Lost City Trek

6 days of trekking in the Sierra Nevada, jungle of Colombia will beat you up. This is why we have spent the last couple of days lazing about being anything but productive. Matt picked up a stomach flu that hit him right after we got back from the treck, and all of us in our group of 8--two English couples & 4 BC boys--were sore and tired of walking in the heat with big backpacks. Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable and incredible experience.

Check stop before heading into the Sierra Nevada.

Our trek started last Friday. We met at the Hotel Miramar at 9 in the morning, but didn´t depart until closer to 10:30. Our group included Karen & Steve, the English couple we dove with; Alex and Flo, another, younger English couple; Brad and Jayson, from B.C.; and of course Matt G and Mitch B! Anyway, we started by taking a land cruiser from Santa Marta to a small village in the Sierra Nevada. After a basic but delicious lunch, we met one of our Guides. His name was Gabriel and the other guide who we were to meet later that day was Uriel. They are both tough Spanish speaking guys standing in at 5 foot 4 inches. Tiny but strong!
20 minutes into the trek, we made our first of many swimming stops at a pool in the river. Since we were hiking in the heat of the day, it was very good to cool off. Soon after we started a big ascent to gain 120 vertical meters. With the sun blazing down at over 30 degree celsius and large 30 pound backpacks, this was a very strenuous beginning. Fortunately, after 2 hours of climbing we were blessed with overcast to finish our final 2 hours to the first cabano.
Upon arriving to our accomodation, we got our hammocks ready and then proceeded to play some cards and enjoy a dinner. After the card game, we were all quick to go to bed.
The next morning, we were given our wake up call with the sun at about 6:30am. Coffee preceded breakfast and shortly after we fused with another group to make a quick walk to a terrific waterfall. Matt dubbed it his favorite place in the world, so I will leave a spot for him to describe the magic in better words than I could come up with.



{Matt} Well like Mitch indicated, I have found my own personal paradice. Just upstream from where the trail meets the stream is a water fall that empties into a deep pool with high, smooth rocks rising up on all sides that you can dive off. I entertained myself with back flips from the lower ledges which was such a blast, but many of the others ventured to the highest points for an exhilerating jump. Then, just down stream is the most beautiful spot I have ever seen in my life. The water splits initially into two falls, one major falling down to the bottom and the second that splits into many others forming a natural water slide park look as they wind and weave inbetween the rich green vegetation. Then, at the bottom you can climb up under the curtain of hammering water of the major fall where you are thoroughly showered by other strong streams that was nothing shy of magical. Once inside the waterfall I did not want to leave, it was so incredible. Oh how I loved it there... Ok, back to Mitch!

After enjoying the rejuvination of the falls, we had a lunch then geared up to make our next walk. This was another 4 hour trek, including frequent breaks. Views of the lush, tropical valleys were abundant and if we didn´t need to watch our footing so carefully, would´ve enjoyed gazing upon the greenery the entire time.

Not Matt's favourite spot, but one of the many beautiful sights along the way.

Near the end of this stint, we passed a Indigenous village where we handed treats and gifts to the children. It was wonderful to have them accept the gifts and smile for some photos.
By 5pm, we reached our next cabano, where again we could swim in a refreshing river. I managed to spend too long in the waters, because got a chill which left me stuffed up and unable to sleep soundly. The plan was to eat, go to bed and burn it out the next day of walking.

The final stretch to the lost city before 8 river crossings.

We got up at 6:30am again, ate breakfast and got geared to start our long 7 hour journey up to the lost city. We climbed a couple of ridges and had plenty of breaks before reaching a riverside for a sandwich lunch. After getting sufficiently fuelled, we started our final hour of the stretch to the Lost City. This meant crossing the river 8 times and then climbing nearly 1200 stone steps to our lodge within the city. Despite having a walking stick, my legs were still shot and rather than exploring the city, I just got my bed set up and layed about until dinner.

The final river crossing to the base of the stone step access point.

This brings us to Monday, where we enjoyed a sleep in til about 8am, got up for breakfast and then went on a tour in the hot, morning sun. Our guides were only Spanish speaking, as mentioned before, so we had most of the tour translated by a German fellow from the other group. Very interesting tale of the history and discovery of the city that you can check out on wikipedia I am sure.
Lunch proceeded the tour, and then we got ready to start our return trip. On our way down the steps, we passed an amalgamation of groups which must have consisted of 50 people! The site is really taking off as a popular trek, despite its difficulty. Because of the masses of tourists everyday, the route is well patrolled by the Colombian military, most of which consists of soldiers no older than 20 years.


The walk down was easier than it was going up, but still was hard work for the legs to help the backpacks down all those steps. In just over 5 hours of walking and riddle pondering, we made it to a cabano just passed the Indigenous village. Meals were becoming lower quality with the food running lower and getting older, but we enjoyed a basic dinner anyway before going to bed.
Originally we were meant to go to another city site, Alto Mira, but because the guides noted that we were becoming visibly beat from the first few days, the discouraged us and we opted to spend our 5th day just relaxing. This is exactly what we did. The group we had fused with was only a 5 day trek, so they had to end their Lost City adventure the day we got to relax at the beautiful waterfall. Before the relaxation time, however, we had a short but very hard stint to go between cabanos. In my mind, it was the hardest day of the trek. With a steep ascent that nearly matched the first one, legs extremely tired from 2 back to back big walking day and the morning heat, I was glad to not have another 3 hours to go like the other group. Infact, I was content to swing in my hammock the rest of the day, but glad that we made another trip to the cascades.
On the final day, we got up, ate and made the last bit of our return journey in great time. At the place we had started our trek 5 days earlier, we had another decent lunch and then caught our same 4x4 back to Santa Marta.
We have been lazing infront of the tv in our hotel between meals, and tomorrow we finally make a move out of Santa Marta and on to Cartagena.