Lost City Trek, Colombia

With Keoni and I battling some unsettled stomachs while in Santa Marta, we delayed starting the Lost City Hike and were debating whether to commit or not. We eventually did and so left Tristan and Amber behind in Santa Marta while off we went for four days of walking in the Colombian jungle.

Day 1 – El Mamey to Camp Adan

The first day was a bit of a slow start with a couple of hours sorting details out in the tour operators office and then an uneventful drive to the hike starting point at El Mamey. We had a big lunch at El Mamey before starting the hike at midday. Given we started in the middle of the day and the first few hours are all uphill along a road through farmland (no tree cover), it was a very sweaty affair. The pace was slow with very frequent stops as we crawled our way up 580m of ascent that afternoon. We stopped for a fruit break after about 2hrs of walking as the clouds quickly rolled in, obscuring the sun and soon opening up to rain down on us all. This made for an interesting hour as the clay road became a slippery slide everyone was battling as we started to descend to the first camp. I ended up sliding backwards down the road on my hands and knees, Keoni slipping onto her bum and Eric sliding down the whole hill sat flat on his ass. We all arrived into camp drenched to the bone and covered in thick mud. Thankfully they have running water from the river in each of the camps and off we went for a scrub down and to change into some dry clothes. That night we played some cards, drank some beers, ate dinner and all crashed out early in preparation for the first full day of hiking the next day.

Day 2

The next three days consisted of 5am wakeups and 6am departures from camp. A sweaty night with some dog barking didn’t affect my sleep too much and then a hearty breakfast of eggs and toast before putting on our still wet shoes from the hike the previous day and heading off in the early morning light. Again, it was a very sweaty first half of the day as we trekked to Camp Mumake for lunch. We were now walking through the jungle so it was slightly cooler out of the sun and we marvelled at the beautiful views in the valleys as the sun crested the surrounding mountains. Lunch at Mumake was a 2hr affair with a swim in the river thrown in while our clothes dried off proper in the sun.

After lunch we continued on to Camp Paradisio. Again like clockwork, 2pm rocked up and so did some torrential mountain rain. The guides said this is unusual for this time of the year and even they were caught unprepared with only their summer gear packed with them. Normally during the wet season, they have different shoes and clothes to better deal with the wet conditions. This time the rain came down harder and longer and we spent nearly 2hrs sloshing through the mud and crossing swollen river crossings with water heaving up to our knees and listening to the heavy raindrops on the jungle. Frogs and crabs galore (who knew crabs lived up in the mountains in the jungle!) and after a little wobble by Keoni in the last 10minutes before camp, we all arrived into Paradisio wet and tired.

Day 3

On the morning of day 3, our group set off earlier than the others in order to be the first up the 1200 steps and into the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida). Believed to have been built around 800 AD, it would pre-date Machu Picchu by around 650 years. It is unknown why it was abandoned and then lost to history only to be discovered again in the 1970’s by treasure looters looking for burial sites with gold and crystals. It is believed due to the dense jungle, only 30-40% of the potential sites in the Sierra Nevada mountains have been discovered and explored. Even without this knowledge, the site itself is very interesting with its size taking me by surprise. We wanders the many terraces and stone steps, listening to our guides explain the history.

After a couple of hours in the complex, we made our way back down the extremely narrow and steep steps and back to camp where we quickly packed up our gear, had some lunch and took off back along the trails we came to try and beat the expected rain we’d had a 2pm the last two days. Keoni and i put the speed on and left the others behind, arriving at Camp Mumake before 2pm (there was no rain today anyways) and heading down to the river for a swim.

Day 4

Knowing it was the last day and we were due to leave the jungle and move into the more exposed farmland again, Keoni and I again decided to hit the trail hard and early in order to get back to El Mamey as soon as possible. 4.5hrs instead of the expected 6 and we were back in El Mamey resting ready to head onwards to Palomino where we would meet Tristan and Amber for a few relaxed days.