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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Colombia: Ciudad Perdida

Eje Central, the Lost City
It takes days of hard walking to reach the Lost City, but it's worth it

The trek to Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City of the Tayronas, has reached a fairly legendary status on the travelling circuit, and for good reason. It's a difficult multiple-day trek through tough terrain in northern Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountain range, and after days of slogging through the jungle, you end up at the stunning medieval ruins of the Lost City, where the lush tropical rainforest reveals one of the most beautiful and atmospheric archaeological sites that I've ever seen. This trek is being called the new Inca Trail and the Lost City the new Machu Picchu, and for once this isn't overblown marketing.

Peta at the Lost City
Peta at the Lost City
Final access to the Lost City is up a steep stone staircase with 1200 steps
Final access to the Lost City is up a steep stone staircase with 1200 steps
In its heyday, the circular platforms in the Lost City would have been covered in huts like these
In its heyday, the circular platforms in the Lost City would have been covered in huts like these

Five Go Walking

Our group taking a break on day three (left to right: Emily, Oliver and Peta)
Our group taking a break on day three (left to right: Emily, Oliver and Peta)

The only way you can do the walk to Ciudad Perdida is as part of a guided group – independent walking is not allowed for security reasons – and we lucked out with our walking companions. As with all group tours, there's an element of risk that you'll end up in a group of idiots, but we were not only lucky with the people in our group, but with the size. Some of the groups we encountered on the trek had 14 people in them, but we were just four: the two of us plus a Canadian couple. Oliver and Emily were both 23, both from Montreal, and being Canadians they were both genuinely good people (or, as you might say if you're from round those parts, they were super-nice). They wanted to take their time on the walk, as we did, and they wanted to enjoy the walking experience rather than treat it as a backpacker party; as we did the walk, the four of us would look on in horror as some of the other groups noisily high-fived each other while necking beer and comparing tattoos. We were lucky, no doubt about it.

Peta and Antonio having a chat in the Lost City
Peta and Antonio having a chat in the Lost City

Day 1: Machete to Alojamiento de Alfredo (8.4km)

Our first river crossing early on day one
Our first river crossing early on day one

It's about an hour and a half by van from Santa Marta to the trailhead in the small village of Machete, so our trek started off with lunch in Machete at the end of a bumpy and grinding drive south from the coast at Tayrona. Although we were keen to get walking, it made sense to hide from the midday sun and to set off later in the afternoon, though as we tucked into piles of ham, cheese and salad sandwiches, the clouds rolled in and hid most of the sunlight anyway. A larger group turned up as we munched away, though as they were doing the faster four-day option we wouldn't see them again until they passed us on their way back; still, we could see straight away that having a small group was a big advantage, as everything in the larger group seemed to take ages, from serving lunch to getting ready to walk.

Peta on the first section of the trek
Peta on the first section of the trek
The first swimming hole
The first swimming hole
The first ascent
The first ascent
Peta battling up the first major challenge
Peta battling up the first major challenge
A welcome watermelon break
A welcome watermelon break
Looking back the way we came from the top of the first ascent
Looking back the way we came from the top of the first ascent
Mules are the main method of transport round here
Mules are the main method of transport round here
Going down at the end of day one
Going down at the end of day one
A camp at the bottom of the first descent
A camp at the bottom of the first descent
The hammocks where we spent our first night on the trail
The hammocks where we spent our first night on the trail

Day 2: Alojamiento de Alfredo to Alojamiento Tezhúmake (7.3km)

Peta and the parrot
Peta and the parrot

The second day started with a huge breakfast, during which we were visited by a friendly parrot who clearly knew that tourists are a soft touch when it comes to handing out food. It was a leisurely start as we only had about four hours of walking to do and the whole day to do it in, but we were still on the trail by 9.30am, as the sun gets you up early when you're sleeping in a shelter that's little more than a roof over a hammock. This time the ascent started straight away, with a climb through more farmland from the camp at 450m, and as yesterday's clouds had disappeared overnight, the walk was noticeably hotter than the day before. Soon we could see a line of deep green up ahead which promised shelter from the unforgiving sunshine, and sure enough it turned out to be the beginning of the rainforest, taking over from the farms we'd been passing through until this point. From this point until the Lost City we would be surrounded by trees, and we were glad to switch the beating sun for shelter, albeit with higher humidity.

