The last week has been a really active one. I hiked for 5 full days to a city hidden far away in the jungle. This ¨cuidad perdida¨ has only been discovered back in 1972. Before this time the city was hidden for over 400 years. The trek was intense and a tad harder than expected. Read everything about it in my blogpost below!
Day 26
The saturdaynight became a partynight indeed. I went out with a few people from the Aquantis diving center which was really good fun. We went to a club in Santa Marta. Needless to say the next morning I slept in and took it easy for the day, it was a sunday anyway. Later that afternoon I booked myself onto the Lost City trek. It turned out to be a tad dangerous out there lately, as there had been a few landslides lately and some one camp got washed away by one of the landslides just the other day. The guy at the tourist office assured me everything was safe though and that their professional guides knew their way around the park like no other. That night I went to the movies with the girl from the diving center in Santa Marta. I nearly fell asleep as I was still tired from the night before, the movie called Salt was quite alright.
Day 27
The day started fairly early. I got up, packed my eastpak rugsack, checked out of my hostel, threw my big bag in the luggage room and waited for the van to arrive to take me to the Lost City trek. Unfortunately they were an hour late, so I had been rushing for nothing.
Once the bus arrived we were taken to the office where we waited for another hour. We got to meet the other people on the group, including two french-canadians, three dutch guys, a couple from Brittain and a girl from Belgium.
It took two hours to get to the start of the trek of which one on a bumpy, unpaved road through the mountains. Once we arrived we sat down at a restaurant for lunch, good as I didn´t have a proper breakfast in the morning. During lunch it started to rain pretty badly, which resulted in a really muddy trek for the rest of the day.
We hiked for a good 4 hours, mainly uphill which is really tough in this hot and humid climate. Underway there are these indeginous people who sell coca cola and Gatorade to thirsty tourists.
Four hot and long hours later, including hiking in wet shoes, we got to camp. There we sat down, drank some more Gatorade and had a shower. Meanwhile the guides were busy cooking us diinner. Dinner was pretty good with rice and chicken and there was plenty for everyone to eat. That night we all went to sleep in our hammocks around 9pm, as everyone was tired of the day trekking.
Day 28
We got up around 5:30am. The sun had just risen. We had some hot chocolate and then went to prepare for a little extra tour to a ¨cocaine factory¨. For 30,000 pesos (12 euros) a guy would show us how to make cocaine from coca leaves. He told us he would show us only the 2 of the 3 steps of the process, as the last process is secret and cannot be done in the jungle. He was only showing us how to make cocaine paste. We hiked for 10 minutes through the jungle and we arrived at a little tent where the guy had a lot of ingredients to make cocaine, including salt, soda, gasoline and a few other acids. It took him about 20 minutes to create cocaine paste out of the coca leaves. He told us as the final step the paste had to be backed in an oven with some other acids, which acids he didn´t know or wouldn´t tell.
After the little tour we got back to the camp for breakfast. We had breakfast and then moved on again through the mud in the hot sun to hike to the next camp. Thankfully the next camp was only 2 hours away, so it really litterally was a walk in the park. Once at camp we went swimming in the nearby river. The current was quite strong, which made it fun to dive in. We could also jump off a 5 meter high platform into the river which was great fun too. We spent most of the morning at the river. Afterwards we went back to camp for lunch.
During lunch it started to rain again, but this time really heavily. It rained for the full afternoon. We decided to stay under the shelter and play some poker. I nearly won the game, but unforunately I didn´t in the end.
After the poker game we played some more cards and then had dinner. After dinner everyone went to sleep again, as the next day was going to be one of the hardest.
Day 29
We got up around 6am again, we had breakfast and started on our 3rd day which was going to take us all the way up to the Lost City. We hiked for about 6 hours this day, all the way up to the 1200 steps that would take us to the lost city. In the process we crossed rivers for about 5 times. Sometimes to wastedeep riverwater. Needless tosay we got pretty wet. Some parts of the trek had been taken down by mudslides, which resulted in holding on to branches to keep continuing the path. The trek became pretty hardcore, but good fun too.
Completely exhausted we reached the top of the mountain after walking the 1200 stee steps. It had started to rain too, which wasn´t helping much either. Because the 3rd camp was washed away a few days earlier we were now allowed to stay at the Lost City itself, which was a nice bonus.
Unfortunately we had to share the cabin with 21 other trekkers, which resulted in 7 guys having to sleep next to each other on a few dirty matrasses.
That afternoon the weather cleared up and we had a little walk around the city. The great thing is that we had the city all to ourselves. Opposed to the Machu Picchu, the Inca city that was build 600 years after the Lost City, where there´s heaps of tourists who mainly get to the city by train. This city is only reached by foot or donkey. Which results in very few tourists visiting the place.
