“Jalar!” shouts Jose, clad in all white. ‘Pull’.

We oblige. The mule lurches forward. And after a moment of panic, he’s safe. And distinctively unphased. The second mule follows, and after being reloaded with our bin bags, the two mules set off to our next camp, two hours further into the Colombian jungle.

Jose crosses the river himself with all the energy of a kid in a candy store and re-takes his place at the front of our pack. He is a member of the Wiwa tribe, one of the four indigenous tribes within the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.

“Everything in nature is part of our spirit. When we cut nature we cut our own spirit”

The Wiwa tribe also run Wiwa Tourism, which is one of the world’s first adventure tourism companies founded by an indigenous tribe, and who, in partnership with G-Adventures, a leading sustainable travel company, have organised our five day trek to the Lost City.

Jose leads the way. Along with him is Javier, another indigenous guide from the local Kogi tribe, and completing our guide team is Juan Diego, a Colombian guide from G-Adventures, who translates Jose and Javier’s Spanish throughout the tour and who is an ever-present source of optimism and encouragement.

There are four indigenous tribes in la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – the Kogi, Arhuaro, Wiwa and the Kankuamo. While the others number in the thousands, the Kankuamo are down to approximately their final 300, we are told, because they were tortured, made to feel “unpure” and convinced their practices were devil-like by Catholic missionaries.

In 1991, there was a new political constitution. The tribes were recognised as indigenous people, and given autonomy over their land – though tellingly, anything beneath 30m of soil on the land still belongs to the state. The government gave the tribes back some of the land that had been taken from them, and since the formation of Wiwa Tourism in 2008, the tribes have been using adventure tourism to buy back even more of that land.

The closest translation of how the tribes view themselves is “guardians of the heart of the world”, Jose tells us. And it is immediately clear to see the connection they have to nature. Their purpose on Earth, we are told, is to uphold, revive and protect nature. This is why they want their land back. To rejuvenate the forests. To bring the life back, where marijuana farmers and cocaine plantations have taken it away.

“We are not in charge of nature,” Jose says. “We are part of nature. We are here to obey”

***

I would perhaps have been more reluctant to clamber into the water and help those mules had it not been for the torrential downpour on day one that had left us soaked through.

Juan Diego’s prediction that we would be “breathing vapours” in the mountains had proved correct. We had sweated on exposed uphill, under baking heat, for about two hours. Then by the time the rain had come we were in the jungle, and it came hard.

A downhill essentially made from solidified mud became a waterslide of a descent.

“There are some tourists and guides who think these people are zoo attractions”

I slipped first. My makeshift jungle walking stick snapping on impact but saving my fall. Then the rest went down. Jon hit the deck, engulfing himself in reddish clay. Laura took her time, but was brought down by Tom, whizzing down on his backside, while the well-meaning Juan Diego puzzled over who to try and help first like a slapstick comedy sketch.

We learned that when it rains in the rainforest, it rains suddenly and relentlessly. Following Javier’s footsteps on day one of the downpour felt like trying to trace the dance moves of a trained ballerina. He skipped across wet slabs and stones while we skidded behind, like newborn ducklings precariously but loyally following their mama duck without question.

We wrung our stuff out when we got to the Wiwa Camp, but nothing dries in the humid night. Wading across an overflowing river had been the final hurdle of the day, and hadn’t helped. Still, that’s where the sun comes in handy the morning after. A good night’s sleep on a surprisingly decent bunk bed, clothes on backpack, wet boots on and off we go.

***

“The companies in mainland Colombia wouldn’t want to work with indigenous because the misconception is that they are not prepared to receive travellers, or tourism and they basically don’t know how to run any sort of business. It’s lack of knowledge in general.”

G Adventures are the only operator who provide a local, indigenous guide from Wiwa Tourism, and they are currently the only operator working with the indigenous people to ensure that they are able to sustain their culture and traditions through tourism.

Even before embarking on the hike, we had received information from the operator on how to properly respect the indigenous people while in the jungle, and along the way from Jose and Javier we learn about their culture, traditions and beliefs.

“There are some tourists and guides who think these people are zoo attractions,” says Juan Diego.

The idea, of course, is that the more Wiwa Tourism establish themselves, and the more tourists they can accurately inform about their culture, the more this will change.

***

We soon hit the top of the mountain and find ourselves at an army barracks called Kuskunguena. There are a few huts and houses, and a little dirt clearing in the barracks, with two sticks about a metre apart at either end. This is a football pitch. Thousands of metres high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, far from the 22ft bronze statue of Carlos Valderrama that stands outside the football stadium in Santa Marta.

There’s a sheer drop down the mountain on one side of the pitch, and the military village on the other. Soon a couple of soldiers came out with a ball and begin to play. I’m welcomed in. We play three on three for half an hour, extra care taken not to miss high on the right, before we set back off for our next camp.