Beautiful views early on day two
Beautiful views early on day two
The long, hot descent on day two
The long, hot descent on day two
The lovely swimming hole that we had to ourselves on day two
The lovely swimming hole that we had to ourselves on day two
White cotton clothes drying in the Kogi village of Mutanzhi
White cotton clothes drying in the Kogi village of Mutanzhi
The river near Alojamiento Tezhúmake is great for swimming
The river near Alojamiento Tezhúmake is great for swimming

Day 3: Alojamiento Tezhúmake to Alojamiento El Paraíso (6.6km)

Looking back after the first ascent of day three
Looking back after the first ascent of day three

Why on earth the proprietor of Alojamiento Tezhúmake decided to start cleaning the camp at 3am is beyond me, but he did and it woke me up along with half the camp, who then decided to visit the ablutions in a long parade of bright head torches that seemed to go on forever. There's no electricity this far into the forest, so everyone comes equipped with head torches, but the problem with head torches is that you naturally look around you while wearing them, so when people decide to visit the ablutions in the middle of the night, it's as if the world is suddenly full of mobile lighthouses. That's fine at 10pm when people are going to sleep, but at 3am it lights up the quiet forest like a nightclub, and it took me quite a while to go back to sleep.

The Kogi hut where we found a sugar press
The Kogi hut where we found a sugar press
Huge forest plants line the path
Huge forest plants line the path
The shop at Koskunguena
The shop at Koskunguena
The valley opens up before us
The valley opens up before us
The beautiful path that follows the river valley
The beautiful path that follows the river valley
Our first river crossing without stepping stones was only shin-deep
Our first river crossing without stepping stones was only shin-deep
The riverside path on the way to the final camp
The riverside path on the way to the final camp
Alojamiento El Paraíso
Alojamiento El Paraíso

Day 4: Alojamiento El Paraíso to Ciudad Perdida (1km), Ciudad Perdida to Alojamiento Tezhúmake (7.6km)

Climbing the 1200-step staircase to the Lost City
Climbing the 1200-step staircase to the Lost City

This was the big day, the day of our visit to the Lost City, so we were up at 6am and out on the trail by 7am. It's a rocky half-hour walk from the camp to the entrance to the Lost City, along an even more precarious riverside path than the day before; at times we had to rock-climb our way along the ledge, trying not to look down at the river some 100m below.

Stone platforms in the La Gallera section
Stone platforms in the La Gallera section
The staircase in Eje Central follows the ridge
The staircase in Eje Central follows the ridge
Looking south along the ridge from the main platform, you can see yet more circles clinging to the hill ahead
Looking south along the ridge from the main platform, you can see yet more circles clinging to the hill ahead
Peta enjoying the amazing view from the main platform
Peta enjoying the amazing view from the main platform
The Piedras section is rather more rugged
The Piedras section is rather more rugged
The circles in the El Canal section are more overgrown
The circles in the El Canal section are more overgrown
The ranger station in Eje Central
The ranger station in Eje Central
Looking back down the sequence of platforms from the top
Looking back down the sequence of platforms from the top
The main set of platforms
The main set of platforms
My snowman made it to the Lost City and still managed to smile; not everyone else did
My snowman made it to the Lost City and still managed to smile; not everyone else did
The ridge in the main section of the city
The ridge in the main section of the city

Day 5: Alojamiento Tezhúmake to Machete (15.7km)

The descent from day two would become a huge ascent on day five
The descent from day two would become a huge ascent on day five

The hardest part of the entire trek turned out to be the final day, which combined the first two days of the walk into one long day, but walked in the opposite direction. On paper this didn't sound too bad, as overall the walk would be downhill, but every hill you climb on the way in becomes a descent on the way out, and every descent becomes a climb, so our final day had two huge climbs and two long descents. This would have been a difficult walk on its own – even though, by this point, we were much fitter than when we'd started and had the added advantage of knowing what to expect – but just to make it a real challenge, the sun came out and started baking us as soon as we emerged from the forest, even though we'd set off before 7am and it was still early, so it was clearly going to be a hot day.

This difficult section was a brutal place to walk in the hot sun
This difficult section was a brutal place to walk in the hot sun
The ridge before the final ascent of the day
The ridge before the final ascent of the day
The river is lovely near the start at Machete
The river is lovely near the start at Machete