Colombia was one of the countries many travelers referred to me. It was always one of their favorites. So of course I want to check it out too! When we landed it was a little slap in the face after being in Costa Rica for the three weeks.

Chaotic streets and crazy traffic greeted us once we got of the plane. It is just more chaotic in general I would say. This is not necessarily bad or good. It is just different. So we first had to adapt. We were really tired from the flight which was in the middle of the night. Our first flight went to Bogotá. Here we had a record time of 1 hour at the airport. We rushed through immigration. Running through security and then running to the gate only to see that everyone was still chilling there because the second flight was a little bit delayed. Phew it seems that my luck strikes again. This went pretty flawlessly. Remember the majority of flights in South America go through Bogotá. The airport is huge and you have to find the right gate. I’m not denying that this was not stressful.

In Barranquilla we didn’t do much, because Barranquilla has nothing special to offer. It is a car centric city. The loud traffic, the smog and smells seem pretty strange as we came from the chill beaches of Costa Rica. When we were looking for an atm we were reminded once more that we are now in Colombia. Most of the atms were carrying no cash at all. From here we take a bus to Santa Marta. We are reminded once more that the traffic is crazy. We arrive in Santa Marta and David decides to go out that night. I am quite tired so I go to bed. The next morning I hear that David went out and got robbed at night. Welcome to Colombia I guess.

Apparently he went out with a group. Went to a party and wanted to get back to the hostel. He just walked which can be dangerous in Santa Marta at night. If you go out and your hostel is not in the city center make sure you take an uber. Here is his experience of the night.

He thought the night was over and he was chilling in the hostel. He met a few other Germans and some Israelis. They wanted to go out too so he spontaneously joins them. The party is going well he is having drinks and is enjoying himself. At some point it is 3 a.m. and he wants to go home. He can’t seem to find the others so he goes alone. He wanders through the dark streets of Santa Marta. He left his phone in the hostel which is why he got lost in the streets. Asking some locals on how to get back to the hostel. After forty minutes wandering around he seems to find his hostel. Only problem two people approach him with a knife and cut off his way about 200 meters from the hostel. He gives them his wallet and runs into the hostel. Friendly reminder to only take cash with you when you go out and maybe one phone to get an uber or a taxi driver. Even then you’re not safe since the taxi drivers can kidnap you too!

The next day we head to Taganga. Here we meet up with Jolisa. Life works funny sometimes. I went to school with Jolisa and we haven’t had much contact and didn’t talk for years probably. Now it is like a classroom reunion. Old stories and names pop up. We laugh about the funny things that happened during our school time. It is also interesting to talk because everyone developed in different ways. We say cheers and here I realized that I’m not used to the crazy eyes of cheers in Germany. Every foreigner who has been to Germany knows what I am talking about. When you put your glasses together you have to hold eye contact with everybody.

Anyways David and I want to go see the Tayrona Park. You can charter a boat in Taganga. We got warned by Jolisa that it is going to be a bit bumpy. Well we go off and the first half hour is all great. But then the waves come in. It becomes scary. Especially because we heard that two people died prior two weeks ago in one of the boats. I see the waves and the boat flies up and down. My heart stops. Fear sets in. I know this feeling from surfing. But this is hits different. The waves are huge.

It gets to a point where I get a panic attack. I can’t watch the big waves hit the boat its too scary! I close my eyes and curl up. I start hyperventilating. The feeling of the boat flying up and then hitting the water again is terrifying. Every minute feels like an hour. I ask the driver how long it takes till we arrive. Internally I just wish to hug my girlfriend and see my family. My eyes are still closed but the bumps stop. I think that we finally arrived. I am relieved that we made it. Only to find out that this was just the first beach and we still need to ride 50 minutes more. Who would have thought this is so scary. Especially because I am a surfer and at least have some maritime insights… I know the feeling of paddling through waves going up and down. Who would have thought it would be so different on a boat?

I close my eyes again as we bump along those waves. At this point everything is drenched. I also grabbed something to hold on to. My arms are cramping up and I just wish to be somewhere else. I also can’t help but think about refugees that are not doing this for fun but because they have no other future. Doesn’t matter where in the world you are fleeing to if you are that desperate to get to the west to risk your life it must be pretty serious. Something we should keep in mind if we are debating about refugees. We arrive and I am just happy to be of the boat. I can’t believe we actually made it through. Happiness overcomes my whole body as my feet touch the sand of the beach.

We hike through the Tayrona Park but we can’t really enjoy it. We have to get back to Santa Marta to buy supplies for a 4 day hike in the jungle. We hustle through the Tayrona Park without a break. The beaches are beautiful but also treacherous. Apparently a lot of people drowned in the strong currents. There are some beaches where you are allowed to swim. They also have coastal guards on those beaches. On different beaches it is just prohibited. I would have loved to jump into the water with my swimming googles and look at the underwater wildlife. However we don’t have time so enjoying it from the beach must be enough for today.

After the three hours hike we head directly back to Santa Marta. We sit in the bus and everything seems to go to plan and we should arrive in Santa Marta before the shops close. At least that’s what we thought. We arrive in Santa Marta and it is a ghost town. We walk around and every shop is closed. On a Monday afternoon? Impossible! We couldn’t believe our eyes. There almost no people on the street. It feels weird to walk around. We hear that it is the day of San José and everyone is preparing for the festival the evening.

