Hidden high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta coastal
range near northern Colombia's Caribbean coast is The Lost City.
Not many people make the 5 day trek but as you can see below, it's
an awe inspiring place full of mesmerising sights and shrouded in
mystery. (Plus a gazillion mosquitoes - I get itchy just looking at
the photos!)
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DAY ONE: Machete, mountains and hammocks
A 4WD Landrover picked us up from Pelikan Hostel in Taganga and
bounced 12 of us to launch point, 2 hours of off-road driving
gripping the roof with my hand and the unforgiving seat with my bum
cheeks. The teeny bopper music cranking from the stereo meant
conversation was impossible, leaving us all to our own thoughts,
contemplating the five day trek ahead of us. We stopped in Machete
for lunch and had our last non rice/potato/pasta meal for a few
days.
The town Machete got it's name due to the violence and
killing that used to go on there.
Apparently back in the day, everyone was killing each other with
machetes for money and drugs. Thankfully for us, the name is the
only thing that hints to the violence of the past.
We had our shortest walk today, just 3.5 hours of trekking to
Camp One where there was an amazing natural swimming pool and we
all lined up for bungee-bombs. It was quite a jump and a girly
scream escaped my lips just before I hit the water. Our big group
of 15 meant we got Diego, a guide who only spoke Spanish and
Carlos, an English speaking translator. Dinner was a chicken and
vege sauce over rice with potato and salad, a cup of delish berry
ice tea followed by Gol, my new favourite chocolate bar. The camp
is set up with pre-hung hammocks under a tin roof with mosquito
nets and we all crashed out not long after dinner. To avoid a
school group of fifteen year olds we opted to skip camp 2 and go
all the way to camp 3 the next day, making it two days in one, our
longest of the trek. There's been a lot of talk about Johnny's
talcum powder purchase - everything is so sweaty and damp that the
possibility of chafing is high.
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DAY TWO: Sweaty betty and stunning sights
At 6am we were woken up with the choice between Colombian coffee
or hot chocolate. We ate a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast
and fruit and spent the morning hiking from camp 1 to 2 where we
stopped for a lunch of vege soup. The open fields used for farming
were quickly enveloped by dense palm trees and vines. If you've
ever seen the movie Honey I shrunk the kids, you'd understand the
feeling of being dwarfed by giant jungle trees. We walked on white
sand followed by red clay and slipped around in gooey mud while
paint box coloured butterflies flitted around us.
After lunch there was a gruelling one hour climb up a steep
hill. With all the steep inclines, you sweat buckets in the jungle,
like you're sitting in a hot sauna with a constant drip of sweat
from the tip of your nose and chin. When we weren't wet from
perspiration we were wet from tropical rain, Jules kindly made palm
leave umbrellas for anyone who decided shelter was better than a
free hand to stop yourself when you slipped. When we weren't
crossing rivers we were chewing raw sugar cane or trying to spot
the local tribes people wandering throughout the jungle.
There was a local man sitting next to a river we crossed and
Diego our guide went over for a chat and returned carrying the
man's Poporo stick. It's where indigenous men keep small amounts of
crushed up snail shells (lime), they dip the stick in the lime and
then take it in the mouth while chewing cocoa leaves. It suppresses
appetite and helps to keep the head clear with little fatigue,
perfect for making long journeys through the jungle. Only men are
allowed to use it - the women just get to pick the leaves. It's a
symbolic practice and when a man reaches 18 years of age he can
take a wife and start using Poporo.
But it comes with a warning, if you're a novice user or
you use too much of it, both of your lips will
blister.
We got into Camp 3 at about 5.30pm before dark and I even had an
ice cold mountain water shower and washed my hair. Most people had
to sleep in tents but for some reason I got lucky and had a bunk
bed to Once again we were in bed about 8pm - this trekking sure is
tough work.
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DAY THREE: Stairway to a well-hidden heaven
We had another 6am wake up call so we could get up to the Ciudad
Perdida site as early as possible. Today's breakfast was a doughy
corn fritter with grilled cheese which sat heavy in our stomachs to
match our heavy legs from two days of hill climbing.
It was only discovered in 1975 by Treasure Hunters and before
that had been hidden to all but the local people, beneath the
jungle for hundreds of years. Before we climbed the 1200 steps up
to the terraces we had to crawl along ledges and narrow cliff paths
with crime scene investigation tape flapping in the wind above
sheer jungle cliffs. Climbing up was treacherous as it had been
raining and the steps turned out to be mostly broken rocks in
different heights and sizes that sometimes wobbled underfoot and
were generally covered in slippery green moss.
Native American's inhabited the area from 200 AD until about
1600-1650 AD and Teyuna (Lost City) was built by the Tayrona
people. Not much is known about the site, despite its
monumentality. it is made up of circular platforms connected
by stone staircases and covers 30 hectares on the mountainside
above the river.
I'd been told this trip is more about the journey than the
destination so I didn't have high expectations of The Lost City
site itself. Boy was I in for a surprise.
As we stood around the ceremonial stone circle and the
early morning light crept through the foliage it spotlighted the
ancient stone terraces and I felt the hair on the back of my neck
stand to attention.
