Did you know that deep in the Colombian jungle, hidden amongst the mountains, and far away from any sort of modern-day civilization, lies the ruins of an ancient pre-Colombian empire? The remnants of a fallen city that were so secluded & wild that not even the Spanish conquistadors could find it. Ein Ort, so ein Geheimnis, dass neue Abschnitte die ganze Zeit entdeckt werden, viele davon sind gedacht, um nach wie vor umfangreiche Goldschätze zu beherbergen& sacred artifacts.

Welcome to The Lost City, or “La Ciudad Perdida” in Spanisch.

Virtually unknown to the outside world for centuries, the Lost City was “discovered” in the 1970s by local tomb raiders. After a few years of ransacking, the Colombian government stepped in to protect this sacred archaeological zone. Kurz danach wurde es für den Tourismus eröffnet. The only way to see them is by braving a 4-5-6 day, 47km hike through the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world.

Als große Zeit im Freien Abenteuer Kerl, I’m constantly exploring nature and looking for the next exciting thing to do. So when I found out about the Lost City trek & the journey involved, my heart leapt at the prospect of such a mysterious escapade. It’s been on my radar for years, and after finally doing it the other week, ich kann sagenit’s even better than I thought it would be.

The actual ruins of The Lost City are much more impressive & umfangreicher als Fotos führen Sie online wäre, zu glauben,. Außerdem, die Hälfte der Freude an der Tour Lost City ist nicht nur in dem Ziel, but in the journey. Absolut spektakuläre Berglandschaft & views, wild and dense jungle, cascading waterfalls & refreshing swim holes, delicious food/timely snacks, mehr als ausreichend trail Stände für Unterkünfte, and in my case, als ich entschied sich für die Tour zu tun mitMagic Tour Colombia, fun, hilarious, & extremely knowledgeable guides.

I was inspired to write an article (my first in a long time) about this once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Zwangsläufig, viele Menschen werden sich nicht sicher, ob sie vorhaben für ein solches Abenteuer, on the fence about if a 4-5 Tage-Wanderung ist auch wert, um sie. Hier sind ein paar Gründe, warum Trekking The Lost City ist zweifellos…

Die Landschaft

Fast hätte ich nicht tun, um die Lost City Trek aus verschiedenen Gründen, and I just about let a comment from a fellow backpacker almost tip the scale away from it at one point. He said, “I don’t know, I love hiking, but hiking through the jungle not so much. It’s the same scenery all the time, I prefer to hike in the mountains with views.”

After hiking to La Ciudad Perdida & back I can 100% confirm to you that this is an incredibly scenic hike. The path has considerable elevation gain, leading you up and over mountains, out onto ridges, through meadows, and into the depths of jungle all the same.

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a really beautiful mountain range, and you’ll have no shortage of inspiring views every single day.

The food

The food was absolutely delicious, and that’s not just my fat, finish-your-leftovers-off-and-maybe-yours-too @$$ talking. I heard pretty much everyone in my group remark about how impressed they were with the food at least once if not multiple times.

Fresh fruit, eggs, bread & jam in the mornings. Rice, lentils, soup or some sort of meat for lunch, and a variation of fresh veggies, rice, beans, pasta, chicken, beef, or fish in the evenings.  Vegetarians will take heart in knowing that the chefs are happy to whip up alternative dishes as well, and one girl who was a vegetarian in my group was quite satisfied.

Something that really surprised and impressed me was the attention to sanitation & cleanliness the entire cooking staff undertook. EVERYONE who cooked for Magic Tour wore hair nets & sometimes latex gloves while in the kitchen. I’m serious when I say that I had never even seen this during my travels in all of Latin America, and the fact that they adhered to these 1st world standards in the middle of the jungle was all the more impressive.

Außerdem, every 1-2 hours on the trail between campsites we were always welcomed with snack stops. Fresh watermelon, pineapple, Orangen und Cookies würden unsere Energie wieder auffüllen& tide us over until the next meal. Water was readily available at all times and always sterilized.

