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| La Cuidad Perdida - but we had found it!!!!!! |
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| Yep - that's exactly where we're headed. Great news... |
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| Trick or treat? |
Upon arriving at Taganga, we decided to book our trek to La
Cuidad Perdida, the Lost City straight away. Later on that evening, we were
enjoying nature’s very own firework show with thunder and lightning. Guess
where it was? Right in the vicinity of our trek – nice. Good to see that
Halloween was celebrated as much in Colombia as the UK – we attempted to stock
up on mosquito repellent whilst the kids harassed the local shopkeepers with
those dreaded words “trick or treat”.
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| Getting used to the mud again, reminiscent of volcano! |
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| Using the only available option for cooling down, before the onset of rain - and you thought we were joking about mini rivers in the path! |
It seems that all South American treks have to start with a
rough car journey, and this was no exception – an hour over pot holes and
through rivers meant the rear end was more than ready to start walking. Within
minutes we were fully saturated, and upon getting to a swimming waterhole Tony
couldn’t get in quick enough. Drying off was not necessary though – half an
hour after getting out of the water the heavens opened, and minutes later
streams on the path turned into mini rivers – not the best for confidence in
your footing, with the ground being a muddy mess. Careful what you wish for –
Tony’s comment the day before was something like “I want to experience the trek
properly with a bit of rain”. Foolish.
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| A bit clearer the next morning! |
The dry bag meant that after a shower we could at least dry
off, then after a few stories with our fellow travellers it was time to jump
into our hammocks for the night – Tony’s first hammock sleeping experience.
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| Jungle and river fun |
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| A well deserved cooling off (no time for photos, mind you!) |
Since we were short on time we’d booked the 4 day trek, which
meant our wakeup call was 4:45am the next morning (the 5-dayers had a lie in
until 7!), and trekking started with head torches before sunrise. Lovely to see
the sun come up behind the previously hidden mountains, and showcase the beauty
of the lush jungle. We knew it wasn’t short on rain, that’s for sure! Also good
to do the majority of the uphill without the sun beating on our backs. We’d
been told that our ability to do the trek in 4 days depended on the height of
the river prior to the crossing later this day, so Tony was getting told off
for taking photos and slowing us down – strangely enough we then had time for a
swim later on that morning! Once through the indigenous village, we came upon
this dreaded river crossing, and were slightly underwhelmed – it was easy as! 5
minutes later however, we were crossing it again, this time needing to link
hands due to the increased depth and current – much more like it! Minutes later
we’d made it to the camino (camp) for that night, right in time for lunch. The
added bonus was we’d beaten the rain, so could have a very relaxed afternoon
before the push to La Cuidad the next day.
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| Indigenous village |
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| Happy to be in the sunshine! |
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| An easy river crossing to get to the foot of La Cuidad |
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| A well deserved pasta hit! |
The start time wasn’t quite so punishing, and before long we
were at the foot of the steps leading us to the city. We’d had to cross the
river though, and a miscommunication meant that Tony’s careful work to dry his
boots the day before was totally pointless… He couldn’t complain too much
though, as earlier on the day before he’d lost one of Annaliza’s sandals off
the back of his rucksack!
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| Jungle and ruins, what a combination |
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| La Cuidad, complete with leaf-like butterflies and lots and lots and lots of steps! |
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| Trying desperately not to smile! |
1,200 steps later and we were 1,200m.a.s.l. (coincidence?)
at the doorway to the city. Not that there was any door, just a network of
interconnecting steps, paths and terraces. A great sight to behold though, even if we’d been warned that "The road
of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our
lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” - Don Williams, Jr.
Attempts were made to translate the story behind La Cuidad Perdida for us, but
we were much more interested in enjoying the ruins (even if they were
significantly restored!).
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| A tale of diminishing Tonys in the Lost City - some strange vibes around! |
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| Annaliza was holding things up on the way back down |
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| Water fun - a bit of a more serious crossing and then a ungainly bomb... |
Headed back to the camino for lunch, after a quick dip in
the river, then it was a race against the inevitable rains that afternoon.
Unsurprisingly, the rain won, but not before 10 minutes of adrenaline walking –
first Tony absolutely stacked it on a slippery rock by a stream (Annaliza compassionately
asked “why were you rolling around on that rock?”) then we spotted a snake and
backed away speedily. For good reason – these can kill you apparently and our
guide wasted no time in utilising the machete, then a stick, and finally his
boot. Seeing the head still wriggling around after being removed from the body
was pretty special!
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| Another day, another village |
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| The locals taking some time out for the view |
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| More water fun, plus a rare glimpse of the Tassie Tiger! |
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| Tony and friends |
The last day was supposed to be a downhill breeze, or so we
thought. It’s amazing how quickly you forget the downhill sections on the way
to your destination, and we were unpleasantly surprised by the extent and
severity of some of the climbs we had to do. Annaliza was in a determined mood,
and with a group right behind us it spurred her on to take them at speed!
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| It's a nice beach, but remind me why we're here again? |
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| Job = done |
We got back to the start in decent time, but to the
realisation that we didn’t have any transport back to Taganga (after our guide
and his girlfriend had left without us on motorbikes) – not ideal! Especially
when the people we got dropped off with were going in the opposite direction to
where we were headed, turning a 3 hour journey into 5 hours. Definitely
increased the stiffness on our return to the hostel, but it meant we got to see
another beach, plus a pizza and proper mattress for the night was a good cure!
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| Not nice - thankfully looks don't kill! |
Key Learnings:
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| Not the most pleasant looking of celebratory meals! |
1. Applying a combination of mossie spray,
mossiesoap (a new one for us) and keeping covered can prevent the serious
eating attack we saw some other trekkers had suffered. That said, this
combination, mixed with factor 50 suncream and sweat, isn’t a refreshing
beverage, so not ideal that Tony’s beard funnelled this potent cocktail
directly to his mouth!
2. Putting on wet clothes in the morning is never
ideal but you’re thankful for it when you get to put on your dry ones at night.
3. Cats and dogs in tourist frequented areas do not
leave you alone at dinner time. Even 3 legged ones have a great knack of
jumping up on you.
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