. They are all locals who live in the mountains and have huge extended families; it seems like every family member finds a way to participate in the trek and get their share of the tourist dollars. For example, you might sleep at the home of the guide‘s parents, have one of his younger brothers as a group porter, and see his dad leading another group of trekkers, etc. Chances are all the locals you'll meet are all related somehow.

The local dating scene

The trek was a great way to meet rural Colombians and we learned a lot about village life by talking to our guide, who we'll call "Joven" (he was 21 years old, and we suspect we were one of his first solo tours after he assisted his dad for a few years). According to Joven, many local girls get pregnant at 12 years old (!) and their 18 year old boyfriends promptly abandon them. I pointed out that in the US this would be illegal, and the boyfriend would be sent to jail for taking advantage of a minor, but Joven was mystified by this logic. Joven’s explanation shed a lot of light onto our experience in the nearby town of Taganga, where the weekend street scene appeared to be centered around flirtatious tween girls in booty shorts flirting with packs of older boys. To be fair, older Colombian women in the jungle also get to date adolescent boys; Joven told us it is normal for 14 year old boys to date 20 year old women. In fact, a 14 year old porter hiking with us had a little crush on me and told me I was the most beautiful girl on the hike. He was already a player-in-training! He also thought I was 20 years old, which was flattering. (Well, who would guess I was 30 when I had no grandchildren yet?!). I was enjoying the extra attention, but I think Jake was starting to get a little jealous!

A word of caution-- if you are responding to Colombian personal ads, you may want to take the physical descriptions with a grain of salt. Joven kept telling us about his beautiful sister with stunning green eyes. In these parts, a green eyed girl is called a mona (that's weird since 'mono' means monkey, and monkeys aren't that hot, but to each his own). We met his sister on the last day and she had light eyes, but they were 100% brown! I guess on a scale of dark to light brown, the upper range is green?

Jungle time

If you have gone on a polished trek like the Inca Trail, you may find the Ciudad Perdida trek to be disorganized. (We didn’t make that hike but spoke to others who had done both treks). After initially being annoyed that every detail wasn't as advertised and that we were frequently hours behind schedule, we grew to appreciate the quirks of the trek. Our experience was a lot more 'real' than a high priced trek with dozens of cooks and porters... we were pretty much living as the locals do.

Since we were in a small group of 3 people, we had only 1 guide and no porters; Joven was supposed to carry 5 days worth of food and gear himself, with the aid of a mule for the first couple days. We think this is why we immediately joined up with a larger group from another company and spent most of the time hiking with them; they had several teenage porters to share the weight. After a few days, we had to ditch the mules (they can't go all the way up to Ciudad Perdida), so the porters had to carry all the food and supplies themselves. Maybe that's why the quality nosedived and all the dishes started to contain canned tuna (e.g. spaghetti with tuna/marinara sauce?!).

The Ciudad Perdida guides are from the local villages and are on jungle time. Joven often sprinted ahead of our group at top speed, or vanished into thin air, leaving us to figure out how to cross streams and navigate trails on out own. On the last day, Joven spotted his mom cooking lunch for some trail workers and disappeared for 2 hours, then reappeared just as we were nearly at the bottom of the trail. Not to be outdone, another guide disappeared on the first day at the entrance of the hike and had his wife lead his group. She was visibly pregnant but was scaling slippery rocks and crossing streams like a billy goat… not something you’d see expectant moms doing back home! (Perhaps her occasional cigarette breaks gave her energy?). Some people in the group were starting to wonder if the original guide would ever return, but he popped up the next day. When asked why he was delayed, he explained “I was talking to a friend at the start of the trail.” Oh.

Indigenous peoples

The trail went through indigenous-owned lands (including the Ciudad Perdida itself), and we were told the tour company paid a fee to the community for access. We occasionally saw indigenous people or families as we walked, but for the most part they carried on with their daily business and did not speak to us. It was refreshing seeing indigenous people still living in their traditional lands, wearing their customary white tunics and continuing to live a semi-nomadic existence on their vast property. This was literally the only time in our round-the-world trip we had seen native peoples living according to their pre-colonial traditions, who were not being exploited by tourism operators as photo ops and who were not selling trinkets and handicrafts to foreign tourists in order to survive. This indigenous community seemed to want nothing to do with us tourists, with many members refusing to have photos taken of them and some not even returning greetings on the trail.

