Lost City trek

Ignoring previous warnings to give the Lost City trek a miss, due to the uncomfortable muddy state of the jungle, I booked a tour through the Drop Bear hostel. All guides are in a price fixing collaboration, so no matter where you book it will be the same 600,000 COP due a cooperative pricing agreement between the tour agencies. The Dropbear hostel did manage to find me a point of difference by booking trough Wiwa Tours who are the only company using local indigenous guides. There is no need to organise the tour in advance, I had no problems securing a spot the night before.

Unfortunately the hostel cook was having a day off on the morning of departure, so after an unknown but tasty breakfast from the major supermarket chain Exito, we were collected in a Landcruiser that drove us an hour out to the village to begin the trek to the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida). The 3 people in my car were later combined with another 4  trekkers, thankfully splitting off after the first night, separating the obnoxious other Aussie as they were completing the trek a day earlier than the 5 we had chosen. You have the option to complete the trek in 4, 5 or 6 days, all for the same price.

Luckily our group consisted of just boys, allowing us to keep a decents (not that all women are slow, it has been a common occurrence on this trip however) and we managed to sneak in to our first nights accommodation seconds before a serious downpour and crazy intense electric thunderstorm set in. Bedding for the 4 nights was in hammocks, the warm blankets combined with the inflatable pillow I brought made for a comfortable sleep. One thing that never ceases to amaze me on these sort of treks is the quality of the food provided, they also outdid themselves with fresh squeezed juice on arrival and hot chocolates once the evening started to cool down.

As our guide had set off earlier with the 4 day group, we were led by his 7 year old son who continually rode ahead on his horse, effortlessly manoeuvring the steep rocky path with ease. This kid was amazing as he kept us motivated and moving, so much talent at such a young age. We even got to meet his brothers and sisters who wanted to spend the whole evening being chased around the campsite by very tired trekkers.

Every day was spent strolling through a beautiful jungle landscape, its beauty kept us excited to push on to see what each new turn would surprise us with. Even though it was stinking hot, the reward of refreshingly clear water swimming holes made for an excellent reward for the hard work.

On the third day we woke up early to trek the last kilometre to the city that had been lost for over 300 years until recently discovered in 1972. The city consists of 169 terraces carved in to the mountainside, tiled roads and circular plazas can be reached by climbing the 1,200 stone steps through the dense jungle. Whilst it is not as impressive as Macchu Piccu and its standing structures, the local guide gave us a very good impression of what life would have been like for the inhabitants.

Upon atrival to the city, our guide led us around a circle of stones so that we could be blessed and gain entry to the sacred archaeogial site. We didnt even see a another gringo the whole morning spent exploring which was such a vast contrast to other ruins I have visited previously. Andreas gets a special mention for lugging his large old school camera in to the jungle to capture the perfect moment.

On our way out we almost trod on a highly poisonous snake, which this guide had to kill in case other groups came through that way, apparently it was the first one he had seen in over 3 months. He injured it with large stones and then chased it in to the bush to finish the job, later showing off the pictures to his family in the evening, in return they demonstrated a wooden device filled with bicarbonate soda as an activating mechanism for chewing cocoa leaves.