We still manage to find a few shops that are open. We get our supplies for the hike. David even found some hiking shoes to buy. We finish shopping as the sun is setting. Perfect timing we can still manage to catch the last bus back to Taganga! Usually the streets are full of people. Vendors shouting and trying to sell you their goods. Now it is quiet. Normally it is easy to find people to ask for the bus. This time it is more difficult. We walk into one street and there is three gentleman sitting there. We ask if the bus is passing here. It does! We chat a bit until one of the persons jumps up. Runs to the street looks at the busses and shouts when our bus is passing through. You got to love the helpfulness of the Latinos sometimes.

The next morning we get picked up to start the hike. Everyone gets ready in the travel agency. You can feel the excitement in the room. The last things are being packed and we’re off into the Jeep into the mountains. After an hour we leave the road and we drive another hour through dirt roads to a small city called Machete. From here on there is no cell phone service. We have lunch and start hiking afterwards. The sun is scorching hot. The hike so far is disappointing. It is wide dirt road and motorcycles pass us almost every five minutes. This is not how imagined the jungle hike. However we get to know our group and everyone seems high energetic and fun.

Even though the first day wasn’t too exciting we get the first glimpse of the Columbian mountainous jungle. Also there was a spot where you can jump of a waterfall. This is always welcome after sweating for half a day of course! You don’t have to tell me twice. We settle into the first camp and we first see how organized it is. We have a personal cook comfy beds with mosquito nets. For me this place is more luxurious than I expected with toilets and a cold shower. I expected to bath in the river for four days. The evenings are short as the light is turned off at 9 p.m. This is for a reason as we have to get up at 5 a.m. the next morning.

We wake up the next morning and have breakfast. It is hard to eat something at 5:20 a.m. but you need the calories for the hike. At 6 a.m. we leave the camp and start our day. This day we finally leave the bigger road and head more into the jungle. Now only mules pass us on our way. We’re now completely submerged in the jungle. We have to cross bridges and several rivers. Every step we take it becomes more green more wild.

We head into the territory of the indigenous people. It is really interesting to see how they live. Their ecological footprint must be smaller by several magnitudes than ours. The group feels like family now. Everything is shared. The meals are taken together, the snacks and hot chocolate and the experience is shared. We reach the second camp around 4 p.m. in the afternoon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as it just starts to rain. When it starts raining in the rain forest it is not stopping for a while. We play cards, have dinner and have small spontaneous salsa dances. Omid loves to dance salsa which is why every evening ended up being spontaneous salsa dance classes. We laugh a lot together and the group feeling is growing. Since our group was called the gorrillas we always made gorilla noises. This strengthened the group feel as well. The tension was also growing too as everyone is awaiting the Lost City.

In the night you hear the heavy rain dropping onto the tin roof. It feels very cozy in the bed as the raindrops sing me to sleep until the alarm hits me in the face at 5 a.m. again. Time to finally see the Ciudad Perdida. This will take about another hour and about 1400 steps. You already start sweating profoundly at 6 a.m. because of the humidity and the hiking.

After we climb the steep slippery stairs that have been build almost two thousand years ago we see the first parts of the lost city. It is still early in the morning and the city has fog surrounding it, giving it a more mystical feel. The city is bigger than expected and was housing 2000 people before the Spaniards came. The Spaniards were spreading a lot of sexual diseases until the indigenous abandoned the city and fled into higher regions of the mountain. Another irony of history that the highest mountain, Pico Cristóbal Colón, is now named after Cristopher Columbus. For the indigenous people this is the center of the world. There are still indigenous people living there, but they don’t want to have contact with society. The trauma of the Spaniards must sit deeply with them.

The remains of the city are left to the circles on the ground. The city even had a sort of sewage system. As we go up it becomes more and visible how huge this city actually is. First we just saw a few round circles. Every September 20.000 people of the indigenous people that currently live here gather for a spiritual ceremony in the city. In this time it is closed for tourists.

The more we ascended the more we saw until the full scale becomes clear once we crossed the jungle again. Not all these terraces are seen. There is even more of them covered in the jungle. After hiking for two and half days we all feel relieved and happy to be in this beautiful place. We enjoy the view and reflect back on the journey. No cell phone reception and no internet. It was a surreal feeling spending so much time with mostly strangers and become so enclosed as a group in the matter of two days. Truly an amazing experience.

Now it it time to meet the spiritual leader of the indigenous people still living in that area. He is deciding on what is happening into their society. We also saw some coca plants for recreational purposes of course. The spiritual leader is the only one right now that is living in the Ciudad Perdida. You can buy a spiritual blessing from him. It is just a small wristband though. On the way back everyone is a little bit more silent. We head back to the camp to get our stuff and start the descent. There is always time to bath in the river though. We reach the third camp in the afternoon and settle in again. We have to hike back the next day.

One last time getting up at 5 a.m. We hike back and the humid jungle is giving way for the more dry landscape with the bigger roads. The sun is burning our skin while we descent. I listened to Pink Floyd – Wish you were here while hiking down. Everyone is exhausted as we try to reach Machete in our final push. Once we are there we share one more meal and one beer together as a group. I can tell you beer never tasted that good in my life!

Cheers, until next time!