The accommodations

Das war nicht so viel von einer Besorgnis von mir auf dem Weg in den Dschungel wie mein Lebensstil Überschrift sieht mich nur einen Bruchteil der Zeit in richtigen Betten schlafen. Davon abgesehen, I can understand how it may be more important to others considering doing the Lost City trek, so I wanted to cover it as well.

Um den Zustrom von westlichen Touristen zu beherbergen, die jedes Jahr wächst, comfortable bunk beds and hammocks, complete with full mosquito nets have been fashioned.

Of course, at the end of the day I was so tired that I could have fallen asleep face down in a mud hole, but even so, I was happy to lay down on the supportive mattresses & soft pillows that were provided.

Bathrooms were well-maintained and clean, with toilet paper, and even hot water showers in some of the camps!

The indigenous cultures

There are 4 different indigenous groups in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: the Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuaco, and Kakuamo. All are direct descendants of the Tayrona, the people group who constructed the Lost City.

The Kogi & Wiwa are by far the most prevalent in the area. Entlang des Weges trifft man auf eine ganz wenige von ihnen, selling juice or snacks to passing tourists, riding horses & driving cargo donkeys, or simply walking through the jungle to hunt or go about their daily lives. Die Tour führt Sie auch durch mehrere Dörfer Kogi, wo Sie sich aus erster Hand sehen bekommen können, wo und wie sie leben.

Obwohl die Wanderung zu The Lost City ist auf der touristischen Karte jetzt, es ist offensichtlich, dass diese indigenen Gruppen eine große Aufgabe, ihre Traditionen zu bewahren getan haben & customs. Their traditional garb, primitive villages, shaman-centric ceremonies, long hair & barefoot appearance – these are really jungle people!

I’m more used to dealing with the indigenous groups of Mayan descent in Mexico & northern C. America, so coming face to face with Kogi & Wiwa people felt really different & wild. Everyone I interacted with was really nice as well!

The swimming holes

Gibt es etwas Schöneres als eine natürliche, die & refreshing swimming hole in the middle of the jungle to jump in after hours of sweaty hiking? Gott sei Dank gibt es keinen Mangel an Flussüberquerungen auf der Wanderung nach La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City).

Jetzt bin ich so etwas wie ein Schwimmen Loch / Wasserfall / Fluss Fanatiker, und ich kann Ihnen sagen, diese einige feste schwimmen Löcher! Clean and deep, cool but not cold, with rocks to jump of, and fed by gushing waterfalls to boot.

Seriously, every single place that we stopped to swim at had waterfalls cascading into the river – my type of places! Make sure to bring your GoPro!

Unsere kundigen Führer

It’s so important to have a good guide on trips like this. I always say that without proper knowledge of the background & history, ancient ruins are nothing more than a pile of rocks. Ich bin froh, dass ich mit dem Reiseunternehmen ging ich tat, because our tour guide Juan Carlos was EXCELLENT!

Juan Carlos has been working in the Sierra Nevada for more than 20 years. He originally went to the Lost City as a “guaquero” (a tomb raider), and quickly fell in love with the place. As the archaeological zone became protected, Juan Carlos became an apprentice of sorts under Frankie Rey, die legendären Grab-Räuber worden Führer, der buchstäblich die erste Person zu bieten Touren in der verlorenen Stadt war. That means that Juan Carlos has been involved with tours to the Lost City longer than pretty much anyone in the biz.

Juan Carlos was accompanied by a translator named Arnie for all of those who didn’t speak Spanish.

Between the two of them, we not only learned everything about the history of the Lost City, the ancient Tayrona civilization, und die aktuelle, local indigenous communities & their customs, but also about all the local flora & fauna in the area, and current sustainable & restorative efforts in the park. It seemed that every kilometer or so, Juan Carlos would stop and point out some sort of medicinal/useful plant and explain us the process.

