La Ciudad Perdida

¨La Chiva¨- almost didn´t make it to the starting gate. Look closely and you can see the axle hanging down from the underside of the truck. We walked the rest of the way to the starting point of the hike.

We passed through some Kogi villages - descendants of the Tayrona people where they still live very quiet humble lives.

My hiking partners...Jeff and Mike from South Africa, Laurent and Samuel from France, Joe, Jerome and myself!!! Here we are at the Fountain of YouthMe and Jerome...We finally made it!!! VICTORY!!!

Its Saturday afternoon as I write from the old city of Cartagena, Colombia four days after returning from a 6 day hike to the Lost City in the Northern Sierra Nevada of Colombia. The ruins of the Pre-Colombian Tayrona people still remain mostly covered in the thick jungle moss of the mountains where they were discovered roughly 20 years ago. There are still few visitors to the site today due to the rough terrain one must surmount over 3 days to reach the Ciudad Perdida. Though archeologists had begun their work excavating the site 15 years ago, the indigenous people that still live in the surrounding area asked that they discontinue their work 5 years ago and return all artifacts to their original locations to preserve their integrity of the civilization and respect the people who are descendants of this lost city.

We started our journey on Oct 2nd...Jerome and I along with another PCV, two guys from South Africa, and 2 guys from France, a guide named Isisdro and his 18 year old daughter who was to cook our meals. We had a rough start when the truck that was taking us to the starting point broke down on the rough mountain roads and the axel literally fell out of the bottom of the truck. Getting a late start, we only hiked 2 hours on the first afternoon. It was in this beginning stage that I wasn´t sure I was going to make it on this journey. We found our first camp just after sundown, had a great meal, a warm beer, and fell asleep in hammocks with mosquito nets. It was the last night of good sleep for the next 5 days. Each day was slightly different...challenging and beautiful in its own way. The first day and half were most difficult for me...hiking uphill for 2 hours at a time in some cases. The second day involved a lot more winding path, up and down less steep slopes, and some beautiful rocky passes, where we were literally climbing through crevasses of beautiful red clay. This would prove to be challenging on the way back because the clay was so slick from the rains each night. The third day was more technical with lots of rock climbing, river crossings, and a final assent of 1600 precarious stone steps to reach the civilization. The day rest at the top proved to be helpful since we would descend from the mountain in only 2 days. We hiked on average 4-6 hours a day, stopping for snacks and a swim in the river at every chance. We got used to wearing wet clothes and hiking boots and lack of proper shower facilities very quickly, but it was all well worth it in the end when we reach the beautiful monument high in the mountains. We had a walking tour with our guide, jumped in the fountain of youth, and were in bed each night by about 8 pm to prepare for the next intense day. it was a great group of people, an excellent workout, and a challenge that I was glad to complete! In the end I felt similar to how I have felt after running a marathon...it was good to be done, but I was glad to have done it!