We also quickly learned that while Mayans may have ruled this
land once, mosquitos definitely rule the roost now. They flocked
around us like bees to honey and even our local guide covered
himself in thick white repellent cream. We walked up the different
terraced levels, the higher you go, the higher your hierarchical
level in the society until we reached the king and queen's homes at
the top. They always had two homes per family, one for the males
and one for the female. (There was no sex allowed in the homes,
only out in the rivers, the jungle or the love tree, a hollowed out
trunk designed with privacy in mind.) We were shrouded in jungle
mist and watched by a group of soldiers, apparently there as much
for our protection as the site's treasures. They used to bury their
gold and ceramic treasures as offerings to the gods, never to be
dug up again, that is until the gold hunters arrived. People were
killing each other until only one hunter remained and it was he who
reported the site to the government.
'
The head chief (momo) of the time explained the meanings of the
rock maps which show the vastness of the 15 square kilometres that
make up the old city. There's a big rock sculpture of a toad, their
symbol of female fertility, something we were reminded of when we
saw the thousands of tadpoles in the river. We spent a couple of
hours wandering around the site and it was so special to trek to
such a remote place and not have to share the experience with
hundreds or thousands of other tourists. That morning our group of
15 were the only people up there.
Walking back down was like trying to complete a jigsaw
puzzle with my feet, trying to match the space in front to my size
10 shoes.
I've had a lifetime of wobbly ankles so before long I slipped
and sprained my left ankle. Diego whipped out his machete and cut
me a walking stick slashing off the outer branches with ease and
speed. It hurt a lot at the start but the more I walked on it the
more movement I got back. Then to add to my foot troubles the sole
of my right shoe decided to blow out. The decision to wear my cycle
shoes minus the cleats proved to be a stupid one and I tied string
around the toe to keep the sole intact.
We got to camp 3 and I cooled my hot ankle in the river then had
a big lunch of beans and rice. One of the girls magically pulled a
braced ankle strap out of her bag which gave me a lot more strength
and stability. Danica and I walked at the back of the group and
talked non stop for the remaining 4 hours back to camp 2. The skies
opened just as we reached a big river crossing. We waited and
watched in the heavy rain and as the river rose it was too unsafe
to cross the river at that point so we had to catch a wire pulley
cart across one at a time. The system is literally a pully with a
guy on each side holding the rope which seemed more dangerous than
the river. I went first, holding on for dear life and tried not to
look down to the boulders and swollen river below. Danica's turn
next, her knuckles were white as she was faced with her fear of
heights but she too made it and afterwards we were buzzing from the
adrenalin rush. We carried on walking/limping and thought we had
arrived at the camp just on dark, but it turned out we still had
half an hour to go. We made it to camp with a round of applause,
got ourselves into dry clothes and had a large dinner of steak and
rice before heading straight to bed in my (thankfully bottom)
bunk.
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DAY FOUR: Playing jungle pool and hammock time
Today was only a half day of walking since our day 2 had been
unusually long. We got up later and Dan and I walked at the back
again with Diego, feeding him biscuits whenever we needed to stop
which made up for our endless English chatter that he couldn't
understand. When there was a five second pause in conversation we
were entertained by the songs of native birds and listening to wild
pigs snorting and sniffing through the bush.
It rained again and we trudged our way slowly but surely back to
camp 1 where we had spent the first night. Lunch was a big feed of
pasta which we wolfed down and then it was free time, a weird
sensation after every waking hour so far had involved trekking,
swimming or eating. I listened to Spanish language podcasts on my
ipod and learned the phrases for how to buy a pair of shoes, quite
ironic since my shoe was hanging from a thread and I had never been
further from a shop in my life. I even had a cold beer (this camp
has hydro electricity) while playing a game of jungle pool (the
table splits into 3 and was carried into the jungle on mules).
Dinner couldn't come soon enough and we downed more beef, potato
and salad. It was our last night in the jungle but we were all
still in bed by 10pm!
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DAY FIVE: From old civilisation to new
I woke up at 7.30am after a restless night in the hammock. It
seems impossible to find a comfy spot that lasts more than 5 min so
you go between lying on your back, sides and rolled up in a ball in
the bottom. We had eggs again but the salty rubber texture is
starting to turn my stomach, I stuffed the eggs into fried flour
cakes and I'm thankful it's the last breakfast. Dan and I leave
camp slightly earlier to get a head start with the my gimp leg. We
have a big hill today that is steep and slippery but we make it to
the top and wait until the rest of the crew join us, panting and
out of breath. We get some great photos of the jungle mountains
behind us and walk down the hill to the waterhole at the bottom,
our last mountain-fresh swim of the trek.
On the very last river crossing, on the very last stone,
Kara slipped and fell into the river, her sunglasses fell over her
eyes and floundering on her stomach in the water with her pack on
her back she deservedly earned the nickname 'Turtle'.
We walked the final flat track back to Machete where we had a
last supper of rice, fried chicken, salad and 'plankton' as I now
affectionately call the savoury banana. We catch a ride back to
Taganga with the same driver and his pumping tunes and bounce down
the 4WD mountain track in time with Shakira's bouncing bootie.
It was a great feeling to be finished. We had achieved a lot in
5 days, enduring hours of hot and sticky jungle sweat,
bone-chilling mountain water swims, hungry mosquitoes, hot sun on
our face, rocking ourselves to sleep on hammocks as well as the
thigh-burn of climbing 1200 steps.
I always think it's the intense experiences that leave
the greatest impression when you're travelling.
By pushing myself physically and mentally for five days I really
felt like I'd earned my view of The Lost City.