A Fresh Start in Colombia

Our 6 hour night bus ride turned out to be a 9 hour ride due to a power line that had fallen across the road. We arrived at 4:00 am, tired but still with a sense of humour. We rented a great little apartment in Santa Marta from a nice family. It was a 5 minute walk to the beach, it was spic-and-span clean, had air conditioning, 3 bedrooms, our own kitchen..... and was half the price of our Cartagena hostel! It was a great place to do our laundry and map out our plans for the rest of our trip. Less than 2 weeks left....

There was a trek that I had read a lot about, the Ciudad Perdida (literally translated 'Lost City') and Santa Marta was the trail starting point.

We have been so lucky to do so many treks on this trip. High altitude treks, cultural highland treks, Sacred Valley treks..... I didn't know if everyone would be up for one more. They have all been physically challenging and quite honestly, pretty exhausting. They have all been beautiful and rewarding and inspiring but Greg and I didn't know if the kids would appreciate them as much as we did.

We had a family discussion and with a unanimous thumbs-up, we re-packed our bags and got ready for our last South American multi-day romp.

We could never do hikes like this with all our gear. We stored the majority of our stuff and just compressed what we needed for the 4 days into the girls' backpacks: sleeping sheets, sunscreen, hats, bathing suits, two changes of clothes, a bucket of mosquito repellent, and our Preparation H for all the bug bites that we were fairly warned about.

We hiked about 15 kilometres a day, tough terrain with several river crossings thrown in for additional challenge (and maybe just to embarrass those of us with poorer balance). The scenery was exceptionally beautiful yet exactly what I imagined the Colombia jungle to look like; misty layers of green mountains densely packed with tropical vegetation.

What I didn't expect, but loved more than anything else were the little villages we came across. This was the real deal, not people dressed up for a parade or a Luau. Tiny circular mud homes with thatched roofs. Pigs and chickens running around and scads of the cutest kids literally wearing garments that looked like white potato sacks. They were. either barefoot or were wearing rubber boots, they all had matted hair but generally wore multiple layers of colourful beaded necklaces.

Although Greg and Levi were able to insert themselves in a little soccer game, it was typically hard for us to interact with the kids. Some approached us and asked us for sweets, but most just ignored us (and likely wished we would just go away). I found these encounters fascinating and often left shaking my head thinking about how these kids have such different lives than our kids in Canada. The kids don't go to school, the mothers are expected to teach them what they need to know and they tend to be working full time by 14 years of age.

My favourite cultural eye-opening moment was meeting this family in the video below. Apparently in these villages it is common for a man to first marry an older woman, one who has experience and can set up a home. After the home has been established, it is customary for the man to then take a younger wife and start another family. It is fine then for him to separate from the first wife, or, he can just keep them both. We met these women and learned that they were both wives of the same man; pretty sure the younger wife was about 16.

There is not much you can pack or prepare for to cope with the heat here. Almost 40 degrees Celsius with humidity that you could see hanging in the air. Although there were numerous swimming holes and river rapids to enjoy throughout the trip, we were soaking wet with sweat all the time -- seriously dripping. We would get up around 5:00 am, eat breakfast, pack up, and be on the trail by 6:00 am to try to avoid some heat. We would start dripping with sweat at about 8:00 am until we would arrive at our camps in the evening. Let's just say that our clothes and our shoes were not smelling 'pretty'.

"Dad! Stay away from me! You are gross!!"

Frequent fruit breaks were appreciated.

Levi's highlight of this trip was jumping off some of the river boulders into pristine swimming holes. He was vibrating he was so excited.

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The accommodation along the way was basic but charming. Communal eating areas, basic kitchens that produced great meals and bunk bed structures packed together tight. Somehow the sheer mosquito netting above each mattress seems to make it OK that you are sleeping beside a stranger. I did have a moment of regret wishing I had brought earplugs but ended up getting lucky that nobody seemed to snore.

Unfortunately on Day 2 of the hike Colby was awake all night vomiting. Poor kid. I was sure she had food poisoning yet was puzzled because she was eating and drinking the same things as the rest of us and we were all fine. She then got a fever so at least that confirmed that it wasn't the food or water, just a rotten time to get the flu.

Colby had to stay in bed the morning of Day 3 while the rest of us went to the actual Lost City ruin. It felt terrible going to the ruin without Colby. Terrible that it was the primary destination of the trek and she had to miss it.

We will have to "Photoshop" Colby into our Lost City pictures.

Ciudad Perdida is one of the largest pre-Colombian towns discovered in the Americas built between the 11th and the 14th centuries. During the Spanish conquest, the people were wiped out and their settlement disappeared under the lush tropical vegetation. It was only re-discovered in 1975 by tomb robbers.

We started early in the morning to get to the ruin. Twelve hundred narrow steep steps up to get there and then 1200 shakey steps back down, a good way to jump-start your heart first thing in the morning! The central part of the city is set on a ridge from which various stone paths descend. There were about 150 stone terraces that once served as foundations for the houses, ceremonial communal meeting areas, storage, and a sophisticated water distribution system was evident.

We were trying to figure out a way to get a mule to carry Colby back but she was feeling a little better after lunch. What a trooper! Although solemn, she put her determination face on and was able to make it to our camp 10 hard and hot kilometres away. She passed out in her bed about 5:00 and slept 12 hours. Better again the next day (but far from feeling like hiking in the heat), she finished the final 15 kilometres.

While the ruins were a fascinating place, the trek was really all about the journey, the Indigenous villages and the breathtaking scenery along the way.

A young mother does laundry while her children enjoy the stream.

The trip was a stiff 5 day hike that we compressed into 4 days. Sixty kilometres in length and we were either climbing up or going down. The grades were so steep going down was almost harder than going up. When we finished our legs were wobbly and tired and they looked pretty bad too. 

I ask myself , "how can this be a highlight of our trip when our legs look like this?"