Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
331 trek to tHe loSt city of
teyuna, colomBia
La Ciudad Perdida, the lost city of the Tayrona
people located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa
Marta in northern Colombia, may not seem so
lost anymore - tour groups arrive here on a
weekly basis all year round. But the arduous
six-day trek it takes to get there and back
across mountain, river and jungle terrain
ensures that this ancient city, one of the most
significant pre-Columbian archeological sites
in the Americas, still retains an air of mystery
and adventure.
With origins dating as far back as 700 AD,
the city and its terraces - which took roughly
two centuries to construct - lay abandoned
until they were rediscovered by treasure
hunters in 1972. Once the government had
quashed the resulting flurry of looting and
grave robbery, archeologists moved in and
were able to reveal the full extent of the site, a
sophisticated political and agricultural centre
housing around four hundred families and
known to its indigenous population as Teyuna,
meaning “mother nature”.
It's only possible to reach the lost city on a
guided trek with one of three tour companies
operating out of Santa Marta or nearby
Taganga, about a four-hour drive from the
beautiful city of Cartagena (a world-class
tourist attraction in its own right). A typical
trek lasts six days and five nights and leads
you through some of the most spectacular
scenery Colombia, if not South America, has
to offer. Hiking up mountainsides, scrambling
over rock faces and wading across icy rivers
is not for the faint-hearted, and the night
stopovers in hammocks with river baths
perhaps not for those with a penchant for
luxury. But by the third day of mud and
mosquitoes, your efforts are rewarded when
a river crossing brings you to the foot of 1200
steps, literally carved out of the mountain and
drenched in thick jungle foliage.
Jungle lodgings; Mutanshi village, en route to the lost city; Children at the village
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