One of the absolutely best mountain trails in South America, is the trek to the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida or Teyuna), located in the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta Northeast in Colombia. The trail is about 64 km long (back and forth), with a total of 2,700 meters of elevation gain and loss. The trail starts from 120 meters above sea level, and it’s highest point is at 1,200 meters above sea level.
The Lost City was established in 800 AD by the indigenous people called Tayronas. This is 650 years earlier than Macchu Pichu was established. The city was lost to the outside world for 400 years until it was rediscovered by treasure hunters in the 1970s.
Scoundrels rummaged the city opening tombs and stealing gold for a few years, before the government got involved and it was restored again. The descendants from the Tayronas, the Kogis, still live in the city. The Kogi people believe that everything buried in the Lost City contributes to the peace, harmony, and balance of the world.
The Kogi people gather in the city every year for one month (September), and perform sacrificial rituals. The trail closes for the full month, and we were lucky to be on the first tour after the celebrations. This meant there were fewer people on the trail, we only started meeting other groups on our way out.
The tour starts from Santa Marta, a coastal town we flew to after our visit to Bogotá and it’s surrounding areas. We rented an Airbnb and spent four days exploring the city and training for the trek ahead.
We are used to hiking quite a bit, especially when we are at our mountain lodge in Norway. But, after one year sailing, we have not really had a great deal of preparation for a four day trek with 6-7 hours of walking daily… so, we naturally were a bit excited about how that would turn out.
Day 1, we had transportation with our tour guide, Expo Tour, from Santa Marta to the starting point of the trek.
Day 2 is for most considered the hardest day, as we had to climb an incredibly steep hill for almost two solid hours, just after midday. It was heavy to walk in due to mud, and it was sweltering hot.
Day 3 is the day we arrived at the Lost City. The approach to the city entails 1,200 steps on an original staircase made by the Tayronas. We spent almost three hours there, just taking in the serene atmosphere.
We felt truly honored to be allowed to visit this sacred place, and it was definitely a check on the bucket list.
Day 4 was a transport day, mostly. You walk back the same way, so we knew where to go. Therefore, we decided to start a little before the group, and do shorter breaks that day.
We wanted to experience the feeling of being alone in the jungle, and our old muscles needed to stay in motion as not too get totally stiff during the often somewhat long breaks.
Considering we were trekking with 15 others, all, except one, under the age of 35, it felt like a wise choice. The track ends with an hour steep downhill on a dirt road which has concrete on the steepest slopes. Not a great ending for sore knees, but we made it!
We treated us to a beautiful apartment in the same building as the Marriot hotel the night we got back into town. So proud that we finished in style, and that we were in better shape than we thought. But also, oh so happy to get a hot shower, clean our clothes, and have a three course steak dinner, and no plans of hiking over the next few days…