That night we had dinner in a nearby cabin. Some of us stayed up for a little bit after dinner to play some cards, but the majority of the people went to sleep to get ready for the next day.
Day 30
We woke up around 6am. We got up and had some hot chocolate. Afterwards we had a tour through the lost city by our guide. Unfortunately he only spoke Spanish, so most of us didn´t really understand what he was saying. The translation from the Belgian girl wasn´t helpful enough to completely get what he was saying. We were able to take quite a few good photos, which was far more important anyway.
After the tour we had breakfast. We packed our stuff up and got ready for our way back. We would hike all the way back to camp 2, which took us about 4 hours. A little less as most of it was downhill instead of uphill now. We crossed the river about 9 times this time, including a few really strong current crossings, which was good fun. A little less fun for the people who aren´t as tall as me though.
A few good hours later we got back to camp 2. We sat down and went over to the river for a little swim. This day we were fairly lucky with the weather as it hadn´t rained at all. After the swim we walked back for dinner. After dinner I had a little nap. Later on I played some cards and we drank a bit of rum that I had brought from Taganga. It didn´t get really late though, as we had to get up early the next day to get back to Taganga.
Day 31
Same ritual again. We got up early, had breakfast, packed our bags and walked all the way from camp 2 back to the place where we had started 4 days earlier. At camp 1 we had a little break and filled up our water bottles. The heat was again insane, so it became quite the struggle to finish the whole trek back to town. An hour before getting back to town I also got huge stomach cramps, which didn´t help either. Thankfully I was able to finish the trek and find a toilet in time. I blame the ¨purified water¨ that apparentñy was not as purified as the guides made me believe.
Once back we sat down for lunch, smelly and in our dirty clothes. Completely exhausted. The 4×4 jeep got ready who drove us all the way back to Taganga. It took about 3 hours to get back, as the unpaved road was hard to drive on.
Once back in Taganga I checked back in to my hostel, had a little lay down and then got ready to party with the other people from the trek. We had pizza at a local restaurant here in Taganga and afterwards we went to two of the main bars here. The night became a long and fun night. After the bar closed I sat down with some people I met in the bar for some more drinks on the roundabout on the beachfront.
Day 31
I slept in till about 2pm. I was too tired after the trek and the partying. I got up and met up with Ashley, the Australian girl who I met in Medellin. She happened to be back in Taganga, after she got scared in Equador and bought a plane ticket back up here. It was funny to see her again.
That afternoon I had some lunch with her and her friend. We just hung around the streets of Taganga and had a little chat with one of the local friendly bums on the beachfront. The night before he made a hat out of palmtree. When I told Ashley about it, she immediately asked the bum to make her one. The bum agreed and he started to cut down a leave from one of the palm trees in the street. In the process he hurt his foot by dropping a stone on his toe. Even though he was in pain, he decided to finish his job and he made her the hat. It took him a good 40 minutes, but the hat was really cool and Ashley couldn´t be happier.
Afterwards I went back to the hostel. I met up with some of the guys from the trek. We decided to go and have some Argentinian steak at Case de Felipe, a hostel nearby. The steak was again really good.
After dinner I went to one of the local bars where the diving shop had a little party to celebrate their best month since they had opened three years ago. I was invited to come too, so I went to see them there. Again it became a fun night with lots of rum. I had to walk the owner of the diving shop home, as the door of the diving shop is hard to open. Yet last time I tried it took me less than 10 seconds. After I walked her back I sat down in the street with Louis, the local friendly bum and two people from my hostel. I asked the bum how his foot was doing. He said it was fine. Meanwhile he was injecting pure cocaine in to his bloodstream. He explained how he wasn´t proud of being a cocaine addict, but that he was unable to get rid of his addiction anymore. The Australian guy warned him to make sure he would mix the cocaine with blood before injecting, otherwise he would inject pure oxygen which is very dangerous. The bum said he had done this many times already and promised to take a bit more care next time. At that point I said everyone good night and went to sleep.
Day 32
I woke up late again. No wonder after going to bed around 5am. I sat around the hostel and played some poker with some of the fellow trekkers, who happen to stay at my hostel too. Afterwards I met up with the owner of the diving shop. We went for some dinner at the mall in Santa Marta. I went to bed early that night though, as I was really really tired.
Day 33
Organising day. Today I am leaving to San Gil, a town famous for its adventure sports. I am catching a nightbus to Bucaramanga. From there I will have to catch a van to San Gil. Tomorrow I will probably try to some caving in the afternoon, which should be fun.
More news soon from San Gil!
Aug 1st 2010 – Aug 9th 2010
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