The Lost City

Hiking to La Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City, is a right of passage for travellers to the northern part of Colombia. Is it a city? Not really. Is it lost? Not exactly. Is it five days of intense hiking in the thick Colombian jungle on a trail so muddy and steep that the only way back to the nearest village is on the back of a mule while trying not to puke one's guts out? Absolutely, yes!

The Mountains Around the Lost City

Santa Marta is a sizzling hot coastal Colombian city with a lot of offer. But after several weeks with the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains staring us in the face we were starting to get an appetite for further exploration. The hike to the lost city is a 4-6 day guided tour through the mountains to a stone archaeological site that was built around the year 800 and considered holy by the local indigenous tribes. Our English friends Paul and Lily on Delphinus had just come back from the hike and are either in really great shape or were exercising their British sense of humour as they recommended we partake in this moderately easy hike through the "hills". They also suggested a tour operator called Magic Tours. After shelling out the 1.6 million peso fee for the tour, we were kind of committed. Our travel buddies on Aqua Vida signed up as well so there was definitely no turning back!

Papaya!

Day 1
Paul and Lily warned us that when you arrive as instructed at the Magic Tour office at 8:30 you are perfectly on time... for a 1 1/2 hour wait. You see,  "on time" for Colombians, and South Americans in general is at least 20 minutes after the scheduled time. You are technically only late if you don't show up at all and even then you might be able to still pull it off. This applies to opening times, meetings, bus departures, and apparently tours as well. So at 10:15 fourteen of us crammed into two Land Rovers and started the drive to Machete, the start of the hike.

By lunch time we had pulled up to a restaurant in the small town, which was the largest we would see  for several days. We were introduced to our guide Nicolas, translator Abraham, and the two cooks that would hike with us the entire way.

Welcome to the Jungle

After a quick meal, we started walking. If there is a specific moment in life when one realizes "oh, I'm now middle-aged" it can be traced back to the afternoon of February 1, 2017. This is when we found that despite believing we were in good shape we were unable to keep up with the younger members of our group who seemed to be ascending the trail without sweating or running out of breath. They would easily beat the "older folks" to the checkpoint but thankfully took pity on us and left us a few pieces of orange and watermelon. As the elevation increased we were treated with outstanding views of the valley below. Farms with cows and horses sprinkled around banana, papaya, and other fruit trees took on a golden light as the sun started to descend in the late afternoon. At first we made an effort to avoid stepping on the giant ants that crossed the trail carrying their large pieces of green leaves but we soon stopped noticing them altogether. Just as we started to feel like we had found a good rhythm, we peered in to the valley at the first camp. The cooks were already putting the final touches on dinner as we chose our bunks, had a quick swim in the river, and opened one of the most delicious cans of beer I've ever tasted. At 7:30 we crawled into bed and let sleep wash over us. Unfortunately it would not last long.

Giant Ants

Snack Time

Happy Hiker

Day 2
A few minutes after falling asleep, James and I were rudely awaken by loud breathing in the bunk next door. Very far from what you might be thinking, the breathing was the precursor to the loudest snoring I've ever heard in my life. Even with earplugs in and being exhausted, the irregular snoring rattled our brains and managed to keep us awake most of the night. We won't name names because we don't know the man's name, otherwise we would.

Camp

We knew it was time to get up when we could smell the fresh cafe and hot chocolate wafting through the camp. It had rained most of the night so somehow our soaking wet clothes were even more wet than when we rinsed them in the river. After a quick breakfast we were herded onto the trail.

Wiwa Village

Piglet

Toucan!

Although the second day was the most difficult part of the trail, the views were worth it. The muddy trails took us even further into the jungle, climbed higher into the mountains, and past indigenous Wiwa villages. The Wiwa people we encountered were shy but friendly and blew us out of the water in terms of physical ability. Men, women, and children, young and old whizzed past us going up and down hill, carrying sacks full of fruit, vegetables, and babies, and usually in bare feet!

By the time we made it to that night's camp, everyone was exhausted and crashed in the hammocks scattered around the camp. By that point, news of last night's snorer had made its way throughout the group but we managed to secure a bunk that was well away from the disturbance and had a much better night's sleep!

