La ciudad perdida: real-life Tomb Raider

When we decided to join the five day trek towards the lost city in the Colombian jungle, we hadn't exactly expected it to turn out like this. Sure, the helpful lady in the office of the tour organization had warned us that on the last day, we would have six or seven hours of walking. She had also mentioned that on the third day, we would climb 1200 steps to reach the magnificent lost city of the indigenous Colombian tribes.

"No problem", we had thought.

She had however failed to mention that the path would be non-existent at some points, completely covered in mud or slippery stones, would be flat for no more than 100 meters each day and would have sheer drop-offs where we were supposed to jump from one slippery stone to another.

One of the overnight camps

She also hadn't mentioned that a few years ago, there had been a death on the trail. Not death by a bite by one of the many poisonous animals, not by malaria or dengue fever, not by dehydration in the jungle heat, not by falling to death at an inadvertent moment, not by one of the many guerillas which used to populate the area before the army took control, but by a wild river crossing which mercilessly drags anything that crosses its path onto the many rocks further on.

Jungle protection | River crossing

Needless to say, it was fantastic. The Ciudad Perdida was built between the years 700 and 1500 and became a refuge for the indigenous population when the Spanish arrived at the shores at South America. Hunted by the conquistadors and European diseases, the city was later abandoned, only to be discovered by grave robbers in the 1970's. Even though the guides assured us there would still be a lot of gold buried in the numerous graves, Dimitri dared to dig despite the intimidating military presence after which he got lost in the lost city.

La ciudad perdida

After about 50 kms of climbs and descents in five days with our backpacks, we truly felt like the world was not enough. While we can hear Graham's colleague Stefaan thinking "Wussies, I do that kind of thing in my sleep", we still felt a great deal of satisfaction, as well as muscle pain.

The next few days we will be heading up even more north, up to Cabo dela Vela, to discover some deserted deserts!

Graham and Dimitri