5 days in the Colombian Jungle... off to Ciudad Perdida

---

Hello all,

Team St. Albert T8N (me, lena and Matt Johnson) decided to leave for the Lost City a day after meeting up in Taganga. Even though we are on the carribean coast - this place is sort of a hole and basically a jumping off point for the lost city, to go diving, or to buy cocaine from whacked out locals on the beach.

Our group of five included the three of us, a high maintanance girl from London and adorable Ben from Sydney. After 2 hours in the back of a jeep we set off with our guide Alfredo - a Colombian version of Indiana Jones. Our first 45 minutes were an easy walk towards a small river that we stopped at to swim in. The refreshing swim and happy laughter was soon eliminated as we started up a mountain in sweltering heat. I could hear my heart beat pounding in my ears the entire way up - the whole time thinking how nice it would be to ride up the mountain on one of the mules carrying our food instead of side stepping mule poo. As hard as it was, we were treated to many snacks along the way included pineapple and the best bananas I have ever had in my life.

After our 3.5 hour hike we were rewarded to dinner and checked out the hammocks at Alfredo's house. Lena was too busy projectile vommiting to enjoy dinner - probably a result of the heat and climate - but stll entertaining to me. Our hammocks were covered in mosquito nets - and since ours were so close together I enjoyed rocking between Matt and Lena - annoying the both of them.

I would like to say I had a nice sleep - but I couldn't really sort out the hammock thing, Lena kept waking me up when she went to the bathroom - and then there was a turkey fight at about 5 am - so I was officially up. One thing I learned so far is that turkeys can fly - or at least I think they can because there was 6 of them in a tree - very weird sight.

Day two involved a visit to what we were told was a cocain factory. Very secretively we crawled off in the jungle ten minutes away to tarp held up by 4 poles with a couple of benches. Not exactly what we thought we would see - instead we got a demonstration of how coca leaves are turned into a paste through a series of chemical treatments involving gasoline, baking soda and other random smelly things. This was then filtered a few times through a dirty piece of farbic held up on 6 inch stilts which looked like it had been used as a hospital rag in the Vietnam war. We were then offered to smear the resulting paste on our gums to feel how it numbs it. Since I don't like licking gasoline I passed - but enjoyed watching some of the others give it a go - then calling them coke heads for the rest of the trip.

The rest of day two involved a massive hill, then a massive downhill before we had a quick swim in another stream. Even though Ben and Matt can pee anywhere - for some reason all of us have no shame in peeing in whatever river we come across. I know this is gross - but the jungle is filled with even grosser things that I don't need to encounter. Our second camp was with three guys from another tour who entertained us for the rest of the night - but for some reason they had bunk beds and we got another round of hammocks. We were slightly annoyed but after a 45 minute hammock war I was bruised and tired from laughing - in the morning we found out the guys had been attached by some sort of bed bugs and my small number of new bites in the hammocks didn't look so bad.

I'm not sure if it is Lena's pastey skin or what - but her body is reacting to bug bites in the worst way. She looks like she has measles or leprosy - she is definately going to pick up on this jungle trip. Our third day involved at least 4 hours of hiking followed by 8 river crossings before we arrived at the steps to the lost city. Whoever built the steps had a lot of time or energy on their hands because I had a tough go getting up the super steep steps. Finally near the top we met some of the military who protect the area. Things are better now but the area used to be filled with rebels - in 2003 8 people from a trip like mine were kidnapped for a few months. Minor detail.

Since the guys have been stationed there for about 7 months now - they were excited to see some ladies and were quick to let us all have pictures with their guns - I want to pretend there was no bullets because I still can't believe they let me do that. I got a few videos with the military guys chanting go Oil Kings/Oilers go in spanish before we took in the rest of the site.

It is certainly no Machu Pichu in Peru - but the fact that the place is so remote - you have to hike in - and there was no one there except us and some military guys made the place absolutely amazing. Most of the structures are gone but the plateaus make for beautiful views of the surrounding jungle. We entertained ourselves for 30 minutes taking stupid jumping pictures before Ben, Lena and I went off in search of some more military guys. They were listening to Michael Jackson which resulted in a dance off between me and another military guy. It lasted a few minutes before he started breakdancing and my MC Hammer running man moves were defeated. One of them wanted to trade their army stuff for lena's head lamp and my st. christopher necklace, but we weren't biting, we had to figure out what other junk we had to trade because we really wanted a colombian dog tag.

Matt enjoyed watching a Colombia soccer game on a fuzzy television with some army guys and we found ways to entertain ourselves until the ripe old bedtime of about 7 pm. We had the pleasure of staying in the archeologists cabin on mattresses that were sure to be home to a million dirty grubby bugs. I slept not bad and had a good laugh in the morning when Ben's gas in the bunk next to me woke me up.

We had about an hour in the morning to explore the site before we left. This involved Lena and I haggling with the army boys. I finally got a military hat which looks quite good one me, and the guy I gave an Oil Kings dog tag to the previous day helped get me a dog tag - and we filmed one more go Oil Kings go chant just for fun.

After the scary downward climb we survived the water crossings and did a death march pace to make it back to where we slept the first night. We decided to do the trip in 5 days instead of 6, so we still had a few hours back to Alfredo's house. After we took a makeshift trolly car across our last river crossing we cooled off in the water (where lena peed 2 meters upstream from me) before we pounded down an amazing veggie soup and sausage and rice lunch. A massive rainstorm appeared but 18 year old Carlos had appeared at the rest stop with a mule to carry our bags back. The porters carried the food but we had to carry our bags. After jumping up and down for 5 minutes - they stuffed our bags in sacks for the mules to carry while we took off in the rain. I think the downpour was in our favour as the last major hill we had to tackle that day would have been hell in the heat.

Our last morning involved a scary trail down to another river where we got to soak at the bottom of a massive waterfall. I just about lost my bathing suit, but enjoyed the back massage. Matt and our cook for the trip climbed up to do a ten meter jump with no problem while I screamed at my 2 meter jump. Thankfully Ben is as big of a wuss as me and I had someone to scream with anytime we had to jump in water or one of the giant spiders was coming to eat us.

We suffered through one more major hill before we ran down the last one. It felt amazing walking up to the starting point 3 hours later and secretly laughing at the other backpackers about to start their hike. All in all an amazing trip - especially since none of us got sick on it. The water we were drinking from the taps and the juice we had with most meals we thought was from a safe source - it was on day three when we had a lunch by the river that we realized all of our water was coming directly from the river - the same rivers we were all peeing in.

Sorry this was a long one - but if I could I would tell you every stupid story and thing that made us giggle over the whole trip. I am guessing from the pictures that you might think it was one day - we basically wore the same thing everyday -the same wet stinking smelly clothes. Whoever thought I was on vacation was soooooo wrong.

I'm waiting for Lena to finish her dive before we head off to rough it on the beach in Tayrona National Park for a few days. More hammocks and no internet. Should be wonderful. Adios! and go oil kings go.

---

Photos

day three -
My keen hiking boots - expensive hiking wool socks and ghetto booty billabong shorts. I could be a poster girl for MEC

Comments

[Caitlin Ryan]

I love the jumping pictures...

[Sharpie]

hotness
Um, it totally looks like Lena chopper her hair off in that pic of her in the tighty leggings. I thought she was a dude. A super sexy, but kinda fem, dude. In other news, I've let some grocery cart, back-lane travelers stay in her room while she's away. I told them to water her plant, so I hope it's ok.

[Angie]

Boob Sweat
haha looks like you are having a great time, boob sweat and all!