Lost city found

So we made it. And we found it. As we thought it wasn´t that lost after all. But definitely worth a 6 day hike to get there and back. And what fun it was getting there, waterfalls and rock pools to jump into every few hours, amazing views as we delved deeper and deeper into the mountains, and being looked after like kings by our Mestizo guides.

The ciudad perdida is a city built by the Tayronas, a race that entered South America in the 500s and quickly moved up into the hills when they found most of the coastal area occupied by other tribes. Over the next 1000 years they built a complex system of stone roads, villages, towns and this city, which is thought to have been their centre, high up in the hills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Here they lived peacefully (despite conquring the neighbouring tribe, the Batomas) under a belief system that very much was one with nature. They replaced anything they took from the earth and in all their customs and lives honoured mother earth and father sun. They also developed an amazing mastery for gold and ceramic work and reproduced all the animals and birds they saw around them in gold in honour to the natural world.

This life continued until the Spanish arrived in 1501. Over the next 10 years or so they waged a battle, with the Tayrona´s knowledge of the area proving difficult for the Spanish to overcome. For a while a ceasefire existed. The Spanish had managed to take over the Batoma´s area, and the two sides started trading. The Spanish then saw their opportunity, and started trading poisoned clothes and goods in the hope of weakening their opponents. When this wasn´t effective enough they went one step further and forcibly infected a few Tayrona prisoners with flu and yellow fever. Then they kindly sent them back to their communities. These illnesses, that they had never encountered before, devastated the Tayronas and in the end they retreated to the high ground, abandoning their villages and towns, and burying all their treasures before they left. The Spanish had won. And slowly the forests of the mountains began to reclaim these meticulously laid out villages. Terraces were covered over with the roots of trees and stone steps and pathways were hidden beneath scrub. Little evidence of the Tayrona´s existence could be seen.

Over 500 years later in 1976 some farmers, campesinos, started cultivating this area, pushed into agriculture through poverty. In certain places they started uncovering terraces which proved useful for cultivation. But even more useful was the gold objects they started digging up whilst turning the soil. Soon farming gave way to full-time treasure searching, with little regard for the remains they were destroying. The stone roads were followed and in the end the ´lost city´was uncovered. A treasure trove for the father and son (named Julio Cesar) that had found it. However they couldn´t keep it secret for long. And soon neighbours, suspicious of the amount of gold they were selling in the market, followed them to the site and they had to parcel up the land between them. Luckily they had developed a less destructive method of searching, poking deep into the ground with a long stick until they hit the stone which signified the treasure table, so the terraces weren´t damaged too badly. Greed soon took over and a fight broke out amongst the campesinos about the amount of gold being uncovered in a particular spot. Julio Cesar was killed and one of the campesinos, who had been trading most of the gold got scared. He alerted authorities to their find and archaeologists soon set out on a 9 day trip to see whether his tale had any merit.

The ciudad perdida was found. Over 1000 terraces of it. And the ways that linked it with many other towns in the area. Most of it is still under vegetation. Mossy stone steps lead the curious back down into Mother Earth. And we had it almost all to ourselves, just sharing the site with a few soldiers when we arrived, all bored out of their skulls with their postings in the jungle.

A great trip.