I should also point out that Juan Carlos was hilarious! Having the knowledge is only half the battle of being a tour guide, and Juan Carlos combined his informative stories with engaging jokes and playful banter. He really made the entire experience more enjoyable.

Even if Magic Tour Colombia didn’t have everything else on point, I would recommend choosing them as your tour company for this reason alone.

I don’t want to do any mud slinging, but I heard some questionable stories about various guides with other companies. Beispielsweise, a certain group, which brands itself as the only indigenous-owned tour company, doesn’t offer much of the actual history & Fakten über die verlorene Stadt. They instead tell their groups that the city was “created by the gods.” Another person told me that their guide (yet another company) forgot to sterilize their water and the whole lot of them got sick.  Ich sag bloß…

The actual ruins

A quick Google image search of “The Lost City” yields semi-inspiring results. They are mostly populated with slight variations of the same exact photo – the view of the round, green terraces with the mountains in the background. Dies ist zwar kein Zweifel eine der schönsten Aufnahmen der verlorenen Stadt, it is by no means the extent of the ruins.

In fact, because of it’s subpar documentation online, I signed up to hike the Lost City with “it’s not the destination, but the journey” expectations. I figured, even if the ruins aren’t grandiose & awe-inspiring, the overall experience of a multiple-day hike through the wild, Colombian jungle will make it worth it.

However, immediately upon arriving to the ancient 1,000+ stone staircase that leads you from the river’s edge up to the ridge of the mountain where The Lost City begins, it’s apparent that something truly special awaits at the top.

You finally reach the top of the staircase a sweaty, out-of-breath mess, but all is forgotten the moment you crest the ridge and step into this magical, sacred place. Moss-covered walls rise up in front of you. Rustling, verdant trees & swaying vines reveal multiple-layers of terraces & the remains of temples in almost every direction. A myriad of stone paths & twisting staircases lead you up through the forest and around to even more levels.

If I had to choose an “OH WOW” moment, it would be when, after climbing yet another mossy staircase, I finally reached the upper levels of the city.

The main terraced area stretched out in front of me, rising level after level up the spine of the mountain, flanked on the left by a cascading waterfall 100’s of feet tall.

An diesem genauen Moment flog eine Gruppe von Tukane durch meine Sichtlinie und ich war sofort zurück in der Zeit die Spitze der Tayrona Kultur transportiert. The buildings reconstructed themselves before my eyes, das belebte Stadtzentrum des Handels kam mit seinen wimmelnden Massen von Menschen zum Leben, bartering & Verhandlungs, and music filled the air. I seriously lost myself for a moment – was ein bezauberndes& mystical place!

The ruins sit on 86 acres of jungly mountainside, the vast majority of which still has not been uncovered and restored. Apparently, 169 terraces have been excavated, while many more, buried under centuries of jungle overgrowth, still haven’t seen the light of day. Das Ausmaß der ausgegrabenen Stadt besteht aus Multi-Level-Fundamenten der alten Häuser, plazas, & temples that hug the mountainside as they fan out & expand from the main area. Our tour spent almost 3 hours wandering through the Lost City (La Ciudad Perdida), and we could have spent even longer.

It’s still not too touristy

Ich wanderte La Ciudad Perdida Während Ostern, Latin America’s week long celebration of Easter, which is THE busiest time of the year to do anything or go anywhere.  Mein Führer sagte mir, dass es wahrscheinlich “3 Mal mehr Menschen in dieser Woche als normal.” Even so, it wasn’t that überfüllt.

That’s because, although the trek to the Lost City is growing on the international radar, it still isn’t super well-known and popular. Apparently La Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) sieht nur über 9,000 people per year, as opposed to more than a million/year at Machu Picchu. There’s no telling how long it will stay like this though. Juan Carlos told me that every year there are more tourists than the last, and it seems to be just a matter of time before it blows up.

Lass uns ehrlich sein, the idea kind of sells itself. Who doesn’t want to want to add finding a Lost City deep in the Colombian mountains to their list of accomplishments? I would recommend going now before it becomes a cliche activity and before hordes of tourists do God knows what to the surroundings.

