sorry, only google translate
Together with Ruth, whom we met in the jungle of Colombia, we are picked up on Friday morning and taken two hours to the village of El Mamey, the starting point of the “Lost City Trek”. For this we sit in the back of a four-wheel drive jeep, and this is also sorely needed for the second half of the road at the latest. It goes through the deepest mud ditches and through streams, steadily upwards.
After the rest of our group arrives, we get lunch and get to know our translator Camillo and our guide Daniel. During the meal something happens that we expected but somehow hoped to avoid. It’s raining. Easy at first, then it gets stronger. After it doesn’t let up after half an hour, we are rounded up and Daniel explains the way to us. Camillo concludes with the words “You will get wet, you will get muddy and dirty. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll have fun.” No sooner said than done, and equipped with rain ponchos, we set off into the rain and headed up our first mountain. Once wet, we get used to the mud bath under our shoes and actually only try to avoid the deepest mud pits. So used to the rain, we start to enjoy the situation and the landscape and on the way we even discover a 2-3 week old Armadillo cub looking for worms <3
Eventually the rain stops then a little later and we reach our first camp, reward ourselves with a (cold) shower, a beer and get dinner. We pass the evening with another beer and a card game with our hiking group, consisting of 2 Germans, an Austrian, a Spanish, three Colombians, Ruth and us. Then it’s off to bed early, because the next day (and also the following days) it will continue at 5 o’clock.
The morning greets us with bright sunshine, and so our clothes and shoes dry at least a little. We trek through indigenous villages and get a small lesson on the indigenous way of life of the Kogi tribe. They still live here largely according to their original traditions, without schools – but with televisions showing the World Cup – as farmers in their communities. And of course we wade through mud holes again and enjoy the wonderful landscape and the incredible feeling of hiking through the jungle without stress.
We reach our “base camp” again in the rain – but not nearly as much of a torrent as on the first day and after another routine of beer, food, card games & beer, sleeping and getting up at 5 a.m. is okay after crossing the river with a zipline, 1200 ancient steps steeply up to the “lost city”. And we are absolutely positively surprised. If we actually started the hike out of the attraction of the multi-day tour, the archaeological site turns out to be an incredibly beautiful, large and impressive city. It’s hard to compare it to Machu Picchu, but the fact that there are not 12,000 but around 80 people in the city gives us a completely different feeling for the Tayrona culture, which lived here for several centuries until the Spaniards appeared Has. Daniel and Camillo explain the peculiarities while we visit the four accessible parts of the city. In fact, it stretches over several km² over mountain slopes and is in no way inferior to the Inca cities in Peru.
After about three hours in the city, we make our way back to our third and last campsite. Here we first jump into the river to recover from the day’s march and to discuss what we have experienced over beer and dinner. Since we have to walk back the same way, we go to bed early again and start early – it is another 17 km to the starting point of the hike to El Mamey. With the highlight of the hike behind us, they are dragging on for quite a long time, and the constantly wet feet are slowly starting to get blisters. But we take it easy as a group, enjoy the sunny day and treat ourselves to an extended cake stop at the first camp. We’re the last ones back in El Mamey, but we think the food that’s waiting for us there tastes even better.
After saying goodbye to Daniel, Camillo and our cook Samuel, we return to the hostel in a jeep, where we spend the evening with Ruth. The next morning we take the bus back to Cartagena, the Caribbean islands are waiting for us…