Almost around South-America: Ciudad Perdida

Wau! Absolutely amazing!! Very tired but happy :) Where do I start.. It is not possible to do this by your own, you have to go with a tour company and we went with Magic Tours. Colombian time and style, they picked us two hours later.. Mañana mañana. We met the others at a village called Machete (like the knife, because there has been so many fights) and after lunch we hit the road. Very dusty, sandy path with 45min uphill. We could see the mountains and jungle but didn't really reach them yet. At the camp one there was a refreshing natural pool waiting for us. The food were amazing, but something went wrong on the last night.. Our chef, Elizabeth prepared the meals, cleaned the dishes and walked very fast to the next camp to prepare our next meal, everyday! We saw so many mules carrying all the food products from camp to camp.

We saw lots of birds, including a humming birds and green tucans, lizards and maybe the coolest thing ever - spider running for his life, followed by a wasp which stung and paralyzed it and enjoyed it for his meal!! River Bukari made the hiking much more pleasent, cleaning our dusty feet and sweaty hands once in a while for streams, dip after lunch or cooling our feet when we had to cross the river without a bridge, was so nice. The third day we climbed up the 1200 steps to the magnificent Ciudad Perdida. Built in 700 AC, discovered again 1501 and finally 1976 constructed by archeologists. Well, 35% of it what has been found. There are so much history and forgotten stories to be told, but which the indigenous people wants to keep to themselves. Tribe called Kogi, are still living at Sierre Nevada National park the same way as they used to live hundreds of years ago. We got to meet the Mamo, leader and the elder of this tribe. It was so fascinating to see and hear their believes and lifestyle. This city has been built by man hands years ago, and it took 260 years to finish it. It has been abandoned and discovered again. There are hundreds of lost and found indigenous villages in South-America. Next huge one will be Machu Picchu. I am totally speechless in front of these natural miracles/wonders!

Last day wasn't so pleasent. Obviously it was some kind of food poisoning, five from our group were sick. Rob being one of them. I woke up four time not feeling so well but luckily I wasn't sick. Half of the people skipped breakfast, one girl was so sick that they called donkey to take her to the first camp. From first camp you could take very scary ride back behind a motorbike, three took this option. The hike back was very slow, sweaty and painful. All that downhill was killing my toes. I already had few blisters but my pinkytoe got totally crushed, bye bye toenail :( There was lot of tics in the jungle, one day I found four crawling on my leg and today I just removed one bastard from Robs leg. Luckily they don't carry borreolis disease in here.

I am very happy we did the trek. So many beautiful landscapes once again, Ciudad Perdida being the best one obviously. We met so many nice and helpful people. When you travel and if one gets sick from the group, it brings everybody closer together. Everyone helps, starts looking for sickness tablets, brings water and helps to carry your stuff. Huge thanks for Toby and Joy for that! Now, no more hiking for while :) Tomorrow we will head down to Mompox, another beautiful colonial city.