The Lost City, Columbia

Columbia: new country, new continent! As our boat approached Cartagena we were expecting to see a little old city or village. What we saw was a wall of highrises getting bigger and more ominous by the second. Cartagena is supposed to be a beautiful, old city with amazing food and a laid back Caribbean vibe.



This is exactly what it is in the small section in the centre for tourists, the ciudad Viejo. The rest is just like Panama city, cosmopolitan and modern. Luckily we stayed in the old city and for three days wandered past the old buildings, flower filled verandas and many artists. At night we partied with our boat crew, attempting to salsa dance with local guys or dancing on rooftops to homemade beat-boxing by Johno(an accountant of many talents). Columbia has this amazing, lively vibe that the laid back Caribbean culture cannot suppress. The people are beautiful and friendly and everything seems exciting and new.

Since I’d started this trip I’d wanted to do one thing, the ciudad perdida. This is a five day, hard trek through the jungle and mountains to the city that the legend of El Dorado comes from, the lost city. An ancient ruins now, it was once the power centre of the Columbian ancestors where trade of gold and other treasures happened every day. When it was discovered, a large gold figurine was found. This led to a search for more gold and the legend of the city grew. It is also the place of the fountain of youth and i wanted to bathe in that! It was a dangerous trek, 7 tourists being kidnapped in 2003 and held for 95 days but it was for political reasons and there is more security now.

We got to the start point and everything fell into place, a trek was leaving the next day and they would drop us at the Tayrona national park after. We stayed in a luxury hostel as a treat to ourselves the night before with air-con and a pool and the next day we were ready, physically and mentally for this insane endeavour.

The next 5 days were insane and stunningly beautiful. We trekked through jungles and up and down mountains in the suffocating humidity and tropical rain. We crossed rivers(one so strong our guide Pedro literally had to hold me and the rope to get us across), rickety bridges and climbed 1200 stairs. We slept in hammocks and bunk-beds infested with ants, mosquitoes and bed bugs and showered under waterfalls, in hose showers or just swam in the river. Once again our group was amazing fun, young and full of energy and interesting stories.

Our guide Pedro and cook, George were amazing. I thought I might get back in shape but all I did as eat enormous meals; amazing chicken and rice with salsa, omelettes on corn pancakes, vegetable soup or bean stew it was all incredible! Pedro provided a constant supply of Oreos and chocolate bars so we were never short of energy.

It was hard but amazing! Every so often I would look up from the hour long trek up a steep incline and see valley sprawled out in-front of me with little houses perched on the hills, ominous mountains shrouded in grey swirling clouds rising above me and so much green. They call this place the green heaven or hell because it is a tangle of vine and trees broken up by the occasional bright flower.

Finally, after 3 days of solid hiking, we made it. Climbing slippery green stairs (1200) we ascended into the lost city, the place of legends. It had been claimed by the jungle but it was amazing and beautiful without a fellow tourist in sight. Broken into 4 sections from where the rulers and priests lived to where the gold and ceramics were shaped it was now little more that the circular bases of buildings and the occasional kitchen appliance. It’s scary to see something that was once the central power of a country reduced to rubble, a tourist attraction for the new culture and people- I wonder if one day people will travel days to explore the ruins of Perth. After a morning of exploring we headed to the base of the city where a waterfall poured into a clear, icy pool which sunlight streamed through making it appear completely untouched. This was the ‘fountain of youth” It was freezing but we all got in. The waterfall seconded as a waterslide which was fast and awesome to slide down. Maybe the fountain of youth was just a mistranslation and this is where all the kids used to hang out.

After an epic 4 days we had the hardest part ahead of us. The last day we would hike the longest and hardest part, 7 hours up and down mountains. Of course 3 hours in I twisted my ankle(it sucks to be a Klutz) but thanks to Nurofen, a good bandage and my trusty stick, I made it. Walking into the village I was so happy to be the one wishing the next groups good luck as they walked by all clean clothed and fresh faced. It was fantastic but I was glad to sit down to our final meal together- a whole fish, salsa and fried plantains! Almost as amazing as the lost city!

Tayrona National Park

At the end of our trek Pedro dropped Jade and I off at the entrance to the stunning Tayrona National Park, a section of jungle overlooking beautiful beaches. After saying goodbye to our fun trekking crew we had another 1 hour trek ahead of us to get to our campsite. We stayed in the jungle, under a palmtree-leafed roof gazebo ‘dorm’ with about twenty hammocks. The place was full of mango, lime, avocado and palm trees and beautiful with a strange yellow glow to everything. After a dinner of crackers with sliced banana and mango we were done by 8 pm and had a great sleep. The next morning we headed out early.

The closes beach was Arreciferes, a stunning and misty beach with rock formations, white sand and a crazy swell. There is no swimming in this beach for us as it has claimed up to 200 hundred lives with the currents in the past.



 It is, however, the perfect setting for the most amazing bakery where we bumped into two friends from Cartagena. This place has amazing chocolate and dulce de leche breads and fantastic coffees and became our meeting place for the next two days of Megan and Florrence, two English students doing the opposite direction but same trip as us. Hours were spent on the beach eating bread, drinking coffee and discussing travel tips and life in general. It felt like a typical uni catch up in Australia but in a stunning setting.

We had one full day and we headed to Caban San Juan, the most amazing beach and a place of legends. Nestled between two rock formations it is a beautiful place with white sand, palm trees and calm blue water, the same as pretty much every beach in the Caribbean.



What makes this place amazing is the water is full of large, gold flecks of a shiny mineral that spurred on the legend of El Dorado. No, it isn’t gold but it is just as pretty and lying in the sand we all glistened gold. I’ve never seen anything like it, it was so spectacular!

Finally, after what felt like a fun uni beach holiday after the 5 days of trekking, we took the one hour trek back to Tagonga, collected our free T-shirt from Magic tours and headed on are now passing time on a 20 hour bus to Bogota.