This place, while in the past couple of years rapidly becoming a major Colombian tourist destination, was until recently virtually off-limits to tourists. The Colombian drug cartels had a stranglehold on the area and the FARC was known for kidnapping hikers/civilians as recently as 2003 . In recent years the Colombian military has taken extraordinary care to eliminate paramilitary presence and capitalize on a national treasure.
The only way to get to this destination is by 5 or 6 day hike (there and back) across the strenuous, steep and incredibly humid Santa Marta National Park, 2 hours drive south of the Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta. After having our pick from the various travel companies offering different tours at the same price we settled on Expotur Eco, mostly because they offered the brand-new "loop tour" (where you travelled in a large semi-circle instead of retracing your steps on the last days) and were one of the few with available tours.
After a relaxed night in the seaside town of Taganga, we headed to be picked up by our jeep for the two hour drive to the park.
We packed the jeep, made our way for about an hour on nice maintained highway, until we made an abrupt turn towards the mountains in the distance. The road turned to dirt, but in actuality mud. Fortunately, we were equipped with 4-wheel drive. This got us through the vast majority of hairpin turns overlooking looming cliffs but toward the end of the drive we were confronted with a pool of mud and dirt.
Unfortunately I don't have a photo of a few minutes prior when everyone in our hiking group was pulling that very rope attempting in a futile effort to pull the jeep out from its stuck position. Fortunately, a nice man in another car did us the favor of helping us with a tow.
We arrived at the literal end of the road and we were sat down to a nice lunch of inexplicable bologna sandwiches with a 'gulf sauce' or Mayo and Ketchup mixed together. It was weird, but oddly delightful. I kind of hate bologna too. After this we went for a 14 minute hike to a natural pool, nestled between a few short cliffs convenient for diving and went for a swim.
Continuing our hike strictly up hill for over 2 hours, I quickly realized how incredibly out of shape I am. Fortunately, fellow hiker Anna hooked me up with a handful of coca leaves which if not being actually beneficial created a very excellent placebo effect. Within hours we were treated with this first of many incredible vistas:
Above: Our guide Archie walking silently, stoically.
Exhausted, and several hours later we made it to our first camp. We were treated with a surprisingly delicious, impossible dinner of meat and plantains and rice along with coffee and a watered down kool-aid like quasi fruit juice some of us who went to camp as children might remember as "bug juice". There was even friggin' coffee or tea if you wanted it. The 'bug juice', might I add, went together quite nicely with the "Medellin Ron" or Rum from Medellin that I toted two bottles of for some reason. My new Czech friends loved it and we downed more shots than one should in the middle of nowhere jungle.
The next day, many of us at the campsite were asked if we were interested in attending a 'Cocaine tour'. for a mere 30,000 Colombian Pesos (or $20 or so) we were allowed to see the cocaine manufacturing process. It ended up not being the tour of a cocaine processing plant that we expected it to be, but, it was worth it (I guess?) in the end. Nonetheless, were brought 20 minutes away from our campsite, in a canyon, to a little shack with a bunch of chemicals and coca leaves laying around. I suppose it was sufficiently shady/awesome.
The rest of the trek went like this: Wake up super early (5:30am or so). Eat breakfast, drink coffee, fill water bottles, hike for extremely strenuous 3-4 hours up and down mountains in extraordinary heat and humidity, eat lunch/ take cold shower (they had showers hooked up to mountain streams in the middle of the jungle!). When hiking, Archie, forever stoic as guide extraordinaire would patiently wait for the last person (usually me) when I smoked a cigarette or struggled to catch my breath. Yes, I realize I probably shouldn't smoke and do difficult jungle hikes, but its a nasty habit I have yet to kick! There were delicious pineapple or banana or orange breaks every hour or so at beautiful vistas so that ended up being unfathomably awesome. Here is a selection of pictures from my days in the jungle:
Ancient staircase in "Ciudad Perdida"
All in all the most difficult feat of physical endurance that I have ever dealt with, but hands down one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. The only thing I really could have done better was BROUGHT SOME BUG SPRAY WITH DEAT. My legs were incredibly fucked up for weeks. Thought I had measles or worse, parasites.
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