Colombia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 526

5

Built sometime after 500 AD,
the Tayrona capital is less than 50km
southeast of Santa Marta and is believed
to have been home to around four
thousand people before the Spanish
wiped the Tayrona out. The ruins weren't
“discovered” until the early 1970s,
when a few of the more than ten
thousand guaqueros (tomb raiders)
from Santa Marta chanced upon the
city while scavenging for antiquities.
Perched atop a steep slope 1300m high
in the vast jungle, the site consists of
more than a thousand circular stone
terraces - with more still being
uncovered - that once served as
foundations for Tayrona homes. Running
throughout the city and down to the
Buritaca river valley is a complex network
of paved footpaths and steep stone steps
- more than 1350, if you're counting
- purportedly added later to obstruct the
advance of Spanish horsemen.

there are hammocks with mosquito nets.
Day two 's four- to five-hour hike to
Camp 2 is an hour's ascent, a steep hour's
descent, and an attractive flat stretch that
takes you past a Kogi village. At the camp
there's good swimming in the river and
relatively comfortable bunks with
mosquito nets. Day three consists of
a four-hour hike that includes a narrow
path overlooking a sheer drop and ups
and downs along a narrow jungle trail,
and a bridge across the main river.
Camp 3, Paraíso, tends to be the most
crowded, and has hammocks, bunks and
musty tents with mattresses. Weather
permitting, some groups press on to
the Ciudad Perdida in the afternoon
(four-hour round trip), an hour's ascent
from Camp 3, most of it up a very steep
bunch of uneven and slippery stone steps
- particularly challenging on the way
down. And then it's there - your prize
- stone terrace upon stone terrace,
tranquil and overgrown with jungle, with
splendid views of the main terrace from
the military outpost. The alternative is to
hike to Ciudad Perdida on the morning
of day four. On your return, you either
stay overnight in Camp 2 at the end of
day four or, if you made it to Ciudad
Perdida on day three, you make the
eight- to nine-hour hike from Camp 3
back to Camp 1. Day five is then either a
very early start and a gruelling seven-hour
hike from Camp 2 back to Machete

The hike
The trek covers 40km, with most hikers
opting for the five-day version. You get
picked up in Santa Marta for the
three-hour drive to Machete , the village
where the hike begins after lunch. From
here it's four to five hours to Camp 1
- mostly a steep uphill slog with a long,
steep descent towards the camp. here's
a swimming hole close to the start of
the trail and another at Camp 1, where

THE KOGI INDIANS
Although now uninhabited, Ciudad Perdida is in many respects a living monument. It's
surrounded by villages of Kogi Indians , who call the revered site Teyuna. You may be able to
interact with the Kogis as they drift on and off the main trail you'll traverse as part of the trek.
As it comprises only a fraction of the wilderness they call home, they are increasingly less
present on this popular tourist trail. The men are recognizable by their long, black hair, white
(or off-white) smocks and trousers, a woven purse worn across one shoulder and trusty póporo ,
the saliva-coated gourd holding the lime that activates the coca leaves they constantly chew.
Women also dress in white, and both women and girls wear necklaces; only the men own
póporo . About nine thousand Kogis are believed to inhabit the Sierra Nevada.
When flower power was in full bloom in the US in the 1970s, the Sierra Nevada became a
major marijuana factory, and an estimated seventy percent of its native forests were burned to
clear the way for untold amounts of the lucrative Santa Marta Gold strand. As the forest's prime
inhabitants, the Kogis suffered dearly from the arrival of so many fast-buck farmers, one of the
reasons why they're sceptical of the outside world; while Kogi children may well approach you,
asking for sweets, don't take pictures of adults without their permission.