A bit of Indiana Jones and possibly the best trek in South America 28th October - 1st November

Ben and I arrived in Cartagena last Sunday (26th), and travelled north along the coast to a small fishing village called Taganga. We spent a day lazing about on the local beach before setting of on Tuesday on our trek to the Ciudad Perdida (lost city). As well as Ben and myself out group consisted of the 3 Australians (Kim, Colin & Casey), who I have been running into since Patagonia (although this time was planned), two americans Anne and Darren, our guide Louis, his brother Felix and of course a couple of mules. The city lies within the Tayrona national park, which sits right against the Caribbean coast and is a huge mountainous area covered in thick tropical rain forest. The journey started by taking a mini bus along the paved road until the turnoff to a town called El Mamey. From here you would normally take a 4x4, however as it is the rainy season (not that the jungle has a dry season) the road was particularly destroyed that week. This meant a fleet of locals on motorbikes were called upon to drive us the hour or so up the road. What followed was a rather hair raising ride on the back of an off road motorbike, clinging on for dear life. Every so often having to get off as we negotiated deep mud and rivers. In the afternoon we started the trek proper, which was a 4 hour hike to the settlement of Machete Pelao (handle of the machete). There were ominous signs when we realised our guide was going to do this 5 day trek wearing welly boots! when we got to the first river he said we may as well walk straight through, cos it was going to rain soon anyway and we would no longer care! The first couple of hours however were done in the stifling jungle heat and humidity and at after the first really steep climb of an about an hour, we were all having serious doubts about whether we had done the right thing coming on this trek. However, Louis produced a giant watermelon which he carved into slices the size of your forearm with his machete, this combined with the start of the afternoon rain made us all feel much better. As it is rain forest is starts to rain everyday between about 2 and 4, normally lasting for 2-4 hours of heavy downpour. This instantaneously turned most of the paths into rivers and what isn`t a river is a muddy swamp. This is actually surprising fun terrain to trek in, once you are so completely soaked and covered in mud you don`t care, especially watching other people come to grief in their very own mud baths. We arrived in Machete Pelao just as it was getting dark, staying at the house of Louis`s father, who actually runs this particular tour agency. We slept in hammocks hung around the outside of his house, fortunately both under shelter and with decent mosquito nets. hammocks arn`t the most comfortable things to spend the night in however. The next morning we set off on the next leg of our trip, which was in fact only a 3 and a half hour walk. The scenery was stunning though, especially as it is so mountainous, meaning you get these amazing views across to jungle covered mountains and valleys. About half way we stopped at a river, Louis again conveniently producing a Pineapple, while the rest of us jumped into the river without bothering to change any clothes at all. We arrived at our next stop (an open sided hut near the river), about lunchtime. The river nearby was again ideal for swimming, with some fun rapids to jump into and get swept 50m or so down river. We got out just in time before the afternoon rains started, turning the river into a raging torrent of muddy water. The afternoon was spent generally lying about in our hammocks, with all of us asleep by 8pm!The next day we set of early with the city itself out destination. The 3-4 walk to the bottom of the staircase was the most fun yet, as as well as going though the mountain we had to walk up the river valley. This meant wading across the river a total of 9 times, and stopping at various good swimming spots to hurl ourselves from various rocks and waterfalls. The final river crossing lead us to the base of the staircase, almost completely hidden in the trees. We hauled ourselves out and began the rather gruelling 1200 step climb to the city. The city itself was built by the Tayronan Indians (the native people of the region), around 1000 years ago. It is the largest ancient settlement found in the region (only discovered in 1975) covering an area of about 2 square km. It was abandoned and lost when the Spanish arrived 500 years ago.After the first steep climb, we came out onto the first set of terraces which are basically round platforms which would have one day had houses on it. Each terrace supporting one family. We then climbed further to the most picturesque terraces with stunning views out across the jungle. These were probably the centre of the city. The is quite a large military presence at the city itself with various camps spread around the camp and lots of soldiers wandering around with guns. They were originally sent in the 70`s to protect the site from looters, but these days provide general security in the region. Although F.A.R.C are not particularly active in the region, a tour group was kidnapped in 2003 and held for over 3 months. With this in mind, it is quite reassuring to see the military and they are actually quite fun to talk to. They are mainly young guys, who are posited up there for 6 months at a time, meaning they are pretty much bored out of their skulls the whole time. We had brought some letters and magazines with us which were were gratefully received by the soldiers. We spent the night in another basic hut, this time getting to sleep on mattresses on the floor. We had all been looking forward to a night not in hammock, but soon realised this was a mistake. Lying on the floor, means sharing with all the beasties such as scorpions and spiders that prowl around at night! while we were having dinner a bug the size of my fist flew into my face, which was quite an experience. The next day we had a long day trekking all the way back to the place we had stayed on the first night. Howver by this point we had met up with another group at the city and were walking with them. This meant we had 2 guide and porters, this gave them even more of an excuse to generally mess around on the way back. At almost every river crossing they would all clamber around on the rocks finding higher places to jump in from. At one pint Louis are guide disappeared into the trees at one side, only to reemerge a minute later swinging several metres above us on a tree vine. Of course we all wanted a go of this authentic Tarzan experience! In the afternoon we had the heaviest rain yet, turning the path into a complete obstacle course of rivers and mud, but is also made it the best day of the trek by far. The last day we had an easy walk out to El Mamey, where we had lunch before setting off back down to the main road. the previous days rain had done even more damage to the road, meaning we could only take motorbikes half way down before having to get off and walk. The reasons were soon obvious as the road was no longer recognisable as a road as it had been pretty much destroyed by several landslides on the way.So we made it back to Taganga on Saturday evening, all of us agreeing that it was both a highlight of all our trips and also probably one of the best treks in South America!
O