All the way south

The morning after the night before, I woke up in my clothes, stiff, sore, and hungover. I decided within 30 seconds of waking up that today was going to be a rest day. I was staying in a nice guesthouse with my own private ensuite room, my own double bed, a personal hammock and decent wifi. In my current state, this was heaven. After booking an extra night, and a delicious guesthouse breakfast, and sleeping some more, the afternoon was spent in the Museu del Oro, the first (but if you know me you'll know it's definitely not the last) museum of this trip, which was pretty good, with some great information on the local indigenous groups of the area. Long story short: they were fucked over when the Spanish arrived, but they've managed to maintain their culture and some traditions in smaller isolated communities, as well as being integrated into Columbian culture as a whole. Tayrona national park contains jungle rainforest that runs right up to some well nice isolated beaches...

My first night's sleep in Columbia was better than expected. Jetlag took a night off, and I slept like a log, probably due to being extremely tired - the second night is always when jetlag kicks in proper for me. Where better then to battle the jetlag than on a gruelling four-day jungle trek to an ancient mountaintop city? La Ciudad Perdida ("The Lost City" in English) is an indigenous city built by the Tayrona. The Tayrona are the local equivalent of the Aztecs of Mexico or the Incas of Peru - they are the original inhabitants of this part of the continent, whose civilisation was slowly wiped out after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors back in the 1600's. They were murdered and enslaved in the masses, their gold was taken to be melted down and sent back to the Spanish crown, and their way of life was destroyed. La Ciudad Perdida was one of their major cities, one that was lost to jungle growth for 400 years, until some scavengers hunting for lost indigenous ...