Ciudad Perdida cont.

Day 3
One thousand and two hundred stone steps and 2,000% humidity stand between us and the Lost City. Sweating our way to the top we arrive to the putting green circles of grass where wooden structures used to stand. The perfectly round circles lie upon grey stones like lily pads floating on a still lake. The city was a crossroads for the Tayrona people and several trails lead to the city and merge at the market place where large engraved monoliths depict a map of the jungle. The Lost City was built in a vertical hierarchy. Lower lying plots were the homes and shops of the commoners, and the more important you were, the higher you lived on the hill.
The city was swallowed by the jungle after it was abandoned by the Tayrona. When discovered by looters in the mid 1970’s it became known as “Infierno Verde” –green hell. The robbers tore apart the ruins and slaughtered each other in competition for priceless relics, rendering reconstruction of the original city a difficult challenge to archeologists.
Today the city takes on a truly mystical aura. The 10 of us are the only tourists that day to witness the green expanse of jungle rolling across the Santa Marta’s that shadow the Lost City.

Day 4
Our last day of significant trail coverage is marked by swimming holes along the Buritaca river that winds its way to the Lost City. Waterfalls create profound voids beneath enormous boulders, which serve for perfect diving platforms.
It’s the last night of peaceful hammock sleep and the buzz of cicadas fill the air, like an electric current charging the twinkling span of radiant stars.

Day 5
Our return to the pueblito of Machete coincides with Sunday, the weekly ritual of mass and fiesta. Salsa music blares from shop windows, pops from tejo courts followed by jeers from spectators (tejo is a country game played in Colombia, think beanbag toss but with firecrackers), the clanking of booze bottles, and a sputtering and angry bull stud being wrangled on main street. Wait. What?