Indiana Jones and the lost city...

Hola from San Gill, a pretty little Colombian town in the mountains 12 hours south of Santa Marta and halfway to Bogota. Just arrived today after a bumpy and windy overnight bus trip. Needless to say am feeling a bit ´zombied` out...

So yeah made it back from the 6 day lost city (Cidudad Peridia) hike. Was brilliant!!!..Complete with Indian villages, snakes and paramilitary..The hike is a reasonably tough trek with some steep never ending sections through heavily cleared areas to remote virgin rain forest. The area is heavily controlled by paramilitary and we passed through their ´posts´ on route. While some of them were friendly their not the sort of guys u want to upset or meet in a dark alley! I learnt that they are actually employed by some of the wealthy landholders in the region to keep the guerrillas away so i guess they were on our side. While being illegal the government turns a blind eye to these private armies as they do a pretty good job that the government doesn´t have the resources to do.

Back to the trek. I´d never done a organised hike before where all food and gear is carried for u. But in this case it is the only way to do it and was good fun. There were about 11 of us all up, a couple of other aussies, swiss, german, canadian, english and a colombian. So a real multi-cultural mix. Everyone got on well and i meet some great people. We had great nights playing cards, stirring each other and generally just mucking about. Accommodation was in purpose build cabanas with open air kitchens and space for our hammocks. Food was lots of rice, pasta, vegies, tuna and dodgy salami type meat. We had two porters and cooks and a guide. Horses were used to carry food in to the first 2 camps. Our guide, Omar was very knowledgeable and entertaining.

The Tayronian Indians who inhabited the lost city (Tayrona) were the most advanced indigenous groups in the region. They had evolved complex social and political systems as well as advanced engineering. It´s believed the city was abandoned in the 14th century when the spainards came and decimated the local indigenous cultures in their search for gold. Surveys have found about 300 other cities in the surrounding slopes with Tayrona being the ´capital´. Today it is still very impressive. It is set on a steep ridge at 1500m and has some 1300 small stone steps to climb! A great leg work out.. As well as lots of steps and paths there are lots of round house sites and there is even a map of the city carved into a rock.



Our camp at the lost city was set in a spectacular jungle setting close to the ruins. There were a couple of other groups doing the same trek so in total there was about 30 of us staying there. I think the lack of other tourists and amenities is what made it really magic. We spent one night there before returning via the same route. It was a lot quicker going back and we probably could have done it in a day less but it was nice hanging out in the group, swimming in the many creeks, teaching the local kids how to make water bombs, sharing meals, playing cards etc.

I´m travelling with a fellow Aussie, Narelle from the hike so is great to have some company. The plan is to spend a few days checking out some of the colonial towns on the way from here to Bogota. Then from Bogota i will make my way down to Ecuador where i´m hoping to check out the amazon and get out to the Galapagos islands! This trip keeps getting extended. I´m also considering ditching my return ticket home and poss going back to skippering in Greece or possibly Croatia for the European summer season. So have some serious thinking to do. Australia is great but just so far away!

Hasta luego,
D.