I returned home Sunday afternoon. I'm still exhausted from traveling around so much and start work on Monday as a substitute teacher for the three year olds. My internet is super slow as always, so I've only been patient enough to load three photos as of now. I'm planning on putting up more every day this week and slowly updating as I go so that the task of retelling the past two weeks isn't quite so daunting.
Firstly, we had a great hike up to the Ciudad Perdida. Although dificult at times for a few members of our group, the hike wasn't all that hard except for a few hours of climbing steep inclines and a few hours of knee pounding descent, mostly I was just happy to be outdoors and exercising. For me, the hike itself was more enjoyable than the actual city in itself, to get there we passed through amazing variations in terrain, at times we walked white sand, other days we climbed red dirt canyons, crossed stony rivers, passed through flat grasslands, wet rainforests, and cactus spotted drylands.
Most days we would start walking really early to avoid midday heat and afternoon rains. So usually we'd wake up with the sun, eat breakfast and walk a few hours until reaching our camp for the night and passing the rest of the day relaxing, talking, laughing, and eating. The trek is three days up to the Cuidad Perdida and then three days back down to where we started.
Researchers believe the city to have existed since the 600s, it was easily found and sacked by Spanish treasure hunters during the colonization of South America in the 1500s, but not found again by outsiders until the early 1970s supposedly due to the rapid and overpowering growth of the Colombian jungle. What was found was over 300 house foundations and a series of religious and ceremonial foundation in the center of the city. Interestingly, due to local indiginous requests to the Colombian government, only about 100 of the sites in the Ciudad Perdida have been cleaned and researched. Althouth the natives of this region are not of the same tribe as the natives who created the Ciudad Perdida, they have feel a sense of connection with the ruins of the city and wish to use the site for their own. As of now the Kogi (the name of the biggest indiginous group in these mountains) only use the city for religious ceremonies and clensing, and are only given complete access to the area certian days of the year; other than that the Colombian army maintain a presence of 40 soldiers inside of the city, inhabiting and patroling the ruins.
Firstly, we had a great hike up to the Ciudad Perdida. Although dificult at times for a few members of our group, the hike wasn't all that hard except for a few hours of climbing steep inclines and a few hours of knee pounding descent, mostly I was just happy to be outdoors and exercising. For me, the hike itself was more enjoyable than the actual city in itself, to get there we passed through amazing variations in terrain, at times we walked white sand, other days we climbed red dirt canyons, crossed stony rivers, passed through flat grasslands, wet rainforests, and cactus spotted drylands.
Most days we would start walking really early to avoid midday heat and afternoon rains. So usually we'd wake up with the sun, eat breakfast and walk a few hours until reaching our camp for the night and passing the rest of the day relaxing, talking, laughing, and eating. The trek is three days up to the Cuidad Perdida and then three days back down to where we started.
Researchers believe the city to have existed since the 600s, it was easily found and sacked by Spanish treasure hunters during the colonization of South America in the 1500s, but not found again by outsiders until the early 1970s supposedly due to the rapid and overpowering growth of the Colombian jungle. What was found was over 300 house foundations and a series of religious and ceremonial foundation in the center of the city. Interestingly, due to local indiginous requests to the Colombian government, only about 100 of the sites in the Ciudad Perdida have been cleaned and researched. Althouth the natives of this region are not of the same tribe as the natives who created the Ciudad Perdida, they have feel a sense of connection with the ruins of the city and wish to use the site for their own. As of now the Kogi (the name of the biggest indiginous group in these mountains) only use the city for religious ceremonies and clensing, and are only given complete access to the area certian days of the year; other than that the Colombian army maintain a presence of 40 soldiers inside of the city, inhabiting and patroling the ruins.
we had to cross this river nine times one day, to finally reach this
religious and ceremonial center of the Ciudad Perdida
later we passed through this Kogi indigenous village
WOW. That looks magical! Like something out of a fairy story. I'm so glad you were able to experience this part of Colombia!
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J - your life so so cool! I can't wait to hear more and see more pics! Glad you made it home safe and sound. Love you.
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