Santa Marta, Lost CITY, Taganga, Tayrona

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I arrived in Santa Marta around 1pm after a 20 hour bus trip from Bogota. The trip was a dream much more comfortable than any flight I had ever taken, fully reclining seats and nobody sitting next to me. The heat in santa marta was intense especially after a week of 19 degrees in Bogota I jumped in a taxi and went to the hotel. Everything is different up on the coast, the smells the people the whole scene is completely different I could not wait to get myself checked in and jump in the water!
I was staying at the hotel mirimar according to my guidebook mirimar was one of the cheapest and a great place to stay if you where planning on heading to tayrona national park because they ran a shuttle bus to and from the park three times a day. When i arrived i realised why it was the cheapest. it was a DUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in every sense of the word, my room was like a little jail cell no window i tiny vent, my shower was a hole in the wall and when you turned on the water it would land in the toilet . And my mattress , if you could even call it that was wafer thin. This was a bit of a change to the lovely room oscar had put me in for a week but i guess i couldnt complain for 4 bucks a night and i had only planned on staying for 1 night.
I asked the lady at the desk about Tayrona and she mentioned to me a treck which was run by the hostel to Ciudad Perdida translated literrally as the lost city. it was a 6 day treck into the jungle to ancient ruins of the lost city of the tayronans. I wasnt sure if i wanted to go as i didnt have a sleeping bad and a flash light so i said id think about it. I found an article about the lost city online ---Ciudad Perdida was discovered in 1972, when a group of local treasure looters found a series of stone steps rising up the mountainside and followed them to an abandoned city which they named "Green Hell" or "Wide Set". When gold figurines and ceramic urns from this city began to appear in the local black market, authorities revealed the site in 1975.

Members of local tribes—the Arhuaco, the Koguis and the Arsario—have stated that they visited the site regularly before it was widely discovered, but had kept quiet about it. They call the city Teyuna and believe it was the heart of a network of villages inhabited by their forebears, the Tairona. Ciudad Perdida was probably the region's political and manufacturing center on the Buritaca River and may have housed 2,000 to 8,000 people. It was apparently abandoned during the Spanish conquest.

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 some 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle.

Unfortunately, the area was at one time affected by the Colombian Civil War between the Colombian National Army, right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing guerilla groups like National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On September 15, 2003, ELN kidnapped 8 foreign tourists that were visiting Ciudad Perdida, demanding government investigation of human rights abuses in exchange for their hostages. ELN released the last of the hostages three months later. The AUC paramilitary group declared itself protector of this area. The Colombian Institute of Anthropology avoided the area after the kidnappings occurred and access to tourists was also restricted.

In 2005, tourist treks became operational again. The Colombian army actively patrols the area, which is now deemed to be safe for visitors and there have not been any more kidnappings. For a 6 day return trek to the lost city, the cost is approximately US$200 . This includes one night staying at the lost city. The trek is about 52 km of walking in total, and requires a good level of fitness. The trek includes a number of river crossings and steep climbs and descents.


sorry for the cut and paste
So after reading this i decided to go i had a feeling i would regret it if i didnt go and i really had not earned my hammock on the beach just yet. So I had a fairly quiet night a few beers with dinner on the beach at santa marta watching the sun go down. I wish I had a few more because i had the worst sleep in my jail cell that night it was hotter in there than it was out. never again.

