Ciudad Perdida

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Wow, there is something really weird going on in here...I have finally found all the male travelers that were mysteriously missing in the rest of my trip. In fact pretty much everyone is here. I never imagined that there would be so many people traveling in Colombia, in fact I was all geared up for solitary hotel rooms again like Bolivia but boy was I wrong!
Anyway, getting back to what I ment to be writting about.......I mentioned to Marlien, a Dutch girl in my apartment in Taganga, that I was thinking of doing the trek to the lost city but I was still umming and ahhing over it, so when she said the same we decided to motivate each other to get our arses out of Taganga for a bit and go together. The trek is a 5-6 day hike up into the Sierra de Santa Marta to the ruins of a (I think) pre-Incan city which was the capital of the Tayrona Indian peoples. We set off from Taganga in 2 Jeeps and once into the park encountered one of the worst roads I have been down on the trip. It was so rough that we had to stop for a rest halfway down as even having taken travel sickness tablets Marlien was feeling really bad.
Our group of 10 consisted of me and Marlien, Nikki (USA) and Henry (Ecuador), Jake and Owen (USA), Maria Jose and her husband (Spain), Chris (Sweden) and Sam (UK, who looked like a big tough outdoorsy black guy but turned out to be a very British, stay at home, softy who had brought his own tea with him and spent the whole time trying to get across to our guides that he just wanted a cup of hot water...and then when he asked for milk...)
We had lunch in the village of Machete and watched the other groups returning from their treks red-faced and looking exhausted. From there we walked for a while through and out of the village and came to our first two river crossings, we were told that there were about another 5 to go and so I decided just to plunge through with my trainers on. It was far easier than taking them off or trying to jump rocks and it was also lovely and cooling. We then started our climb up into the sierra, it was swelteringly hot and steep uphill from the word go and we quickly separated into the front runners and those who would bring up the rear on the rest of the route. Despite the differences in the group, throughout the whole trek though the whole group got on really well and I was amazed by how caring and helpful everyone was to everyone else. Whenever there was a hard part or tricky river crossing somebody would always turn around and give their hand to the person behind or carry their bag across the river. Even our guide commented on it, it was very sweet.
This was my favourite jungle trek so far, the scenery was stunning and, although it was hot and very sweaty, we would always arrive at a river to jump in just as it was getting unbearable. We passed through Cogi indian villages with their little round huts and they would stand silently and watch us as we had lunch, probably just as fascinated with us as we are with them. Often the only way to tell between the young girls and boys (they both have long dark hair and wear white smocks) was because the males always carry mochillas - bags made by the women from yucca fibers dyed with natural colours from various plants, and the females wear necklaces. In fact the traditional mochillas are a big fashion here for modern men too. I have never seen so many blokes with man-bags!
We were also all amazed at how young the girls were who were carrying around babies on their backs in bags which hang from their foreheads. They were only about 17 and already had a few children.
We also passed through countryside where people were farming coca and in fact our guide Luis Edwardos family owned the land at the start of the trip and were coca farmers too. Some of the group went to visit their 'cocaine factory' which was a tent in the hills where they processed the coca leaves using nasty things like petrol and caustic soda to extract the cocaine base which they then sold on. Our guide said that it had become unprofitable to make the actual cocaine now as the chemicals needed to extract it were too expensive. They were all very open about the whole thing despite a very heavy army presence along the whole route. It seems that the army are there to protect the tourists but have no particular interest in the coca plants or farmers unless directly ordered to do something. They had eradicated lots of crops at some point in the not so distant past but were not doing much about it now (someone said something about not being able to spray them because it was a protected park) and Edwardo said that the farmers would just replant anyway. There seemed to be an easy harmony between all the army posts and the land owners and to be honest the army boys just looked supremely bored. They told us that they have to spend 3 months up there, they have to do a few exercises and then they spend the rest of the time watching the tourists. It was a bit weird to be honest and kind of creepy to have all these young guys with guns eying you up.
The night before the final haul to the city our camp was invaded by a group of 25ish from a different tour company who had had to use our camp ground as theirs was full. Small groups was one advantage of our tour company - Sierra tours who operate out of Taganga. Their arrival sparked arguments over hammocks and our group retreated to sit round a campfire and mutter insults under their breath about the invaders which I watched with amusement. Its funny how childish people can be sometimes but I guess it was all part of the bonding of our group, us against them, it was just like some reality TV program.
Then next day was a uphill slog (I didn't realise quite how hard it was till we came back down it the next day) followed by 9 river crossings finally reaching a killer set of 1000 odd steps up to the mosquito rich city itself. We all arrived too exhausted really to look around but happy and set ourselves up in a cabin set beautifully right in the jungle on one of the round platforms which had each contained the hut of the original inhabitants of the city. The guides set about smoking out the mossies with the cooking fire and we sat down to dinner on the middle floor of the cabin where the tables were strangely arranged benches for two, around the edges, with the staircase up to the sleeping loft, in the middle. We had a hugely entertaining meal throwing candle wax balls at each other from the opposite side of the room and laughing at the screams of the two American lads whenever the huge insects dive bombed them in the darkness.
The next day we had a tour around the city itself which is beautifully overgrown and mossy but not as structured and sophisticated as Machu Picchu (or at least there is not the information), it looks like most of it was dwellings, a plaza and a ceremonial site or chiefs residence. You never really get an idea of the size of it as there is no view point over it as it is so part of the jungle but that is part of its charms really.
Marlien and I did the trek back in 2 days while the rest of the group did it in 3 meaning that we left them sleeping early in the morning and did the first two days distance in one long day which seemed like the perfect way to do it really. Arriving in Machete we then had to take a thrilling mototaxi ride bumping back along the horrible road at a fair speed with beautiful views of the hills and the coast and the wind in our hair. I had imagined Marlien would be terrified the whole way as she seems to be scared of almost everything, including the dark, donkeys and fish (it was very amusing snorkeling with her in Taganga), but in actual fact she arrived beaming at the check point. Some cheeky army boy stopped us and asked to see our documents which turned out to be an excuse to snap photos of the two blond gringas on the back of motorbikes. Marlien was right on the ball and demanded 10,000 pesos for the privilege but they weren´t forthcoming. From there it was a bus ride back to Santa Marta and Taganga for a few more days on the beach and a happy reunion with our apartment, Gary, Mayra and Karen.

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Comments

[Canadian Igloo Man]

Are all these pics from the Ciudad Perdida hike? They said it was nice in Lonely Planet but I had no idea it would be this beautiful. Would you reccomend the hike to me? I will be in Colombia within the next year for a while. Please private message me back if you wouldn't mind. Thanks, Jason

[divingbelle]

Yes, these are all from the trek, I would definitely recomend it and the company we went with - Sierra tours based in Taganga. I have done lots of different treks in south america both jungle and mountain and this is one of the best. Lisa