View of the Lost City of Teyuna, Sierra Nevada, Colombia
We left Bonaire, had a quick stopover in Curacao for a rig check which fortunately revealed no hidden problems and did some minor sail repairs and set off for Colombia. The trip to Santa Marta is 355 miles, all down wind and we reached our highest boat speed to date - 12 Knots - not particularly impressive for some yachts, but impressive for us! The journey took just over two days, we were accompanied by dolphins on several occasions and they never fail to impress.
Some of the many dolphins that kept us company on the trip to Colombia
We have become used to the regular squalls in this part of the world, and were watching this one approach whilst sailing along under spinnaker.
Taking the photo before taking the sail down was not our finest move! The maximum gust we recorded was 35 kts, and although we did get the sail down, it definitely suffered.
Shredded Spinnaker - now fixed. Every day a school day!
The wind strength peaked at 42 Kts on our way here, and I was more than a little concerned about how we were going to manoeuvre in the marina with the wind we were experiencing. With lots of help on the pontoon and a RIB to guide / push us in place we managed to tie up against a pontoon in the very lovely Santa Marta Marina where we met up with some friends who are also doing the hike to the Lost City of Teyuna.
The day for the hike arrived, we packed our rucksacks with the absolute minimum needed to survive a 5 day hike - bug repellant, antihistamine, swimwear, long sleeved shirt and trousers for the nights, hiking boots and water plus one shirt and pair of shorts for the whole trip. Luggage is heavy, blankets, food and water were provided along the way.
The Route - approximately 30 miles through the jungle, setting off from El Mamet at 140m altitude, first night in Casa Alfredo Camp at 550m, a very long second day took us to Casa Paraiso Camp at 900m, day three was the Lost City Day (1200m) and back down to Casa Mumake - also a very long day's hike, day four was the easy day, a couple of hours relaxation in the river, very refreshing at about 16 degrees C, and then on to Casa Alfredo Camp again and day five was the last day with a 3 hour hike back to the base camp, a very bumpy hour in a 4 wheel drive down hill before we got back onto tarmac and in another couple of hours it was all over. But it was truly fantastic!
Mules at the base camp waiting to be loaded up with food and supplies for the camps
Our Guide, Nicolas - a great guide, with an obvious love for his job and vast local knowledge. We were in a group of 13, and fortunately for us the others all spoke Spanish and English and translated for us.
A bridge across the stream on the first day when we were still in an area accessible by motorbike and mules.
Day 2, our last bridge - from then on we had to wade through the streams.
The trek is not just about the Lost City - the scenery on the way is absolutely spectacular. Here we are still at the start of the trek - you can see areas that have been deforested, initially these areas were Coca plantations. Until 2011 Columbia was the largest producer of Cocaine in the world, with very powerful Drug Lords and groups such as FARC controlling drug production. In recent years the Columbia Police have waged war against the Drug Lords and production has fallen by 60% despite repeated assassinations of political candidates by the Drug Lords. Aerial herbicides have been extensively used to eradicate the Coca plantations, unfortunately these are indiscriminate and have also resulted in the eradication of food crops, soil erosion and obviously chemical pollution. The grassland you see in the photo is for cattle grazing - our guide informed us that this is doing more harm than the plantations as it has caused many of the small wells and water ways to dry out due to lack of trees protecting them from the sun.
Unladen Mules heading back to the start of the Trek
Heading on up into the Sierra Nevada
One of the many wonderful trees we passed on our route.
In the Pre-Colombia era the Sierra Nevada were inhabited by the Tairona people. This population was eradicated by the Spanish during 75 years of fighting after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the late 1400's and 1500's, but several local tribes descended from this early culture still live in the forest - the Arhuaco, Kogis and Wiwas. Their way of living has remained remarkably unchanged over the years, and our guide Nicolas took us to visit a Kogi village.