Day 3
The third day marked the final climb to the lost city. After some level ground and wading through the river we approached a stone staircase that was very steep, slippery, and with stairs designed for little feet. Just when it felt like the stairs would never end we asked our translator, Abraham how far we had left. When he said "you're about halfway now" we considered packing it in and heading back to the camp. We're glad we kept going as we were only two minutes from the top - the cheeky sod!

The "easy" set of steps

 Reaching the Lost City made the hours and hours of gruelling hiking worth it. The "city" is located between two river valleys and is built on the top of a steep hill. It features round stone foundations on which dwellings and religious buildings would have stood. Although the site was "discovered" by grave robbers in the 1970's the indigenous people in the area have known about it continuously throughout the years. Excavation of the site has been undertaken with the help of the Colombian government and the site is once again used for ceremonial purposes.

The Lost City

We were able to explore the sacred site for a while, having it pretty much all to ourselves. We climbed up to the top, which is overlooked only by a small Colombian army base which must either be the most coveted or worst posting in the military. Either way they were smart to be wearing boots as I had to pull a tick out of James' leg!

Lost City

On our way down we visited the nearest indigenous settlement and spoke with the Mammo, the religious leader for the area. He was chewing on coca leaves in the traditional manner, adding crushed lime powder from the gourd he carried with him. Our guides chatted with this wise man for a while. When they asked him what he saw as the biggest problem faced by his community he responded that people are not aware of the effects their lifestyles have on the natural environment. The indigenous people are traditionally seen as the guardians of the mountains and the river valley and they have managed to maintain the area as it was for hundreds of years. However this has not been without having to withstand the pressures put upon them by the Spanish and other westerners. They have had to defend their land against mining, forestry, excessive farming, and now excessive tourism. In fact, we wondered how many other "lost" cities had yet to be "discovered" and that perhaps this one was merely a sacrificial decoy.

Kate and the Mammo

Day 4
Returning along the same route we had just hiked was bittersweet. Yes we had made it through the jungle to the Lost City, but now we had seen everything along the way and we knew what a gruelling time we were in for. Thankfully it was slightly more downhill than up. At this point in the trek, hikers were able to choose between a four- or five-day hike. Most of the young-ins chose to finish early as it meant they could spend an extra day and night at the bars in Santa Marta.

We said goodbye to about half of the people in our group, including the snorer. We were very fortunate to have a group that got along very well and had similar interests. We have stayed in touch with many of the people we met on the Lost City hike. Meanwhile, the seniors in the group returned to the first camp we had stayed at on the first day.

WARNING: This part is gross!!
Along with a few other people in our group, I had been feeling a bit under the weather the previous night but was much better now. The day before some of our crew were throwing up along the road or back at camp. Almost as soon as we had eaten lunch at the camp, James disappeared to the bathrooms. Shortly after, our friend Danielle came back and let me know that help was urgently needed. James was very sick in the bathrooms with food and/or water poisoning. The bathrooms were fairly basic but did have flush toilets (which seemed to flush just out into the jungle). There was no buckets to be found so poor James was throwing up into a plastic cutout patterned garbage can with no bag in it. The only thing preventing the vomit from running freely out of the holes was all the used toilet paper filling the can. We very nearly had two people vomiting in that bathroom when I had to empty the garbage can into a plastic bag. I helped him into his bunk but knew we would have a long and disgusting night ahead and getting him out of the jungle the next day might be a bit of a challenge.

Day 5
When it was time to leave the next morning, James had recovered enough to have some Gatorade and start the hike. There was an option to ride on a mule or, once we were over the next hill, ride back to town on a motor bike but he wanted to try walking. Thankfully we were closer than we thought and we were back to the village of Machete in no time. After a short ride on some very bumpy roads, we were back on the highway to Santa Marta.

One of our guides, Gabriel

Our Translator Abraham

In the end, around half of our group had gotten sick on the hike in some way. We were glad we did it, but VERY glad to get back to the marina. One of the best parts of the hike was meeting lots of new like-minded people, including Thom who is sailing single-handed around the world, and James and Belle who are driving from Alaska to Argentina in their van. We invited them back to the marina for unlimited hot showers, which Overlanders seem to appreciate just as much as cruisers...