Ciudad perdida my highlight of Colombia

If there was one thing I wanted to see in Colombia it was la ciudad perdida (the lost city), a former political and religious centre of the Tayronas.

The terrasses where there used to be huts

The city is reached after an easy 3 days trek into the jungle, crossing rivers and walking up 1,200 stairs.

The stairs leading from the river to the city

One of the 9 streams we had to cross

Evenings came early as there were just candles to give us light which dragged loads of bugs committing suicide into the flames.

Our international group (France, Spain, Germany, England and Israel) therefore got into card games. We slept into hammocks and I even learned that there is a technique to sleep into hammocks.

One of our camps

The city itself was really nice. This is not Angkor Wat, there are no temples or houses left but just terrasses on which were built everything in a mix of wood and bamboo. That was done in 700 AD and the city is abandonned since 1m600 AD to avoid that the Spanish would find it and loot all the gold. Next to the terrasses remain many staircases, some greened by the moths and many trees that give an authentic feel to the city.

Lots of green in the former City

Overall this was a really nice journey. The trek is tranquilo (laid-back) because we stopped many times to swim in rivers or eat delicious fruits and this made it really enjoyable.