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Panama
From the sky on my day of 3 flights So after a superb start to the trip, it was down into South America at last It started well as I flew into Santa Marta in Colombia for the express reason of finding a tour that went into the jungle to Cuidad Perdida, a lost city found only 30 years ago, despite being built over 1,400 years ago. My luck was in and there was one leaving the next morning. No rest for the wicked! I met a guy at my hostel, Drew from Montana, who was also doing the trek. Quite lucky as the other two were guys from the Basque region in Spain and despite speaking the same language, I could barely understand their dialect of Spanish at all!
OK, now a bit of history on Cuidad Perdida. The city I wanted to see was part of the Tayrona 'empire' before the Spanish conquizadors arrived to steal everyone´s gold. The Tayrona´s had hundreds of little towns, but built this one as a refuge from the Spanish, and due to the remote location, it was never found. But due to introduced diseases, they voluntarily left with the idea of coming back one day. It never happened and the city
faded from knowledge until 1973 when it was discovered accidentally when a guy chased after his dog who was conveniently near the bottom of the steps.
The first day was tough as we did two days worth of hiking. It wasn´t a huge distance, but the terrain was either steeply up or steeply down and mix that with humid mid 30 degree heat. I´m glad I had packed light, because even despite that, I have never sweated as much over such a long period of time! We got to the camp around 7 after starting around 12 and I was ready to collapse, which I more or less did after dinner. It was probably the way to do it, as it was my first time sleeping in a hammock and because I was so shattered, I slept like a log.
The next day was just as tough, but my thighs and hamstrings had recovered a bit. It was different as today was more river crossings before we got to the base of the Lost City. So only 1,700 steps to the top! By the time I reached the top, i´m pretty sure I had sweated out my body
weight! We had a tour for a couple of hours, and even what is left of the city truly is phenomenal. What we saw was only about 5%, as the rest is kept away from tourists by the government.
There are also soldiers stationed up there as part of their training against the guerilla fighters in the region, and those poor guys. There is absolutely nothing to do and the tourists are the highlight of their day. We all got photos with their guns, and even some with their grenades! After a night there, we started the trek back and it seemed a lot easier, but i'm sure it was a combination of the mind and also my thighs and hamstrings were in fit rock-like condition. Originally it was supposed to be a 6 day, 5 night hike, but because of our pace, we did it in 4 days, 3 nights.
After getting back, I gave myself a day of rest, then moved up the coast to a place called Taganga. It was supposed to be a backpacker town for the beaches in the area, but possibly because of the time of year, it was fairly barren, both
Trackside pool
Where we had our first swim, and my last semblance of a shower for 5 days! in terms of people, and scenery. So I only had 2 nights there before heading back to Santa Marta with the idea of getting to Cartagena earlier.
I got to Cartagena early, but was still undecided over my plans as I had been in contact with Lee and we were trying to organise for her to come down for 5 or 6 days, but we weren't sure whether it would be Quito or Cartagena. But we decided on Cartagena, so I spent a few days just relaxing and walking around the city and ignoring the touristy stuff until she got there. When she did, I played host to my adopted city and showed her around for our first couple of days as we mainly wandered the streets of the walled city and took in the sights, sounds and tastes of this incredible culture. The heat and humidity restricted what we did, so for the following day, we headed out to Playa Blanca, a gorgeous beach on the Caribbean coast.
The trip there was half as much fun as actually being there. It started with a 45 minute bus ride to a village in the middle of nowhere, then
Colombian Jungle
View slightly obscured by mist - that´s how high we were! practising our Spanish to find the 'ferry' (an oversized rowboat), then practise our Spanish bartering skills for a ride on the back of a motorcycle taxi for a 30 minute ride over bumpy roads to the beach! But as the photos show, it was definitely worth it. The water was great and the area was just made for relaxing and doing not much at all, despite attacks by mosquitoes.
Our activities were pretty much restricted to moving from the sea to the towels to the hammocks, with an occasional walk along the beach thrown in there as well. But our second day, we advanced up to snorkelling which was quite exciting, not for the coral or fishlife, but the fact that Lee had never been before so I played teacher and she proved an apt pupil, and I loved her childlike enthusiasm when she recognised fish from movies or ornaments and realised they were actually real!
That afternoon, we headed back to Cartagena with our tans much improved. It was a fairly quiet rest of the day before our last in Cartagena. We decided to make it more chilled out and we headed up to a very impressive
Local huts
Of the indigenous folk fort with fantastic views, checked out the gold museum and I played the muscle and moneyman as Lee went round spending up large. We finished off a great 5 days with a perfect dinner from street vendors of cerviche and a spicy sausage type thing. It will feel strange to leave as I have been here 10 days - the most I have spent in a single city, bar London, since New Zealand!
The following morning my flight was far too early at 6am so I left at 4.30am and said a quick goodbye to Lee who was eager to get rid of me to get back to bed and I was off with my next stop, Quito, where I kick off my big tour. It was sad to leave Colombia, but onwards and upwards to the next adventure and I will definitely be back!
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