20 December 2019 | Colombia has its own Machu Picchu, namely La Ciudad Perdida (or the Lost City). It’s a gorgeous experience and a beautiful guided hike, taking you across all the hilly landscapes of the area. Although you can choose to make the hike in 3 days (and up to 5 days), we chose the 4-day hike, which is a perfect compromise. So, it took us 3 hiking days through the jungle, fighting heat and mosquitoes to find finally find this treasure (and then 1 day to come back)!
A little bit of the history of La Ciudad Perdida
The place got its name, Ciudad Perdida, because it was lost for about 1100 years! Created around the year 800 AD, this civilization was (re)discovered in 1972. Our guide, Wilson, told us the story about a group of gold hunters (guaqueros or huaqueros; grave robbers), including three brothers, that heard rumours about an ancient indigenous city in the jungle. The indigenous man who had leaked only part of the secret to these brothers had suddenly all ears on him. The brothers got him drunk that night, befriended him, and asked all kinds of questions until one little detail escaped the drunk’s mouth, “The city is close to a river.”
Since the jungle has many rivers, it took the brothers years to finally find the lost city, completely covered in green and braches. Welcome to the jungle.
Back in the year 800 AD, about 200 tribes occupied the area around the lost city. They had over 50 different languages but with the same religious practices and joint priest meetings. Yes, Ciudad Perdida was kind of a spiritual city where all shamans gathered from time to time. And here’s where the guaqueros enter the picture, the indigenous tribes’ rituals (based on a belief in afterlife) included burrying their deceased shamans with their gold and other valuables under their homes.
Once found, the brother started looting graves one after the other. Although the newfound plundering spot gave them incredible wealth, it wouldn’t take long before other plunderers realized what was going on. In short, greed led to conflicts (even within the family of the brothers), conflict led to the killing of one of the brothers, and the whole thing quickly escalated. Looters managed to steal about 70% (not hard evidence) of the treasures buried in la Ciudad Perdida before the state of Colombia stepped in to protect the lost city.
According to Wilson, some of these guaqueros later initiated projects to preserve this unique place and to repair the damage they’d caused from the looting. This was eventually the seed that started the guided tours that take thousands of curious and adventure-seeking tourists alongside the indigenous societies and green landscape leading to the Lost City.
Some tribes decided to move back to those isolated land to protect the city. Today, we find predominantly three tribes in the area (Wiwas, Koguis, and Arhuacos) living side by side, strategically placed to accommodate their needs.
The Ciudad Perdida Hike
You spend 4 days walking through small paths in a jungle environment, so the trip definitely requires a guide. Several companies offer these group tours from Santa Marta, and we chose the tour operator ExpoTur based on word of mouth recommendations.
On the first day, we arrived early to the Santa Marta ExpoTur office to pay and leave our big bags. ExpoTur even arranged to pick us up at the hotel and bring us to the office. Little did we know that we were staying just around the corner from the office. Honestly, it felt a bit embarrassing having a guy come and pick us up, only to lead us one block (not the strongest start).
After some time of waiting, drinking coffee, finalizing the formalities, and getting a T-Shirt (oh yes), we jumped into a 4×4 (four-wheeler) to reach the village of El Mamey and start the hike. Here we got to know half of our future hiking group, especially three super cool British; in order of appearance: John (Yamyam), Courtney (London kind of), and Jackie (Yamyam kind of).
Once the car couldn’t take us further, we followed an uphill dirt path under the sun, which felt like an eternity for some. Luckily, we gained back some motivation once we reached our first checkpoint where the guides served us sweet, machete-sliced watermelons (included in the tour price). Still, after the well-needed break, it took us a couple of hours under the sun to reach the 1st camp.
While the walk may be a challenge for some, you get to experience amazing landscapes and viewpoints all the way up to the first camp. A beautiful warmup.
Anyway, we realized and saw who packed smartly (light backpack) or not (5 kg backpack filled with cotton clothes) already on the first day. Fortunately, we belonged to the first of these two categories – and even this included heavy walking at times.
In the evening, everyone was already tired, and we started getting to know each other around a great warm meal. We had:
– A group of skilled and competitive Colombian hikers (why in such a rush?)
– 3 Danish students (goes without saying that they brought the Scandinavian shyness).
– 3 British (our personal favorites this hike; 2 Yam Yams and one Londoner kind of).
