Cuidad Perdida Trek - Day 2

Sleeping in a hammock sucks. I can't sleep on my back, and the snoring! Dad was the worst, at one point Ryan got up from his hammock and poked dad. Dad stopped snoring, then Ryan feel asleep and started snoring himself! Then dad stated again, and Michael was going at it too. It was like snoring in surround sound for me. I did manage to sleep sometime after 1:30.

We got woken up at 5 by Santiago and had breakfast, then started a three hour hike to a place called Wiwa, stopping for watermelon along the way. Well this is a HARD hike. Up and down the sides of mountains. Dad was really, really struggling going up and down. It was steep switchbacks and went on for an hour. Dad would have to stop every few meters and rest. He was starting to go a bit loopy. I offered to carry his pack, he refused at first, then accepted my offer, but it was to late, dad was done, and we still had a 5 hour hike after lunch. We finally made it to Wiwa for lunch and dad simply couldn't go any further. We discussed our options, and decided to get him a mule to take him and his pack to the next village where we'd be sleeping, El Paraiso, which is also the last stop before the Lost City, in Spanish Cuidad Perdida. Unfortunately, dad would have to hike another hour or so, to a bridge, as the mule could not cross the bridge.

Lunch was fish, super delicious, with other stuff that I don't remember, but probably some rice and potatoes and salad. Dad hardly ate anything. After lunch off we started. As I took dad's pack for the first bit, Ryan took it for the next bit.

Our guide has no concept of time, he'll say something is 15 minutes away, but we'll end up walking for 45 minutes.

The rain forest here is absolutely amazing. So lush and green, and it helps that we're here in the rainy season.

We made it to the bridge and the guide indicated to dad that the mule is on the other side of the bridge waiting for him, so off he went with the guides helper, while the rest of us went for a swim in the river.

 

The next time we saw dad was at a little snack place, dad was sooo happy with his mule. He was loving it. After we arrived and saw dad, he was off again while we finished resting and snacking.

The trail is insane, well maintained, but so steep and such huge steps up and down, rocky in parts, muddy in other parts, sometimes slippery clay. Me and Ryan couldn't comprehend how that mule could walk up and down these trails with nothing on its back, let alone a 200 pound man on its back. This is not like any trek I have ever done before. It's apparently rated as the hardest trek in South America.

There are numerous river crossing and of course more insane steep up and down as we went along. Climbing over huge boulders, trudging through mud. It started to rain really hard as well. We wondered how dad and his mule were getting along.

Dad's big camera stopped working as well. We think it got to wet from humidity in the plastic bag. You need to keep your stuff in bags to protect it from the rain.

We eventually came to the last river crossing before El Paraiso. You could either take a little platform suspended on a cable over the river (usually used for cargo), pulling yourself across with a rope. The alternative is to get your feet wet and walk through the river. Michal didn't want to get her feet wet, so Michael had to carry her. He picked her up like a sack of potatoes and started across, slipped and they both went in the water along with their camera. It wouldn't work after that. I chose the cable car as it looked like fun.

After the crossing, the trek got even more insane! Climbing up almost vertical rock walls. Scaling along thin paths along mountain ledges. Over and under massive fallen trees, it was nothing like anything we could imagine. Ryan has a massive grin on his face and kept saying how amazing this was. We wondered if the mule took dad up here, or whether dad to do it himself. Poor dad.

After about an hour of the most amazingly difficult trekking we finally arrived at El Paraiso. Dad was there in one piece. The mule only took him to the river, took him across the river and that's as far as the mule could go, so dad had to navigate the final super difficult stretch by himself. The guide helper helped dad navigate these cliffs and vertical ascents. Dad said that he fell off the mule at one point, the saddle strap wasn't tight. Apparently the mule ride was quite something as well, the mule going up and down these massive trails, navigating it.

El Paraiso is a full on backpacker place, you have the choice of hammocks or very crappy beds in a big dorm type scenario, all open to the air. They all have mosquito nets. After the crappy hammock sleep last night, we choose beds. Getting here is something that only backpackers would do anyway. The only pampering one might get here is a mule ride.

I should also say that there's no electricity anywhere either. We're out in the remote jungle here.

We had supper of pasta (spaghetti) with hot dogs. Very delicious. Once again, dad hardly ate anything. He had absolutely no appetite.

On the way up and down, all the tour groups stay at different places, so we were alone last night, but all tour groups end up at El Paraiso, so it was fairly busy. It's the low season, so there were three tour groups, I think, maybe 15-20 people all.

There's also a Colombian here that rode his mountain bike up. I remember him passing us on the trail. Crazy guy!

Dad went to bed really early. All the other tour groups went to bed early, we tried to stay up until 8, but failed.