I spend most of yesterday evening: Robert Lois Stevensons “Treasure Island”, perfect literature for the Caribbean :D. Sleeping at the sea was very relaxing. I wish I could share this amazing experience with some friends. It is almost too amazing to have this experience just on your own.
I got up early again today (not that the sun would let you sleep longer anyways). The park closes at 5pm, so I have to start walking back to the gate around 3. But first I want to check out the the old city of the Tairona people. They had two mayor cities in the area which were both abandoned hundreds of years ago. The Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) is a 4 days walk. I decided on the slightly smaller Pueblito settlement near the coast. The Spanish eradicated the Tairona culture in the mid 17th centuries But the Kogu (decedents of the Tairona) still come back to their old city for religious purposes. There is a path starting behind the beach that leads up into the maintains. Not many people do this hike since it is 4-5 hours and not the easiest kind.
I slightly underestimated the path as well. Quite often there would be no path at all, but just fields of big rocks that you had to cross or climb. I had enough water, but I really recommend to do they trip when you are not currently starving (I started before any shop opened). Everything felt double as hard as normal. I was not looking forward to go all the way down again.
where is the path (yes, below that rock!)
Finally I arrived
When I arrived in Pueblito I was really exhausted and terrified by the thought of going all the way down again without anything to eat. Luckily, the local Kogu are not so stupid to miss the opportunity to earn some dollars. So I could stuff myself with bananas and replenish my water bottles. I felt much better immediately. I never tried to do sports that hungry, but I never thought if would affect me that much. Although I actually had enough food now, some French middle aged woman found a strong interest in feeding me with her nuts and cake supplies. So I was completely reenergized for the way down.
holy sites are blocked (though not very efficiently)
some houses are still in use
Even better, I learned that there is a mule path that leads to the beaches. It is definitively longer than the way I took up, but also easier and doesn´t involve that much climbing in the tropical heat of the noon. Though an hour longer, it felt much shorter :D.
A bit scary where the sudden masses of black bugs that sometimes covered nearly every surface of the forest. They were so many that they would fall from the leaves and create a very strange sound like dry falling rain. Only some patches of the forest where affected though. It might have something to do with the drought they are having here at the moment. Usually they get 2 months dry season and 10 months wet season. Not it is 10 months dry season. I heard in many Colombian regions that the weather patters completely changed recently (supposedly due to climate change). I wonder how this region will look like in a couple of years :/
bug invasion
dried leaves
finally back to the beach
Though it felt like walking all day I was in fact back in just 5 hours. So I had now more than 2h to swim, relax a little bit at the beach, get a shower and then walk back to the park entrance (another 2h, but rather flat).
On the way back I crossed the only bakery in the town, they claim that the chocolate bread here is absolutely amazing. It surely is very good, something that sweet is definitively not my taste in that weather.
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