I also would like to mention that my group with Magic Tour Colombia Die erste Gruppe wurde auf die Ruinen der verlorenen Stadt von etwa 15 Gruppen zu gelangen, die zur gleichen Zeit verlassen. Our guides got our butts in gear the morning of the 3rd day, knowing how important it was to arrive to the ruins before the masses did. Having the entire Lost City to ourselves, if only for 15 Minuten oder so, was truly special and a feeling that will stick with me for a long time.

You have to earn it

The saying “nothing good comes easy” can definitely be applied to the Lost City trek. mehr Tage zu investieren, etwas zu erreichen, ist letztlich lohnender als sofortige Befriedigung Aufgaben. So is a multiple day hike to a secluded destination 10x more rewarding than visiting the drive-up, step-out, and take-a-picture destinations. I mean, you don’t think the Lost City got it’s name from being on the side of the highway, did you?

The feeling you get when you finally sit down on the higher terraces and look out across the main plaza of the ruins, with miles of valley & mountains stretched out before you is difficult to put into words.

You’ve spent days of strenuous hiking up & over the Sierra Nevada to get here. You’ve endured the 90% humidity of the rainforest, braved the incessant mosquitos, and hiked through sacred, indigenous territory, alle in diesem Augenblick ankommen. Sie haben nun entdeckt, eine Stadt so abgelegen, dass nicht einmal die spanischen Eroberern’ probing expeditions led them here. Das ist alles Teil dessen, was die verlorene Stadt Erfahrung so mächtig und unvergesslich. You’ll never forget this accomplishment.

So Do The The Lost City Trek Jetzt!

Es gibt viele archäologische Ruinen rund um die Welt zu erkunden, aber keine, die ich kenne dieses Angebot, was zu The Lost City Trekking (La Ciudad Perdida) does. Most Mayan or Aztec ruins you can practically drive right up to. Und natürlich Machu Picchu bietet das mehrtägige den Inka-Trail wandern, which I plan on doing, aber es ist so in diesen Tagen den Handel gebracht, dass es irgendwie den Reiz fehlt und Geheimnis, das die verlorene Stadt hat.

I also understand that it can be hard to justify spending 4-5 days hiking through the jungle to do anything. If you’re the type who doesn’t like hiking/camping/not having your first-world luxuries, then this hike is probably not for you. But if you’re an adventure junkie or outdoor lover like me, this is an absolute MUST-DO activity. Ich hoffe, dieser Beitrag hat Ihnen einige Gründe, warum gezeigt!

Go now while trekking to the Lost City is still relatively unknown & unique. Surely in the years that come it will be overrun with tourists and will lose some of its appeal. And go with a tour company that knows what they’re doing and values your personal experience, obwohl sie haben es bereits getan 1,000 times. Vielen Dank Magic Tour dafür, dass hatte ich die Reise ihres Lebens, I’ll never forget it!

Essential Info:

Magic Tour Colombia

Facebook Page

Phone/WhatsApp: +57(314)571-3645

Email: fanny@magictourcolombia.com

Cost: 850,000 Colombian Pesos (approx. $290USD at time of publishing).  Inklusive alle Transport, all food, accommodations, guides, translators, and entrance to park for 4,5, or 6 days.

What to pack:  Not much! The lighter your pack the better.  erhalten alle Ihre Kleidung komplett nass, so there is no real need to bring a lot:  2x schnelltrockn Shirts & shorts, 1x lange Hosen & Langarm-Shirt für die Nacht, 3x underwear, 3x socks, 1x hiking shoes, 1x sandals.  Hut, sunscreen, bug repellant (DEET), headlamp/flashlight, dry bags for electronics, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, and obviously all necessary medication & toiletries.

When to go:  The dry season runs from December to April, but going in the “off-season” could mean cooler weather, far less people, and more of a chance to connect with locals.