A humid trek to Ciudad Perdida

May 18 - 22

My last big thing I had planned in South America was a 5-day trek to Ciudad Perdida through the jungle near Santa Marta in Colombia. The trek is well-known for being reasonably tough in a very humid climate, with the trek itself being just as interesting as it's destination.

Ciudad Perdida, which translates as "Lost City", was the capital of the Tayrona people of the coast of Colombia. Believed to have been built around 800 AD - well before Machu Picchu - the city was abandoned by the local people during the Spanish conquest, as the diseases the brought with them decimated the local population. The Tayronas disappeared further into the hills and mountains. Their descendants eventually returned to the lower valleys, and visited the city on numerous occasions without it being known about by the rest of the world until it was discovered by grave robbers in 1973. It is now archaeologically protected by the government.

The first day started in a pretty typical laid-back Colombian fashion, with a lot of mucking around before we finally got on the road and to the small town of Machete for lunch. We then started climbing up into the hills. It got very hot and sweaty very quickly, and we were glad for a swim in the river to wash off some of the sweat at one stage. It was quite overcast but this only made the views look kinda moody:

The view down into the valleys below - while swimming in sweat

The guide pointed out numerous cleared locations where coca plants had previously grown. The area of the trek was once a very popular area for the cocaine trade, but is now considered safe due to extensive government efforts to secure the area from paramilitaries. As recently as 10 years ago, some tourists were kidnapped on the trail (although they were eventually released without harm).

It often rains around these parts, and had done recently, causing some of the muddy slopes down to be very slippery. With a few muddy bums, and a very draining 4 hour walk, we eventually arrived at the accommodation for the night. It was an open-aired cabaña, which consisted of some 60-odd hammocks, complete with mosquito nets and blankets. It was mostly full and the people running the place did a good job of preparing dinner for everyone. It felt a little bit touristy, but was still out in the middle of the jungle.

The cabaña on the first night

We were woken up early in the morning to hit the trail again for another eight hours of walking. It was made well worth it when we saw some of the views of the dawn along the way...

Dawn in the jungle

To recover from the humidity, we had quite a long break at lunchtime, including a swim in the river to (once again) help cool off...

Having a break from the heat in the river

The trek itself was also quite interesting, some nice views, a few indigenous villages (more about that later), trees with huge leaves and tropical-looking flowers, nice waterfalls...

Some mules approaching up the path

A lizard

After dinner, the guides gave us some information about the ruins site as well as some of the indigenous villagers who still live in the area. Early the next morning we set off as the first of three or four groups - the guides coordinated so each group had the site to themselves, which I thought was quite well organised.

After half an hour along the river we saw the same view first seen by the grave robbers 40 years earlier - the first of 1200 stone steps heading straight up the steep slope. A very calf-straining climb later, we arrived at the site.

The first of 1200 steps to Ciudad Perdida

Some of the stone circles in the lower areas which were the foundations of the houses in Ciudad Perdida

The highest terraces where ceremonial events took place, a very commanding location

Behind the main ceremonial terraces, a track continued up onto the hills behind. This was also the location of an Colombian army encampment, which serve to secure the area from paramilitaries. It was quite strange looking down on a important archaeological site with a row of seven soldiers with machine guns standing right behind you...!

Looking down on the main area of the site

A little "89" butterfly that landed  on my shoulder

The area is still used by the indigenous villagers for important ceremonies. However because tourists are visiting the site in more and more numbers, they visit less often and now the site is closed for just 2 days a year for their ceremonies. It's a bit of a shame really that the tourists have had a detrimental effect on the people for whom the site really belongs in the first place.

The Tayronas were also a rather intelligent people. Two stones found within Ciudad Perdida have been carved out with maps, one of the immediate area and one of the large area, with shape of the top of the stone representing the largest mountains in the park - quite impressive given how many years ago they were carved.

A rock carved out as a map of the area - each line represents a river in the local area, and the guide is pointing to the location of Ciudad Perdida.

It was then another 2.5 days trek back out again, but we got to see a couple of things we hadn't seen on the way in. One was an indigenous village, and they let us come and have a bit of a look. The guides explained some of their somewhat unusual customs, and talked about their very male-dominated society. The women are not allowed to wear shoes (only the men and boys), and strictly speaking are not even allowed to talk to the tourists passing by. They have their own language, although usually understand a bit of Spanish. They were all very shy too.

Some of the indigenous women and children in the village we visited. The guide left them some food (in the blue plastic bag) in return for letting us visit and take photos.

The houses in the indigenous village

The last thing we saw was a small coffee finca, or a coffee-making farm. The man running the place pointed out the coffee plants and talked us through the process of converting the raw beans from the plants into coffee:

The raw beans off the plant (red) and the inner beans that were covered in a jelly-like substance (white) 

The jelly is cleaned off the beans and they're dried out

The outer shell and skin is peeled off to reveal a dark dry bean underneath

The inner beans are then roasted in an oven, and sold like this (or ground)

I've never been a big fan of coffee, but thought I'd better try some, and I think it tasted quite good (although I'd never really know the difference). Most of the famous coffee-growing area is in the south of Colombia, but it was cool to see a small finca here in the north. It's a bit of a pity that almost all Colombian coffee is exported overseas - any locals who drink coffee normally make do with Nescafe.

So, after 5 days trekking through the humid jungle we made it back to Santa Marta and I was very glad to have a decent shower and put on some non-sweaty clothes. The next morning I had a flight out to Bogotá, the start of my way out of South America. In several days I was due in Vancouver - but not without another few adventures and experiences along the way...