November 12, 2013

We had another 5am morning, but we didn’t mind so much because we were finally going to Ciudad Perdida, the once “lost city”. It wasn’t really lost, the native people who live in the area knew where it was the whole time, but it was “discovered” by looters in 1972. It has since been protected by the government, partially reconstructed, and now hosts a permanent Colombian Army post.

After a quick breakfast, we hit the trail, crossed a stream and encountered a long, steep set of stairs.

Stairway to the lost city

After a 20 minute climb, we entered a grass covered courtyard. The group rested for a few minutes and than the tour began. The city had not been used for several centuries, so the guides could only speculate what certain areas were used for. My favorite was the teleportation portal. The locals would sit in a shallow, stone pit and their minds would visit other locations while their bodies remained behind. The trip was apparently aided by the use of some local medicinal plants.

The teleportation portal

Another interesting artifact was a large rock with many scratch marks all over the surface. Manuel said that the rock was a map of the area and displayed all the rivers. I don’t think I would use it for navigation, but it was cool.

Rock map

Eventually, we brought to the highest part of the settlement, which offered some incredible views.

Courtyard from above

Someone wants attention

Basillo’s photo of the group

The layout of the city seemed to be based on clusters of raised circular areas where huts once stood. Paths wound through the non-linear spaces between the circles. There were a few of the thatched huts in the lower part of the city, both new and old. The oldest one was somewhere around 50 years old, and was covered in vegetation.

Manuel and green hut

After two hours of wandering through the lost city it was time to hike back. We were headed back to Manuel’s place, where we had stayed two nights earlier. The hiking was much quicker, because we knew what to expect, but it was a long day and we were happy to see our hammocks. We spent our last night as a group chatting with Manuel about Wiwa customs.

November 11, 2013

We were pretty beat after a solid day of hiking, so we all slept like rocks in our hammocks. We woke up early again to get a jump start on the rain. After a nice breakfast of eggs, arepas, coffee and chocolate, we got back on the trail.

Worth the hike

It was a long day of hiking. The trail followed a swiftly flowing river, and occasionally pinched us out onto some narrow ledges perched above the churning water. A new suspension bridge finally led us across the river canyon, replacing a hand car which looked a little worse for wear…

That looks safe

We wandered through a small native village, made up of small round, thatched huts. The people were understandably stand-offish- we were just another short parade of westerners wandering through their town. Outside the village, fields were cleared out of the jungle where we saw some cattle grazing. We saw lots of pigs tied to trees along the trail. They didn’t pay us much notice though, lounging around in the shade.

Tiny village

Moooooo

Little piggy

We trekked along ridges, through pasture, on narrow paths through dense jungle. We weaved back and forth across streams, giving up completely on trying to keep our feet dry.

Waterfall

Chandler on a bridge

Eventually we made it to the final campsite before the lost city. It was a large camp set up to accommodate about 50 people. We were given the odd luxury of sleeping on a ratty mattress, in a tent, on the second floor of an open wooden building. We had a big pasta meal, then went for a swim in the river, which was frigidly cold. The other tour group shared the site with us, but thankfully they all seemed pretty exhausted, and went to sleep before 10 PM.