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Published: April 7th 2006
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me and my gun
the soldiers left their guns lying around everywhere I am back in Santa Marta after spending 6 days deep in the jungle. I was in a group of 5 travelers, one guide, and a cook. We spent 3 days hiking to Ciudad Perdida(The Lost City), a day at the site, and then the last 2 days hiking back.
Ciudad Perdida is one of the largest pre-Colombian towns discovered in the Americas. About 40 km from Santa Marta(carribean coast), the Lost City was built by the Tayrona Indians on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Built between the 11th and 14th centuries, this 2 sq km site was the largest center of the Tayronas with a population between 2000 and 4000 people. After the spanish conquest it dissapeared under the rapid growth of the jungle and was not discovered again until 1975. Thats enough history though.
The trek was simply amazing. We hiked between 5-8 km a day through the jungle, much of it climbing muddy trails to the top of a mountain only to then decend and climb another one. The rest of the time was spent crossing streams and rivers and swatting away mosquitos and other crazy insects that I have never
Ciudad Perdida
the center of Ciudad Perdida seen before. The humidity in the jungle was overpowering and most of the time I found myself caked in sweat and mud.
We ate dinner around 6 every nite because it would be completely dark at 6:30. Meals consisted of a lot of rice and usually some type of meat. After playing cards by the candlelight, we would go to sleep a few hours later in hammocks with mosquito nets.
On the second day of the trek we came across a cocaine "factoria". Set deep in the thick jungle there were a few guys making cocaine under an open air tent. There were big barrels of gasoline, coca leaves, sulfuric acid, and a bunch of other nasty ingredients here. The guy in charge was super nice and for a small donation he showed us the process of making cocaine. In about 15 minutes he made a very very small batch of fresh cocaine to show us. It was actually not the finished product though because the paramilitaries hold the the last key ingredient which is acetone(sp?). They are the only ones that have the acetone so that they can control the drug business. This factoria was just a
my group
taken after we finished the trek small one with a few guys. Apparently in the same area were some other larger factories with over a hundred workers and a small army for protection.
We also saw some paramilitaries patroling around. These guys seemed to be pretty nice but it definately would not have been wise to take any pictures or ask too many questions of them. Because of the presence of these paramilitaries, there is only a small number of guerrillas roming around the area. Two and a half years ago some tourists on the trek were kidnapped by the guerrillas and kept captive for a 105 days before being released unharmed. Our guide told us it was safer now.
On the third day we arrived to Ciudad Perdida in the afternoon. About 500-600 people visit the site every year and can only get there by foot through the jungle. Because of this, one group of 4-12 people can usually have the site all to themselves for a day which makes it all that much more better.
When we arrived we soon found that there about 30 Colombian soldiers patroling the site. They were all heavily armed and this is when it really
set in for me that there is indeed a real war going on in Colombia. The soldiers turned out to be real cool though and we spent a whole day exploring the Lost City and talking with the soldiers. However, I did find it a bit strange that the soldiers would leave their guns lying around everywhere. At one point I went to get my backpack, and there was an automatic machine gun resting on it. It was kind of surreal.
The Lost City site was very impressive. Ciudad Perdida consists of a series of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads and several small circular plazas. The entrance can only be accessed by a climb up about 1200 stone steps through dense jungle which took us about an hour. After these steps, the jungle opens up to the archaelogical site and the views(from 1200m high) of the surrounding jungle below are stunning.
The last day of the trek we woke up at 5am and started hiking at 5:50. The cook, Lee(another of the trekkers in my group) and I arrived at the starting/end point at 10:15am. It was here at a bar of
all places that we had to wait for the rest of the group and our ride back to Santa Marta. The open air bar was actually somewhat crowded with about 15 drunk Colombian cowboy types.....and at 10:15am on a weekday. Lee and I quickly realized that there was nothing to do here but drink so we joined in.....you know to celebrate our trek of course. Well, our ride back to Santa Marta did not come for another 4 hours and by this time we were singing along to Colombian folk songs.
The photos I have included don't really do the trek justice. Many of the views and sights I experienced were some of the best I have seen in all my travels. Hopefully the pics can offer a little taste of the trek.
Hasta luego.
p.s. it is taking an extremely long time to upload the photos so I will upload the rest tommorow.
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PintaDeGringo
Aaron
wow
Looks like a great trip man. I'm from the U.S. student and trying to plan a hitchhiking/backpacking trip to Venezuela and Colombia. It'll definitely be a budget trip. I'm curious as to how you got your group together to go la cuidad perdida... cuidate compadre