Trekking to Ciudad Perdida
The Colombian Lost City
Ciudad Perdida, or the lost city, is the ruins of a small city of the Tayrona (or Tairona) culture and set deep within the Colombian cloud forest.
The 15 km (each way) trek to Ciudad Perdida takes 6 days and 5 nights (round-trip). A hotel in Santa Marta, Colombia, the Miramar, is the center for trek info and arranging tours through Turcol, the organization that has licensed guides and access to the park and ruins
The Tayrona culture built stone houses and paths, drainage systems, terraces, and stone bridges. They traded their goods with the coast. They date back to the 1st century, although traces of the people have been found several hundred years earlier. Ciudad Perdida is believed to have been a political and commercial hub, with a population somewhere between 4,000-10,000 people. At the time of conquest it was likely abandoned, however. Other Tairona ruins have been found in the jungle further in the mountains, but are quite dangerous to reach.
One of the first things you will see is the more than 1,200 mossy, stone steps that lead to the ruins. They rise directly out of the river. The city was only discovered few decades ago, in 1972 by treasure hunters. When gold items began to flood the black market the local authorities learned of the location in the northern part of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, at Cerro Corea. The site encompasses 400 hectares. There are more than 150 terraces carved set at different heights on the mountainside, many supported by large stonewalls. The differences in elevation allowed the people to experiment with a variety of other crops
The Ciudad Perdida trek is one of the few trips where you will get to encounter native tribes on a regular basis. They often use the same trails as the hikers. You will see the Kogies, as they are known, the legacy of the Tairona civilization. You pass through several of their villages. Much of the region is cloud forests, which are found at altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 meters, attracting an array of rare and brilliant wildlife. Colombia has the highest diversity of bird life of every country on earth and it quickly becomes blatantly obvious on a trek here. Bright hummingbirds dart form every direction here. Flocks of emerald green toucanettes squawk from overhead. Rarely are you not amazed.
To start you must go by bus to a small town called Mame where the roads end and the park begins. Much of the trek is quite steep; taking a 1,000-meter ascent only to find that you must descend right away and then go right back up over the next pass. The air is perpetually moist. You sleep in mosquito netted hammocks, which are hung in small shelters that have been built along the way with cooking areas and bathrooms. Each of the campsites is conveniently located near a river with a small waterfall for bathing.
On September 15, 2003, 8 foreign tourists, mostly Israeli’s were kidnapped en route to Ciudad Perdida by the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). Some were held as long as three months as the left wing guerilla group demanded government intervention and an investigation into human rights abuses in exchange for the hostages.
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