Lost City trek and off to Ecuador! :o)

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Hey everyone!!

Will have to try and make this a quick one as we have to get the bus down to Bogota soonish!

The Lost City trek was amazing! It is by far the most challenging thing i think i have ever done but it was soooo worth it and im so glad i did it!

We went with Magic Tours who were amazing! We got picked up at 7am (with Esther telling them to go and pick up the others first so that we could finish breakfast hehe!) and all squeezed into a tiny jeep around the food supplies! The ride there was a bit of an adventure in itself as the roads leading up to the starting village were insane - massive cracks and holes in the road, huge rocks and rubble everywhere, we were all being thrown around quite a bit! :o) Finally got to the village about 10am and had a big sandwich buffet lunch! There were 6 of us in our group, there were supposed to be 10 of us but 4 hadnt been able to make it in time because of the unbelievable thunderstorms and torrential rain the night before! I was a bit dissapointed at first as i thought a bigger group would be more fun but actually it was really nice being a smaller group and apart from an Irish guy, Alan, who was really nice too, we all knew eachother and got on really well!

We set off about 11pm and were told we would be walking for about 3 hours until we got to where we were staying the night! The trek started off nice and easy... it was nice and flat and we werent walking too quickly so we thought the week was going to be a piece of cake....! but boy were we in for a shock! :o) The river crossings were really fun and the guide helped Esther and I a lot as some of the rocks we had to jump between were quite far apart! I considered just wading through but people had told us once you get your trainers wet they wont dry all week! After about an hour of walking, we stopped off for a swim in a big river pool which was really nice and refreshing! After that though it got really really hard... it was uphill and really really really steep for about an hour and a half and it had also started to rain heavily (it rains all afternoon in the jungle, so heavily and everyday without fail - to the extent that the schools are only open in the morning so the children can get home and cross the rivers before the rain comes!) so we were just sliding all over the place! The guide had luckily brought big bin liners which he hung over our backpacks for us so they didnt get wet.... we all looked like Batman! Hehe!

Finally we got to a little hut where there was a pineapple waiting for us which was yummy... so we stood in the rain cooling off and eating our pineapple! The guide said we were a really fast group so seeing as it was supposed to take 3 hours, we were really fast and had already been walking for an hour and a half i figured we should be there any second! He then announced we would be there in 3 hours which we couldnt quite work out - apparantly it was because of the rain and the mud! We got there about 4:30 absolutely soaked and covered in mud! Id managed to slide over in the mud a million times despite the guide pretty much being my personal assistant, holding my hand to try and save me from landing on my bum again.... i took him down with me quite a few times as well! hehee!! oops! :o) When we got to the hut where we were staying, we all had a freezing shower and put on our warm clothes, said hello to the parrots, the tucan, the pig and other animals there, the guide cooked us an amazing and huge dinner and then we were all so tired we went to bed about 7pm! Slept in hammocks with mosquito nets, but the mosquito nets didnt reach the floor and the first thing i saw when i woke up the next morning was a mosquito in my net! :o(

The next morning we had to decide whether we wanted to go to the cocaine factory (i didnt but the others did!) but decided it was too expensive and the others said they would maybe do it on the way back instead! We left about 9am with our official guide who had gotten there that morning although the other guy came with us too... think he was mostly the cook (despite getting up at 6am - the pig and the chickens were really noisy and woke us up!) by which time it was already boiling and the first hour was uphill... reallly really steep again and i spent most of the last half an hour trying to work out whether i was going to be sick or faint! It was horrible! I was soooo hot and about to fall over and was on the verge of telling the others that i wasnt cut out for this kind of physical torture and give up, when we finally stopped for a break at a waterfall! I stuck my head straight in the freezing pool of water which helped, we had some water and sweets and recharged our batteries! :o) Luckily the rest of the day was a lot easier, in the jungle which was really fun and mostly downhill (which is actually not as easy as it sounds especially when its muddy!)! Saw a snake which was quite exciting - was just in the middle of taking a picture of it though (the guide had trapped it around a stick) right up close when the guide mentioned that it was very poisionous and there is no andedote!! yikes!! so i quickly took the picture and then ran away! :o) We had watermelon (which is amazing in Colombia... usually hate watermelon but it was very yummy!) by the river before wading through it, passed a small indiginous village and got to the place we were staying that night way ahead of schedule! We went for a swim in the river before it started raining and i managed to cut my toe open, really thought it was broken, on a rock because i was showing off! :o( Had yummy soup, then had a siesta in our hammocks, played cards, had another amazing dinner and went to bed really early again!! And again woke up with a mosquito in my mosquito net! :o(

The third day was the day we got to the Lost City! We woke up before 6am and left about 7:30am - it was a long hard day but was really fun! We had to cross the main river 8 times which broke the hike up quite a bit and cooled us off! We got to the steps (1700 of them!!) about 1pm and i think it took us about half an hour/ an hour to walk up them!! It was soooo exhausting and hurt soo much - Esther and I had to start counting the steps just to distract ourselves from the pain! hehe! :o) By then it had started pouring with rain so instead of doing the 2hour tour around the lost city then we decided to get up really early and do it the next morning!! We had lunch at the place we were staying, chatted all afternoon and the guides made us popcorn! :o) Had another big yummy dinner and another early night as we had decided to do the tour in 5 days instead of 6 which meant one less day in the Lost City so day 4 was our BIG day as we had to do 2 days hiking (the 2nd and 3rd days) in one day including a 2 hour tour walking around (up and down steps!!) the lost city! We had matrasses instead of hammocks though which was quite exciting!! We got up before 6am again and were off by 6:30am! The tour ended up being about 3 hours long but was really interesting.... im going to have to add all the historical history etc another time though as im running out of time but it was really cool! The first ever tourists to the lost city were a few Germans in 1982 - it took them 15 days to get there and they turned up naked as they had taken their clothes off before the river crossings and left them there so the military had to feed them, give them some clothes (dont even want to know how many mosquito bites they had! hehe!) and helicopter them back out!! Trust the Germans!! :o)