“We all have the same blood”

The morning comes for the final climb to Ciudad Perdida. We find ourselves at the bottom of 1200 stone steps to the top of Teyuna about six in the morning. Blink and you’d miss them.

They weave and wind, and you have to take care not to slip, but when you do arrive at the top, you arrive at a truly humbling site.

Javier gets there first, and welcomes us in.

Surrounded by trees on every side, Teyuna is formed by various platforms of ringed stone circles. Behind these, a staircase leads up to an even higher level, where the platforms continue to rise, but with views looking out over stunning, remote forest-covered mountains.

We perform a cleansing ritual at the first circle “to leave our negative spirits behind”.

Each of the circles in the Lost City represents a moment of creation, whether for the creation of the trees, the water or otherwise, they were built so the people could keep these moments in mind, and remember to take care of each.

A circle has no beginning or end. What care or pain we cause to the Earth, they tell us, we also cause to ourselves.

“Everything in nature is part of our spirit,” says Javier. “When we cut nature we cut our own spirit.”

***

“This was the way they used to protest against our system; kidnapping, taking away your money, extortion. 15 years ago, somehow this was normal. This was our daily news, our daily bread. Today it’s the opposite. Today it wouldn’t be normal for us at all.”

Edwin is interrupted by the sound of an army helicopter, which soars over the jungle mass and touches down on one of the wider planes of Teyuna. It is greeted by a platoon of soldiers, who live on site at the Lost City now, and who run in single file to unload the cargo.

“The government… used helicopters to fumigate the coca and marijuana plantations, killing many civilians who lost their farms”

Edwin points to the helicopter.

“After this kidnapping, as one of the requirements from the paramilitary, in order for them to turn themselves in and give up their weapons, they demanded security from the state. So after the kidnapping we raised awareness of how important this place was and the government built a high mountain battalion, and they have convoys all around the Sierra, taking care of this beautiful place, of the ancient heritage, and taking care of us.”

***

Javier and Jose tell us there are many temples like Teyuna in the jungles of the Sierra Nevada that their people will never reveal to the public. The government have asked them. But there are also many, they say, that not even they know about, that only the mamos are aware of, and if you follow a mamo without permission, we are told, you will become ill.

The indigenous people did not come to their initial decision regarding tourism lightly.

Several mamos went up to Teyuna and held a spiritual ceremony to consult the spirits on tourism in 1982. Even as recently as 2015, mamos reconvened and used yatkua for almost a week to consider whether or not they should work with G Adventures and Planeterra.

I ask Jose, simply, if he is happy to have tourists here.

“We all have the same blood,” he says. “We are all brothers. Earth has plans, and if you came here, you are here to listen to your mother. When you hear our message, and you see our nature, and you spread our message, you are doing what your mother has asked.”

After five days trekking through the jungle, we finish our hike, our final day passing through contrastingly low farmland, with hills that roll like Tuscany. Our ultimate destination is Gotsezhi, the relatively new indigenous village built by the local tribe.

We sit down with Lorenzo and Eduardo, two brothers leading Wiwa Tourism. They are in their early 20s and Lorenzo is attending university in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, to learn the laws of the land, so the tribe can use them to help in their bid to reclaim land.

It is explained that the tribes work with only select institutions rather than the government, who don’t invest here, and who in the 80s, in a bid to get rid of the farmers growing marijuana and drug trafficking in the hills, used helicopters to fumigate the coca and marijuana plantations, killing many civilians who lost their farms or got sick in the process.

“We hope to make money to recover our ancestral territory and grow as a community”

“This is the first time that we’re opening [this] community to travellers, because we saw the opportunity,” says Lorenzo. “We hope to make money to recover our ancestral territory and grow as a community.

“Through tourism we are seeing an opportunity to not only recover the land but the forests. We are buying back lands taken over by farmers that came here to grow illegal things. Our main aim is to recover these lands, to recover the nature and make nature reborn again.”

Lorenzo is remarkably savvy. He wears the traditional white of the tribe, but with Nike trainers. He seems smart, switched on and confident in the future of his community.

We are encouraged to buy handicrafts from the local women, to purchase coffee, bowls and bags before we drive back to Santa Marta, from where we’ll fly to Bogota the next day, and then on home, safe in the knowledge that the guardians of the heart of the world will continue their mission to preserve la Sierra Nevada, and indeed, their own way of life.

Do It Yourself

G Adventures’ seven-day Colombia-Lost City Trekking tour starts from £499 per person, excluding flights. 6 nights accommodation, 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches and 4 dinners are included along with a G Adventures Chief Experience Officer and Indigenous guide.

Visit www.gadventures.co.uk for more information.

You May Also Like

A Land Faroe Way | Exploring the Green Haven Of The Faroe Islands

10 Destinations You Need To Visit In 2019