La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City) Trek in Colombia

The trek to the Ciudad Perdida lasted 6 days, and each day was more memorable than the last, so I will give a brief overview of every day. But first a bit of history:

Around 1974, a lot of gold and valuables began turning up in major cities in Colombia, and the government became suspicious, so did an investigation and discovered that grave-robbers had uncovered a "lost city" high in the mountains that used to be the home of the ancient indigenous civilization. There's a lot more history, but that's the gist from my basic comprehension of Spanish!

Day 1: I got picked up from my hostel at 8 a.m. and the jeep went around to collect in total the 5 of us in our group to do the lost city trek. There were two Americans (me and Joel, also from California!), Alicia from Belgium, Peleg from Israel, and Tracy from Canada. There were only 5 of us because we were leaving on Colombia's election day, and most of the other tour companies were closed. We got driven in a jeep through rough, ROUGH terrain to the little town of Machete where we had lunch and watched the locals play Tejo, a local game involving gunpowder and throwing heavy objects. We then did a four hour trek through exposed grasslands and jungle to our first night's camp. This was the hardest day for us, as it was uphill most of the way, and I was drenched in sweat almost immediately. Right as I was about to faint after what seemed like hours of nonstop uphill hiking, we had a watermelon break overlooking the mountains and jungle, and that fueled me until we made it to camp. Camp usually consists of wooden structures, without walls, with a couple outhouses in the rear and a dirt ground with hammocks tied on wooden beams for us to sleep for the night. We were fed a delicious, huge dinner. Joel got really sick during the trek up to the camp, and became violently ill, and could not continue on with us the next day. He had to stay back at camp and could not move or eat. We all slept around 7 p.m, as there is no electricity at all and it gets pitch black after sunset.

Day 2: Woke up the next day, and after breakfast (hot chocolate, eggs, rice, etc.) we all (minus Joel, but plus another two girls who arrived at the camp after we did) trekked on. The second day was supposed to be slightly easier, and the whole last part of the day's trek was steep downhill, and since we all know we're coming back on the same trail on day 5, I made a painful mental note that day 5 would be HELL. After much heat, wobbly knees, and sweat, we all made it to camp 2, which OHMYGOSH, had mattresses under the wooden structures! What a treat. We ate, swam in the river, relaxed, and waited for dinner. After dinner there was another group there who were on their way down from Ciudad Perdida, and they were a very handsome and beautiful group of professionals from Bogota. Well, it turns out two in their group just got MARRIED atop the lost city the day before, AND those two are incredibly famous Colombian actors in telenovelas. Because of their status and the group's charm, that night a local indigenous member, from a tribe called the Kogi's, joined us for an evening chat and the Bogota group told us about the history of the area and the tribes, and the native tribe member told us about their way of life. This is a very special and rare occasion as Kogi members are known to be very shy and offstandish. Photos are not allowed to be taken of them unless you seek special permission from the members, or have something to offer them. The trail we were on for this trek is shared by the Kogi's and us trekkers, so from time to time we run into them, and they are very stone-faced and nonresponsive to foreigners, even the little toddlers and children, but this was explained to us because they are very shy, and weary of strangers. Understandable. But the little Kogi children are all dressed in what I can best describe as white sacks/pillowcases with holes for their limbs. Very simple and cute on them.


Day 3: We awoke early, as this was the day we'd finally arrive at the city! We were told we'd have to cross the river about 9 times today, but thank god there has not been heavy rain yet, so we're hopeful the river is only up to our knees. We spend the morning and afternoon hiking up to camp 3, just at the base of the massive stairs leading up to the lost city. We lunch at camp, see that for the night's accomodations there is one wooden frame with side-by-side mattresses, so it's one huge bed tonight for everyone in our group! After lunch we wade through the river a few more times to get to the lost city, and we finally cross the river one final time and there it is--the beginning of around 1,800 steps up to the Lost City. We begin climbing, and the sun is slowly sinking lower and lower. After much panting, pain, sweat, and cursing, we arrive at the lowest level of the city. There are many terraces (around 180) that have been uncovered of the Lost City, and that has taken 6 years to clean up for tourists. What is open to the public is a small fraction of the lost city, but the government had decided to not uncover the rest of the city and terraces in hopes of preserving it. At this point our guide is explaining the history of the people and area, and a heavy mist had rolled in, making the place eerie and mystical. We climb among the terraces, and it begins to rain. We can barely see the views from the terraces, but we head up to the highest terrace, and that is where the military is stationed. THE MILITARY- there is a group of about 40 young Colombians stationed for around 2 months at a time at the Lost City for "security" reasons, to basically make the visitors feel safe. This group of young guys are BORED and incredibly eager to talk, take photos, sell their army gear, etc. So we all chatted with them for a while, and a couple girls from my group were in bikinis taking photos with them, and I got a photo with the group of them and gave some of them my email address when they asked. They were very nice guys, but it sucks that my Spanish is terrible so needless to say, I couldn't say much!! By that time they were all asking us to come back the next morning, and we said we'd see. It was raining pretty hard so we descended the mountain (slippery and mossy stairs about 5 cm wide!! My legs were wobbly and shaky going down!)