We all started the trek with no expectations really especially me as i had only really found out about it the next day. But i soon found out it was no stroll in the jungle. It was bloody hard work , the first our or so was vertical or as close to and wet clay. I did my best to keep up with this american guy called Jon he had been in the army and was a pretty fit guy so i let him set the pace and chased his tail the whole trek . We ended up doing about 4 hours the first day before we reached our first camp which was also the home of our guide and his entire family of 10. they cooked and looked after us. he was such a sweet guy jon and i were having trouble getting into our hammocks so he helped us and then even tucked us in hahahaha it was insane i couldnt believe we where getting tucked in by this old colombian guy , classic!
The next day we only had short 2 hour trek till we reached our second camp . we stayed with an indigenous family who lived right by this beautiful river. we went swimming and jumped off the rocks, the water was crystal clear. we had agreat time at the camp just hanging out and playing cards i was so lucky that we had such a great group of people we all got along so well. after a good restfull day we headed out the next morning at 6 am for the lost city. the terrain was much more difficult although we had gotten over most of the hills we had ahead of us 9 river crossing in waste deep water very narrow paths and obstacles as well as a section where we had to traverse along a rock ledge while holding on to tree roots. it was quiet dangerous it was a 10 metre fall if you slipped and the rocks where very wet i was very suprised that everybody made it through i know a few people who wouldnt have even considered it.after walking for 6 hours we staopped at a beautiful waterfall for lunch and a 15 min snooze. the lost city was an hour away so we didnt sit around for too long for fear off cooling down too much. We had 2 more river crossing before we reached the famouse steps leading to the ruins there where 1200 stne steps and it was pretty much vertical nobody made more than 20 without having to stop for air. My muscles where burning with lactic acid i was completely exhausted but we where so close to the top so we pushed on. Finally we reached the ruins and it was well worth it. at the top was the most amazing panoramic view of the jungle and the ruins themselves where very well kept . it felt like something out of a movie. The thing i really liked about this trek was the fact that there was no orther way in or out exept to walk or get an army helicopter unlike machu pichu which i have been told is overcrowded and over priced. Soldiers are stationed at the top of the ruins and when we arrived they put on a good show. all came out wearing every weapon imaginably including grenade launchers haha. I think it was the highlight of their day when we arrived, I asked one guy if i could get a photo with his gun he was more than happy to do so I was stoked! That night we stayed at the ruins at another camp. This time we had mattress which was a nice change from the hammock. the next day we had 6 hours of trekking followed by 8 hours the last day. At the end of it all every one of us was completely exhausted and feeling very accomplished we all had a great time, made some great friends and I really think that ciudad perdida will be one of the highlights of my trip in south america.
It was time to head back to santa marta to shower up and move out of my jail cell to somehwere a little more comfortable. some of the guys Id been hanging out with where going to taganga which was 5 mins out of santa marta, a little fishing villiage very popular for diving and parties. I ended up moving into a dorm with the american couple Tera and Jon and two english flatmates Richard and Migs . taganga was great fun the beach was ok its hard to be impressed by beaches unless they are amazing. the scene in taganga was very laid back full of hippies and artisans and the odd coked up gringo down on his luck. the coast was growing on me I felt much more relaxed than Bogota there wasnt any danger from locals that i could see the biggest problem was the corrupt police. one thing ill say about taganga is that with the amount of fish coming through there, there was not one seafood restaurant! absolutely crazy but these things you come to expect in colombia sometimes it seems that common sense isnt at all very common. I spent 4 days chilling and having the odd party in Taganga I met loads of travellers many aussies which suprised me but after 4 days I was ready to move on. I went back to the Mirimar to hop on a bus to Taryona national park to see some real beaches and lay about in a hammock reading for a few days.
T o get into the park you need to walk about 45 from the main road which was 2 hours from santa marta. the walk was easy and flat. but I had left in the hottest part of the day so I was dying to hit the water. the first beach I came to was called ARRICIFIES it had been described as dangerous by the locals as there where some pretty strong rips and currents but down the south end it was shelterd by a rocky point and there where waves! I was suprised to see it was about 4 ft very choppy but by the point there was a little right hander breaking next to the channel which would have been great fun if i had a board. Tayrona was everything you would expect from a carribean beach . white sand coconut palms and crystal clear water i was in heaven. I found a coconut washing about in the shore break and cracked it open on the rock and had it for a snack before moving on to explore the rest of the beaches further north. Most where pretty quiet with only a few tourists here and there but the very last beach was packed it was beautiful but I had come to get away from people for a cuople of days so i decided to stay in a camp by ARRICIFIES it was quiet and fine to swim in if you stayed close to the point. All was well until I got to bed that night when I was attacked by a swarm of sand flies. They absolutely murdered my legs I probably got about 4 hours sleep in. My bushmans spray ran out so I had got some colombian repellant which was completely inafective. So unfortunately I cut short my stay in the park and made my way north west to cartagena..........

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