After a few days spent in the jungle, though, it was clear their lives weren’t totally idyllic. Some of the young men worked as porters for groups, but never guides; one of the guides explained to us that the indigenous are too crude, dirty and stupid to deal with foreigners. At times a few indigenous women and kids would appear at our campsites, were served food and would leave with supplies. The kids wore oversize adult t-shirts in place of the traditional tunics, and the shirts were very dirty… they looked like they would be featured in a Save the Children TV commercial. We were told that the child mortality rate is very high due to the living conditions, so parents who have 15 kids may see only 5 of them survive.

The other hiker in our group brought a guitar and often strummed it at the campsite; it was a kid magnet and any child in the vicinity would come over when he played. The non-indigenous kids tried to play the guitar and asked for him to play songs, but the indigenous kids just stared at it mesmerized. One kid's mouth was literally gaping as he stared at it for 5 minutes. When the boy saw that Jake and I had
been eating Oreos, he pointed at the empty wrapper. We gave it to him to show there was nothing left and he smashed it into his face, licking all the crumbs like he was starving, and then politely gave it back to us.

Since our guide was local and had indigenous friends, he was able to fill us in on some interesting aspects of their culture that usually aren‘t explained. (Most of this juicy info came because I asked him 5 billion weird and annoying questions to pass the time). For example, indigenous women wear the same white clothes as the men, except they don't wear underwear and often sit with their legs open. According to Joven, the women don’t use tampons or maxi pads and when they have their period… well, you get the picture. Yikes!

Joven entertained all of our naive questions about his family, jungle life and the indigenous people, and only got annoyed when we asked him if his mom cooked using traditional indigenous methods, or if he had indigenous relatives. He snapped at us that of course he wouldn't know since he was white and not indigenous! Obvio! Our bad...

What happens in the jungle stays in the jungle (unless you have a blog)...

Our Lonely Planet mentioned there had been a kidnapping of French tourists on the trail in 2003, but we weren't worried about safety since we had seen many recent blogs and this has become a very popular trail. While the trek is now safe for tourists, there have been very recent acts of violence directed towards the locals. Once we were on the trail, other tourists told us about the shooting and killing of a tour guide a few months ago-- supposedly while he was leading a tour; we also found out the owner of a prominent tour company was executed in the city of Santa Marta the week before. Apparently, they were not paying enough bribe money to the local guerrillas. A local confirmed the most recent killing, and told us that as a result the tour companies have all increased their prices and fixed them to be the same. There is a heavy military presence centered in the Lost City itself and in the small town at the base of the trek, but we didn't see any soldiers elsewhere on the trail. There must be some sort of agreement between the military and guerillas that avoids outright conflict or tourist kidnappings, but doesn't sweat the small stuff like the occasional small coca crop. When there were tourist kidnappings, apparently Israelis were in hot demand because of their military skills. Joven told us not to worry, they don't want the extra trouble that comes with kidnapping Americans :)

The soldiers themselves seem young, inexperienced and bored... their main excitement is interacting with tourists and trading items with them. Our Israeli hiking buddy had been in the army and was having in-depth conversations with a communications specialist about radio equipment (we zoned out for that). These guys were armed to the hilt; a grenade specialist was literally covered in more ammo than Rambo. If something were to go down, they would be ready to start WWIII. In a slightly unsettling note, their guns all have a bright plastic safety attached to the trigger. Apparently, the commander now requires this because there were so many accidental shootings and some young soldiers lost limbs! The soldiers were very friendly and didn't seem to hold any ill will towards Americans... in fact, some of their gear said 'made in the US'. Hmmmmm.