Day 4: A few people from my group wanted to go back the next morning to get better views (and talk to the military guys, perhaps??) but I decided to stay back at base camp along with Lori, another girl. Going up that thing once was enough, and I just wanted to enjoy my morning slowly. So Lori and I were wading in the river by camp, and I went back to camp, and there was a group of the military guys who descended the lost city to do their usual rounds around the mountains! They were some of the same guys from the day before, and were glad to see Lori and me, and offered to take more photos with us, and some wanted a photo with me, but this may be because they don't usually see Chinese girls? They wanted to write to me after their time in the lost city, and some offered to teach me salsa in three weeks. Too bad I'm leaving in one week! And I have two left feet! They eventually left, the others came back, we lunched, then headed out back to camp 2 for the night, where there were a lot more people from other groups who were on their way up to the lost city. I liked having the camp to ourselves.

Day 5: Said goodbye to Lori and Carly, who were doing the trek in 5 days instead of 6, and headed back to camp 1. Arrived super early at camp with the hammocks, and all took naps and lazed around, all in our damp, smelly clothes (nothing dries in the humid jungle). That night about FOURTY other trekkers arrived at camp! There were like a city of hammocks, and there were people eveywhere, each group with their own cooks running around the outdoor kitchen chopping and cutting things for dinner. As our cook said, when there are so many different groups, things get COMPLICATED. I went to sleep around 6 p.m. that night, but I could not fall asleep at all. It was so loud, and we all just drank tons of black coffee (why do Colombians insist on drinking coffee day and night, sometimes right before bed?? Apparantly the caffeine doesn't affect them like normal people!)

Day 6: Got up, and about 15 of us went to the Cocaine "factory" where we had to pay a fee and got led off the trail and through the jungle to this structure with a tarp over it to see how cocaine powder was made from the leaves and through an extremely complicated process. A local man (who probably used to be in the drug business, but through government intervention does this more of for an educational purpose now) showed us the entire process, and appalled us all by showing the ingredients for churning out the white powder--including gasoline, sulfuric acid, potassium, salt, calcium, among other things. Very interesting process, and time-consuming. Then we all headed back to camp for breakfast. After breakfast we made like the wind and blew out of there. The trek was very uphill and downhill today, and a pretty difficult day overall. We arrived in Machete around lunchtime and ate there before riding the jeep back into Taganga and Santa Marta. The first thing I did was SHOWER, since we all pretty much reeked from sweat and our wet clothes the entire 6 days. My heels were rubbed raw with blisters by the end of the trek, and I had about 40 mosquito bites total on my body, and strange scars on my face. A lot of my group members found ticks every day on their bodies throughout the trek, but I strangely didn't find any on myself, thank goodness. We all said our goodbyes, and exchanged information, and then went our separate ways, with very fond memories of new friends, laughter, crazy experiences, and visions of the lost city.


CONCLUSION: So that is a little bit of what went on every day. A lot more than this happened, but since I am exhausted, I cannot write anymore. This definitely is the highlight of my trip in Colombia, and I recommend this trek to every one. I am not that fit at all, yet I found myself leading the group most of the time!! Endurance and determination are all you need. It really also depends on your guide and group, and I was lucky enough to get some wonderful people, although there was only 4 of us by the end of the trek!


A family of indigenous Kogi's. The tribe was gathering for a reunion so along the road and through our camps we saw many of them traveling.

Relaxing and waiting for dinner!

Peleg and Carley trying out their new camera functions.

When the group came down to our camp!




A view into one of the camps.




Tiny frogs all over the river banks. There were many that there 1/3 the size of your thumb nail!


Blisters that were very painful to hike uphill. Damn fake Timberland boots I hastily bought in Bogota in preparation for the trek. Oh well, they were worth their money.

First night arrived in the Lost City, and the army soldiers were pretty pleased to see us, I think.



Wild pineapples.

A typical Kogi home. They are nomads and all live throughout the area, pretty far from each other, thus they have to travel to get to reunions of the tribe.


A random, huge turkey in one of our camps that gobbled constantly.

The first night, when all was calm and there were only 5 of us.

Tracy and a baby goat