A Kogi Village
The Indiginous tribes wear white clothing - the colour symbolises the purity of nature - and the children wear sleeveless smocks, the girls have bead necklaces and the boys carry the Mochilla, a bag made of woven wool or cotton. The Coca plant plays a huge role in local society, and when the boys reach the age of 18 they change their smock for a white shirt with sleeves and white draw string trousers and also begin chewing Coca leaves. The leaves are dried and carried in the Mochillas, and to increase the effect of the narcotic which they consider helps them think and expand their minds, they carry a Popora which is a small dried gourd containing crushed seashells. The Popora is carried with them at all times, and as they walk they dip a stick into it and suck the alkaline sea shell powder while they chew the Coca leaves. They wipe the residue around the outside of the Popora which builds up a thick layer symbolising the growing of their thoughts - when it gets too big and heavy they start again with a new Popora.
It's not very clear from the picture, but this Kogi gentleman is holding his Popora - you can see the stick at the top, and the pale area above his hands is the thickened area built up from saliva and powdered sea shells that he has applied there with the stick. At the invitation of our guide Nicolas he came and talked to us about his culture. He spoke Kogi, Wiwa and Spanish.
The Trek itself was certainly hard, lots of hills, up and down, and the further along we got the harder and steeper the terrain.
Annie, from the Yacht Vega, crossing one of the streams
Our Guide, Nicolas carrying Connie across one of the streams - she had terrible blisters and did not want to get her bandages wet!
The path.
It certainly was not easy!
On Day 3 we reached the base of the Ciudad Perdida - from the stream at the bottom of the valley you go up 1260 steps to the Lost City.
Onwards and Upwards
Our Group - we finally make it to the start of the Lost City - only a few more stairs to go!
The circles are the bases of the houses which are believed to have been built in the same manner as the Kogi village we visited on the way here
The Lost City covers about 2 sq km and consists of 170 terraces. The City is believed to have been built between the 11th and 14th Centuries (but possibly as early as the 7th) and in the Pre-Colombia era between 2,000 and 4,000 people lived here. The indiginous people are highly spiritual, they have local priests, known as Mamas who are selected at a young age and trained over a 9 year period by their mother and elder Mamas and during which time they live in a darkened cave - they are very respectful of nature and consider a particular mountain to be holy. The Mama must be consulted before any tree is cut down, and the whole site is closed to the public for the first two weeks of September annually for ceremonial purposes.
The rectulangular bowl shaped stones were used to crush grains.
And finally - the view from the top!
After the city was abandoned by the Tayrona people in the 1500's it became overgrown by the jungle (although the Indiginous people may still have been using it for their ceremonies) and remained undisturbed until it was discovered by grave robbers in the 1970's. Although open to the public, you can only visit the site with an authorised guide and the Indiginous people have banned visitors arriving by helicopter as it disturbs the animals and nature in the area. There are about 14,000 visitors to the Lost City annually, an interesting comparison is Machu Picchu, Peru which you can visit by Bus now received approximately 1,000,000 visitors each year.
We spent almost 4 hours at the Lost City, then it was back down the 1260 steps and on to our camp site - another tough day's trek.
Casa Mumake Camp - there was no electricity at this site, and we slept in bunks under mosquito nets
It was surprisingly comfortable - or maybe we were just tired!
A typical breakfast - papaya, melon and pineapple with a sort of corn pancake and bread, washed down with either hot chocolate or coffee.
The whole trip was a wonderful experience - we had a fantastic group, Lily (from the yacht Delphinus) being the youngest at 14, Connie, Chris, Caterina and Matheus the Chilean University students, Abigail from Jerusalem on a pre university break, Dora from Tunisia who spoke about 7 languages, Stephan from Holland taking a 3 month holiday and the rest of us oldies on our yachts - Hugh and Annie on Vega, Paul on Delphinus and obviously us and our magnificent guide Nicolas from Magic Tours, Santa Marta.
Our next stop will be Cartagena, our ripped sail is now repaired, our paperwork is still not quite complete but we hope to leave for Cartagena in three days. Another 'Must See' Colombian destination.
A couple of final photos - not from here, they were in Bonaire but missed the last blog.
Bonaire Iguanas.
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