We had heard that for a small fee, trekkers can visit a coca operation and see how cocaine is made. This is apparently a standard part of the trek, and our group was approached by a 3rd party offering a demo. 10 of us were interested, so for US$10 each we hiked a bit into the jungle (it was a secret location we would never be able to find again) and watched as a local guy took a pile of coca leaves and a few toxic chemicals and mixed them together to make sludgy white cocaine. The process was nasty and makes you realize that cocaine is not a 'pure' or 'natural' substance whatsoever... the most revolting part was knowing it is soaked in vats of gasoline! This demo should be required of all junior high students, since it will turn them off of drugs forever. The guy was requisitely sketchy, insisting no photos of his face be taken and not providing his name to avoid 'problems' with the military. Our guides didn't come with us, and it was clear this was meant to be an unofficial, independent thing not affiliated with the tour companies. It was interesting learning more about the drug war... apparently the Uribe government is working to eradicate coca by subsidizing coffee and cocoa crops. The guy giving us the demo said they expect to have coca crops totally gone from this region in 6 months, but that seems overly optimistic or PR-worthy. A positive side of this demo was that this guy now makes enough money from tourists that he doesn't actually have a large scale coca growing operation anymore.

Oh yeah, the Lost City

The Lost City was almost an afterthought on the trek. We got there late in the day when it was covered by fog, spent one night there, and walked around the grounds for 30 minutes the next day before leaving. It was cool, but not as impressive as Macchu Picchu. What's really amazing is that the Spanish never found (or looted) this indigenous city and it was only discovered a few decades ago by city folk that had come to the rural areas to farm and raid indigenous sites for gold. Joven told us a detailed and complicated story about the campesinos who discovered the site while bird hunting, and then raided its gold stashes, with predictable results... a classic tale of spending all the money on booze, blabbing about the find, and ending up being shot by friends over the riches. The Colombian government took control of the property, studied it and then put a stop to the excavations. The only way to arrive there is by helicopter (the military) or by climbing over 1,000 tiny, slippery steps that start at the river. The steps are steep and often jut over steep drops. Our Israeli hiking buddy slipped on the way down, and slid METERS bumping into each hard step on the way and almost taking out Jake. He miraculously survived with only a few scrapes and a shattered camera, and the guitar strapped to his back was not damaged! That was a close call. We heard that a woman in another tour group broke her wrist that day.

After the trek-- relaxing in Parque Tayrona

After our marathon hike on the last day, we got back into Taganga exhausted and smelling disgusting. We wore the same wet, sweaty shirts and pants for 5 days and they reeked... it was so humid, they never got to dry out. We had taken one shower each during the week (we did bathe in the river every day, we aren't barbarians!), so we savored the hot water showers and the chance to use actual soap when we got back to the hostel. I had some tummy troubles immediately when we got back, then a few hours later started power vomiting! I rarely get food poisoning or stomach bugs, but I think the exhaustion and our sketchy last lunch in town combined for some toxic results.

We decided to get a few more days of beach time in before going back to North America, so we took a shared cab from a Santa Marta hostel to Tayrona National park. It's a pretty, lush park with several beaches with varying crowds. We rented a tent at the most popular beach and walked half an hour or so to a quieter stretch of sand. The beaches weren't spectacular (we were jaded by Fernando de Noronha in Brazil), but it was fun to camp again and relax.

There must be Peruvian bus operators in charge of the campsites here, because the restrooms are covered with signs in Spanglish reading 'No Poopis-- Orinar ONLY'. Yes, at a private campsite where you pay lots of money to rent a tent you are supposed to withhold bodily functions for the duration of your stay! Insanity! What is with the 'poopy' obsession in Peru and Colombia? This needs to be explored by some anthropologists...

Medellin

Before heading back to Bogota, we flew to Medellin and spent a few days in the city. We stayed in the El Poblado neighborhood, which is very upscale and tourist friendly, and even splurged on a guesthouse with cable TV. Fancy! We loved this neighborhood and found it so relaxing after the more basic accommodations we'd stayed at elsewhere in Colombia, but it was very different from the rest of the country. We could have been in Miraflores, Peru or even a suburb of Miami.

The city is very easy to navigate, with a new and clean subway system that passes by all the major tourist spots. In one day we saw the Botero sculptures, the art museum, the botanical garden and a giant shopping mall. We wished we had more time to explore the other sites, but it was time to go home to North America. Our trip was almost at its end...

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Part of trip: Round-the-world Trip

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