Lost City Found

And now for the account of my trek to Ciudad Perdida...
It all begins after arriving in Santa Marta on the coast and booking the tour through the hostel there. I am told that I have arrived just in time to take advantage of the last day of tours at the price of 400, 000 pesos. This price equates to approximately $200 Cdn for a 6 day all-inclusive hike and it certainly sounds good to me. My first friend from the tour is Nick, a Californian guy staying in the same dorm room as me. We go out for a shrimp cocktail and check out the scenery before heading in early to pack and get some sleep.
The tour gets underway late but by around 10 am we are 13 people squeezed into 2 jeeps with all the supplies and food. It is a tight and unpleasant ride- especially the 13 km at the end on unpaved roads which takes almost 2 hours to cover. There has been more rain than expected for the time of year and things are tough going. We get to a small village just before the trail begins and have a quick lunch- fishy rice and deep fried corn and plaintains. At this point everyone is a little weary about what we´ll be eating the next 6 days.
Very soon after departing we reach a river crossing with water at about knee-height and I stop to change into my sandals from my hiking boots. At the same time, a group returning from the trek is crossing in the opposite direction and a guy laughs at me kindly, and tells me not to bother as no article of clothing nor foot wear will remain dry for the next 6 days. Ok, good enough. I step into the frigid water. Turns out he is quite right- there is more mud, water, rain, and mule shit than I could ever have imagined along the trails to follow. I resign myself to this very quickly and thus am not bothered by it all too much. A couple slips here and there result in some awkward messes- but nothing the river crossings don´t wash off. And on the third day there happens to be 9 crossings of the very same river- the highest point being just higher than waist deep.
The first and second day go rather leisurely- some mild huffing and puffing but only during some lengthy uphill sprints. The guides are great and very experienced- they know just when to stop for a break or a snack of either fruit or straight sugar from wild sugar cane, cookies, or chocolate. Aside from the snacks, the meals are actually really tasty as well. The groups are supplied with cooks who do a great job, although no one could quite figure out why it always took so long.
The first day is probably 4 hours out on the trail, including the rest stops. By the time we reach our first sleeping shelter, it is getting dark and starting to rain. The shelter belongs to the family of one of the tour guides. It is farmland- used for agriculture mostly but there are also some chickens hanging around in the trees (don´t ask). Here, we amalgamate with another tour group to become roughly 20 people. In the morning we lose 2 though- an Austrian pair that just couldn´t hack it on the first day.
Everyone in the group is great- there are people from the US, Ireland, England, Austria, Argentina, Australia, and myself- the solo Canadian. No one seems to hang back too far either, which is nice. On the first morning while waiting for breakfast, there are rumours of a tour of a cocaine factory. Yes, it´s true. I couldn´t believe until I saw it either, but cocaine is a big part of Colombian export, and like coffee plantation tours- where there´s money to be made...
A bunch of us pay our $12 and follow a man from the farm into the jungle. Shortly after crossing a couple creeks we come across a small clearing and see a type of shanty set up. This clearly is not a cocaine factory, but we are told that the real deal is just a ways up the hill. This area is set up to show tourists just how cocaine paste is made from coca leaves. The man goes through the process, explaining what chemicals are used and how, going through various filtering processes, etc. It´s actually quite sickening to know what is used- gasoline for example is a key ingredient, but one that is extracted towards the end of the process. The whole tour takes about an hour and if nothing else, kills the time until breakfast.
We set out again for another 4 hour day- not overly challenging but a good pace. We find that there is quite a bit of downtime when we get to the second shelter, and thankfully some people thought to bring cards. The tour guides are also quite entertaining and on the second night we hear some live Colombian rap from 2 of the guys. Surprisingly it is also relatively comfortable sleeping in hammocks, and I find that my worst night of the trip is the only night where we sleep on a flat surface. I´m thankful to have brought a sleeping bag too, because the temperature dips pretty low at night.
The third days marks our arrival at the Lost City, and it is definitely the most challenging day- approx. 7 hours of hiking and 9 river crossings. The final challenge is the climb up more than 2000 steps to the ruins. The view at the top is spectacular though and worth every effort. We are the only people at the Lost City with the exception of the some 28 military personal ordered to keep watch of the archeological site. We soon discover that these military are quite bored out here all alone and seem to really enjoy the tourists that come through- some of us girls got some nice pictures with them holding us up and posing with their rifles.
We do most of our touring of the city the next morning. This is where we learn the history of the site- built by the Tayrona Natives in the 8th and 9th century but abandoned around the time that the Spanish arrive and discover that it is rich in gold. All the Tayrona are believed to have been wiped out by slaughter, disease, famine, etc. The city was re-discovered in the 1970´s when gold artifacts started turning up for sale in the markets of Santa Marta.
The fourth day after touring the site, we head back the way we came and spend the night in the same shelter as night 2. Similar events take place- eating, chatting, playing cards, and heading to the hammock around 930pm. The most difficult part of the tour may be getting up early every morning in the freezing cold and putting back on the same soaking wet and smelly clothes and shoes as the day before. Day 5 we visit a couple impressive waterfalls, but I decide not to climb down and swim in them because I feel my good luck at not injuring myself may be running out. Day 6 we find ourselves back at the village for lunch before piling back into the trucks to head back to civilization.
The whole group got along so well that we all decided to meet in the next town over- Taganga- for drinks to celebrate our success. Some of us are still travelling together at the moment- Nick, Maxi, and I just got back from Cabo de la Vela, and are heading out to Carnaval in Barranquilla with 2 others from the group tomorrow.