– 1 French (PASCAL).
– 3 Guides (Wilson, Samir, and Dobber).
Wilson, our chief guide, walked us through the planning of the following day during the dinner. A long day ahead of us and we’d start early… Better get some early sleep in one of the mosquito-net protected bunkbeds. Day 1: Check!
The camps are equipped with bunk beds with individual mosquitos nets, toilets, showers, and real meals! Plus, they are located next to the river. And after a SWEATY day, a dip in the river (jumping from a three-meter cascade) was incredibly amazing!
Second Day, breakfast at 5 am, no mosquito bites, and we felt well-rested. We started walking with the sunrise at 6 am. The night had been super rainy, real tropical rain with thunder, so the path was muddy and slippery, which means walk slowly and in line.
Halfway through the uphill rusty-colored mud path, we passed a small house playing funky music from the inside with an amazing view over the fog-covered mountains. The sun is slowly rising!
We walk until 11h (with some break and food) before arriving at Camp number 2 where a delicious lentils soup and a chicken dish were waiting for us. After a jump into the river and some rest, we continued to Camp3.
Here, we started noticing that the communication about departure times was a bit messy. “You can rest for 30 minutes” could easily mean that Dobber, the 16-years-old-looking 25-year-old guide, would tell us “Vamos!” with a nod just 10 minutes after. Best to grab the bags and follow the group then…
This second day was demanding.
Despite the language barriers, our group continued to mix and play games together. We really connected with the UK group and the seven Colombians that evening. The Spanglish “Times-up” is an ice-breaking, friend-making game. And then there’s beer and rum as well.
Like the first night, the second served us crazy and violent rain, and we were all inside our mosquito-protected beds at 21h (with earplugs).
Third-Day, everyone was smiling, we were finally going to experience la Ciudad Perdida! Same routine as always, early rise and breakfast. After leaving the camp at 6 am, we arrived at the river that the guaqueros (looters) were looking for back in the 70s. The current was ruthless after a whole night’s rain but our guides secured the way for us, and we cross between two ropes.
On the other side of the river, about 800 uphill steps leading to the Lost City were waiting for us. Everyone had their own rhythm. Let’s climb!
It feels like being in an Indiana Jones jungle scene (the one with the trap-filled maze)! The steps were built of big rocks covered with moss, and the mountain walls surrounded us like a steep green tunnel. We could see the sky changing color through the leaves of the trees, the sun was rising. We could already feel the uniqueness of this place, that being here was special.
At the top, after receiving our Ciudad Perdida passports, we were welcomed by a small parrot on top of a palm tree and discovered a large open space. These were the first terraces of the Lost City. We call them terraces as only the rock outline of the houses remain. The bigger and higher the terrace, the more important the shaman.
We learned about ancient rituals and believes, and we admired the light of the sun slowly reaching each terrace. We spend some time here contemplating and feeling the ancient vibe.
Once charged with Ciudad Perdida massiveness, our guide brought us to another green corridor with steps to discover a village belonging to the Kogui tribe, which was close by. The daughter of the chief came to welcome us with her daughter (Nais was her name… lol). Koguis and Wiwas are the main tribes in that area, adults and kids are all dressed in white. The kids many times wearing white tops that look like a white potato bag. On top of that, all kids have long black hair, so it’s next to impossible to separate the girls from the boys. The trick is to look for necklaces, belonging to girls, and traditional indigenous shoulderbags, belonging to boys.
Finally, it was time to go back to the camp for lunch… We did it!
We continued to camp 2 in the afternoon and enjoyed our last day in the jungle with some well-deserved beers, music, and gringo salsa-dancing.
This was the most amazing night of them all. The transition between day and night was extreme. Once the “day animals” had gone to sleep, the nightlife took over. It’s hard to describe the different sounds, it was hard to guess which animals each belonged to. Fireflies all around the building, large insects crawling the walls, and spiders… best to bring a flashlight to the bathroom. This night brought no rain, no earplugs needed to fall asleep with the sounds of the jungle.
Fourth and last day, walk back down you will. We leave our Colombians mates in camp 1, they wanted to spend one more day there. We reached El Mamey with the danish, the Pascal, and the UK/YamYams around lunchtime for more cheering!
Exhausted, warm, and smelly, but still with smiles on our faces. Time for food, 4×4, and back to Santa Marta.
Thanks, it was amazing!
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