The trip up started with a 2 hr jeep ride... first on road and then on a really bad dirt road. We got stuck once when we had to pull off to let a truck pass. Fortunately it wasn't raining (yet).
The above map shows the trip. Hiking up took 3 days, where we hiked 4-6 hours a day.
The first day, we didn't get started hiking until about 2pm, so we ended up hiking the last bit in the rain and rapidly fading light. (Slipping and sliding in the mud).We each carried our own personal packs. Ours we packed as light as possible... 1 set of clothes (shorts/T's) we wore every day while hiking. Then we'd shower and change into our one 'clean' set of clothes. The only thing we had new for every day was clean socks. Between the mud on the first day and the stream crossings on the rest of the days, we needed a change of socks every day. There were plenty of opportunities to wash stuff at the end of the day, but nothing ever quite got dry. So we'd put on damp (but clean) clothes in the morning. They'd just about get dry before we sweated them all up again.
I have to confess that I never had to carry a pack. Jose, our guide, took one look at me (aging, overweight, knee braces) and insisted on carrying my pack. I was delighted, actually, and Jose got a BIG tip as a result.
We ended up with 9 'touristas' in our group. Dave and I were the oldest by far. The rest were mostly youngsters, college age to mid-twenties. We did see some younger kids in another group, but no one older than us.
)
At night we slept in hammocks with blankets and mosquito netting. This was the first time most of us actually ever SLEPT in a hammock. It took a little getting used to (especially because I'm normally a stomach-sleeper).
Days 2 and 3 we got an early start and were in camp by about 2pm, before the rains started. We took several rest stops each day, and our guides always had a snack for us (pineapple, mangos, etc). We stopped a couple of times at indigenous villages.
There are NO facilities on the trail, except the camps that the tour companies have set up. They had to pack everything but water in... by mule the first two days, and then using indigenous 'porters' for the last day (mules can't make it).
However, the camps were quite decent. In each place they had rigged 'running water' by piping it in from the stream we were camped next to. They had concrete or packed dirt floors, some benches and tables, and an open-air hearth to cook on.
Our guides did all the cooking on the wood-fired campfires. Except for 2 lunches of baloney sandwiches, we had 3 hots a day. Some of our group, though, passed on the 'tuna taco arepas' (fried) for breakfast. But Dave and I ate our fill when it was put in front of us.
We took 2 water bottles with us, and used our water treatment tables to treat stream water before we set out each day. Several of our group were battling stomach issues on the trip, but we'd been 'in country' long enough to be long over those issues. Though we do take some precautions, we can pretty much eat anything these days without worrying about the 'Montezuma's Revenge'.
The last day, we crossed the same river 8 times, fording in water as high as our waist. And then we scrambled up 1,300 steps to get to the site.
When we arrived, the first thing that we saw were Colombian soldiers. There is a permanent encampment of soldiers at the site. There are also guards checking permits, people, and luggage on the road. So we felt pretty safe. There hasn't been an incident with tourists in this area since they stopped the fighting in 2003.
And the government is making a huge effort to control the drug trade. Though we did see a few coca plants on our trip... those in the indigenous villages, where they are part of their culture... we didn't see any fields. And in fact, we saw coffee plants being cultivated, as a result of goverment incentives to change out coca for coffee and other legal cash crops.
Once we got up to Ciudad Perdida, we had a day and a half to explore the site and rest, before we had to make our way back down. (next post)
No comments:
Post a Comment