COLOMBIA - I don't know where to start?

Colombia.

What can I say. When you touch down in a new country at 10pm and end up partying until 6am, you know you're going to be in for an outrageous time! That was my arrival in Cartagena, the infamous old city on Colombia's Caribbean Coast. Welcome to Colombia Ms Jenke!

The first thing that hit me about Cartagena was the oppressive heat - definitely close to the hottest place I have been to on my trip. I showered after arriving (before the carnage began!) although it was pointless - I think you actually sweat whilst under the shower. Needless to say, with the heat and a big night under my belt, I was happy to get out of the city and head down to the coast where I was to meet my travel buddy Phil.

I ran into a Dutch guy, Jesper, at the hostel that I had continuously been running into in Central America (yes the world is small!) and he was heading to Taganga where I had arranged to meet Phil. So us, some new friends, Scott & Rose (fellow Melbournians) and David (also a Dutchie) headed on 5 hours up the coast to the backpacker town of Taganga. Taganga is also a good place to base oneself for the Lost City Trek - an Inca Ruin well into the jungle that requires military escort (some tourists were kidnapped by the FARC back in 2003). We went to the hostel where Phil had mailed to say he was, and when we arrived - as so many male westerners do - found out he had checked out as he had a Colombia 'novia' - girlfriend! Geez, that was quick work. We all were able to all get a dorm/room together, which I'm sure was the writing on the wall - it was to be a big one! Even Phil wished he could check back in to our dorm given the crew we had pulled together!

The first night was quite calm, given we ALL had a massive night the one before and were keen as mustard to spend all day on the beach the next day. A good tanning sesh in, and we started on the beers......and that led on to worse, much worse! A dorm party was had......oh lordy lord. I'll keep this blog entry on a G Rating for peoples sakes, but as we know Colombia's No 1 export isn't exactly rice. Luckily for the crew, Grandma Jenke was on board, and I got up pre lunch time to arrange our Lost City Trek or it was quite obvious this would be a one way street to Party Town everyday! We all know my hangovers are depilating and how I always feel so guilty at wasting my days......

We arranged to go with 'Magic Tours' for the day after next - this allowed us to have another quality sun in session and recovery from previous days antics before heading off on the 5 day trek. The day was spent doing 2 parts of bugger all for some, I as always, found my spot in the sun and had a nice chilled day/evening (although some of the boys went a bit nuts AGAIN!). For the night before the Trek was to start, we had a nice mature dinner at Pachamama, a restaurant owned by a French guy who does the tastiest steak in town, and gave us our carb loading dinner before setting off the next day. Hasif who owned the restaurant was keen for a big night with us, and as much as we hated to disappoint (we assured him we'd be back post trek!) we had trekking to be ready for!

The Lost City isn't as famous as Macchu Picchu and the Inca Trek as only 20% of the ruins or 'The Lost City' has been excavated and its a difficult task to access - only trekking through the jungle for 5 days or by helicopter, a-la Military style, will get you there. That also means that you generally have the ruins to yourself and the only other time you'll see other tourists is each night at camp, or when you pass them coming in or out of the jungle. I fear the day these ruins become mainstream, the adventure of getting there really is your very own Indiana Jones expedition!

For the tales and excitement of the trek, and to spare you having to read a 12 page thesis, I have written a separate blog dedicated to the Lost City Trek.

To be continued after the Lost City Trek......

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