Then we went back to the lodge, had an amazing breakfast which really helped as Esther and I were considering staying in the lost city and extra day because we couldnt face the thought of 7 more hours of hiking... the 3 we had just done around the lost city had nearly killed us! But breakfast and lots of juice really helped and at 10:30 we set off on our hardcore day! Turns out going down the 1700 was nearly as hard as coming up them as they were so slippery! Landed on my bum a couple of times and nearly cried but decided it was pretty funny so just joined in the laughing hehe! My legs were like jelly by the time we got to the bottom though and were shaking uncontrolably but there was no time for a break as we needed to get all the river crossings done before the rain came otherwise they would be dangerous!! So we were practically running through the jungle and across the rivers (we gave up trying to keep our trainers dry days ago so just kept our trainers on!)! Had a banana break after a couple of hours and then sprinted off again! Stopped off at the place we stayed at on the 2nd night and had lunch! By the time we finished lunch it was absolutely pouring with rain and there was a huge (scarily loud!) thunderstorm! Luckily a mule was carrying our bags so that made it a lot easier (at first i protested that id carry my own bag because i felt sorry for the mule but gave in in the end!) so we put our wet clothes back on and rain out into the raining singing "im singing in the rain" hehe! Was leading the group for most of the way but there was a HUGE muddy hill to climb the last couple of hours so the boys ran off and Esther and I were a bit slower! It was such hard work though.... one step forward, 2 steps back a lot of the time because it was just like a mudslide!! We got stuck behind the mules who also kept getting stuck in the mud bless them! Esther and I managed to charge up the hill without a break though and were very proud of ourselves (the difference in fitness compared to the first day was unbelievable!) and even had a victory sweet at what we thought was the top of the hill! But the grins were wiped off our smug little faces quite quickly when we turned round the corner and saw the big hill went on for another hour! :o( But we made it back about 5pm only 15minutes after the boys and got a round of applause! The guides kept telling us how amazed they were that we werent like normal women and were really quick! hehe! :o) They kept asking us if we wanted a break the last couple of hours and everytime we said no lets keep going, they looked at us as if they were trying to work out whether we really were female! hehe! Appranantly a lot of girls do the trek though not realising that its hard and then spend the whole week crying because they cant do it! The fourth night we stayed at the place we stayed on the first night with all the animals! There were 2 other groups there too who we chatted to for a bit but we were all so exhausted (too tired to even eat any dinner!) that we went to bed at 7pm again! hehe! :o)

The final day Esther and I could barely walk because our muscles were so sore but mostly because we had been walking in wet clothes for so long teh day before that our bums and between our thighs were thoroughly chaffed and red raw! It was sooooooooo painful..... we looked ridiculous as were walking like cowboys to minimise the pain hehe!! Luckily we only had 3 hours to walk that day, including another swim in the river we stopped off at on the first day! We had a big lunch when we got back to the village and then got the jeep back to Taganga! I had to sit wedged between the tour guide and the driver in the front, sitting (literally) on the gear stick which wasnt helping the chaffing situation at all and the driver kept elbowing me everytime he lost control of the jeep (which was often!!) so in the end i asked the tour guide if i could just sit on the roof but in the end he went up and sat on the roof! Bless him! I felt really bad but we could hear him singing loudly the whole way so he was obviously happy enough! :o)

The whole trip was just so amazing and we all had sooo much fun despite it being so challenging! Our guides were amazing, we all got to practice our Spanish, the food was great! Im so glad we did it!! Although I still take hours to walk up or down steps as the muscles still hurt soo much hehe! :o) We could barely get off the bus yesterday! :o) Luckily Michi turned me into a bit of a mountain goat the last couple of years otherwise I definately wouldnt have made it! :o)

I really really have to go now otherwise im going to miss the bus!! Will try and quickly upload a few photos - if you notice a green tinge to my hair its not your imagination! I stupidly forgot to wash my hair after going in the swimming pool the night before we left for teh lost city so i spent the whole week with green hair!! :o( Quite appropriate for the jungle though!! Was scared i would have green hair forever but i googled it when i got back and got the lemon juice tip which has worked! phew! :o)

Getting a 19hour bus to Bogota now (slightly nervous as one of the buses on the same route was set on fire by rebels a few days ago although noone was hurt!) then from Bogota we are getting a 25hour bus to the Ecuadorian border, border control takes hours apparantly as theyre so disorganised and then a 5 hour bus to Quito where im probably going to stay for a few weeks and do an intensive Spanish course!

Hope your all well! :o)

Lots and lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ONly had time to add few photos!! will add the rest when i get to Ecuador including all the bits i forgot to mention!! :o)

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Comments

[barrygahan]

Brings back memories!
Great blog about Ciudad Perdida. We did this trek in June with Magic Tours too (was Juan Carlos your guide?) but it took us six days. Glad me missed that snake!

[zoe gardner]

I'm seriously impressed you managed to do the lost city trek it sounds like some sort of military boot camp and i think i would definately be one of the girls that spends most of the week crying if that had been me! well done you!xx