Lost City Trek in Colombia
A narrow flight of stone steps squeezes up between the trees, its end far out of sight. As you climb, the jungle unfurls revealing clearings, settlements, and, eventually, the stone ruins of a hidden city.
The “Lost City Trek”, is a multi-day hiking trip to the abandoned Tairona city in Tayrona National Park. It provides an evocative four- or five-day jungle trekking experience for over 20,000 visitors a year. For many, it’s their first taste of the jungle.
But, despite the route’s growing popularity, this expedition is not for the faint-hearted – it’s a challenging journey where your main enemies are heat, humidity, and steep, slippery terrain. It culminates on the third day, on a 1,200-step climb to the archaeological site itself.
The challenge is real, but so are the rewards. When you’re not sliding up and down the trail, you’re snacking on slabs of watermelon, and swimming in the river. And the trek is closely managed so that it continues to benefit the Indigenous community in the area, the one who can still, remarkably, trace their ancestors back to the city’s original inhabitants: the Tairona people.
The “Lost City Trek”, is a multi-day hiking trip to the abandoned Tairona city in Tayrona National Park. It provides an evocative four- or five-day jungle trekking experience for over 20,000 visitors a year. For many, it’s their first taste of the jungle.
But, despite the route’s growing popularity, this expedition is not for the faint-hearted – it’s a challenging journey where your main enemies are heat, humidity, and steep, slippery terrain. It culminates on the third day, on a 1,200-step climb to the archaeological site itself.
The challenge is real, but so are the rewards. When you’re not sliding up and down the trail, you’re snacking on slabs of watermelon, and swimming in the river. And the trek is closely managed so that it continues to benefit the Indigenous community in the area, the one who can still, remarkably, trace their ancestors back to the city’s original inhabitants: the Tairona people.
Introducing the “lost city”
The first thing to note about the Lost City Trek is that it’s not ‘the lost city’ at all. Its proper name is Teyuna, and the local people knew about it for centuries before it was ‘rediscovered’ by grave robbers.
The city – once a large and sophisticated settlement belonging to the Tairona people – was abandoned 400 years ago when the Spanish invaded; its population disbanded, fleeing slavery.
Despite its apparent isolation, Teyuna is just 35km away as the crow flies, from the modern-day city of Santa Marta. The Indigenous groups in the area – the Wiwa, Kogi, Arhuaco (or Ika), and Kankuamo – are all direct descendants of Teyuna’s architects.
For years, Teyuna was left well alone – in fact, it was known as ‘el infierno verde’, the green hell. The heat and humidity were a challenge for local grave robbers, who made their money digging up other abandoned sites. The lost city’s steep terrain kept them at bay, and they couldn’t light fires to camp and cook at the site, because the wood was too wet.
The city – once a large and sophisticated settlement belonging to the Tairona people – was abandoned 400 years ago when the Spanish invaded; its population disbanded, fleeing slavery.
Despite its apparent isolation, Teyuna is just 35km away as the crow flies, from the modern-day city of Santa Marta. The Indigenous groups in the area – the Wiwa, Kogi, Arhuaco (or Ika), and Kankuamo – are all direct descendants of Teyuna’s architects.
For years, Teyuna was left well alone – in fact, it was known as ‘el infierno verde’, the green hell. The heat and humidity were a challenge for local grave robbers, who made their money digging up other abandoned sites. The lost city’s steep terrain kept them at bay, and they couldn’t light fires to camp and cook at the site, because the wood was too wet.
The kit list for the Lost City Trek has a certain theme: quick dry towel, rain jacket, synthetic layers, swimsuit, Ziploc bags.![]()
A hostile environment
Hundreds of years earlier, when the city was abandoned, the same punishing environment did away very quickly with the original round thatch houses of the Tairona people. Rainwater sluiced down the thousands of stone steps, and jungle roots took hold. The many terraces, built into the mountain to grow beans, maize, corn, and cotton, have slowly reverted to jungle.
There were once scores of houses on the hillside of the site but all that’s left is their round stone foundations – like the helipads of some secret Bond villain lair – perched in the jungle.
This wet environment means that the kit list for the Lost City Trek has a certain theme: quick dry towel, rain jacket, synthetic layers, swimsuit, Ziploc bags. It’s all synthetic and quick drying. There are insects to deter, and rivers to cross, too.
There were once scores of houses on the hillside of the site but all that’s left is their round stone foundations – like the helipads of some secret Bond villain lair – perched in the jungle.
This wet environment means that the kit list for the Lost City Trek has a certain theme: quick dry towel, rain jacket, synthetic layers, swimsuit, Ziploc bags. It’s all synthetic and quick drying. There are insects to deter, and rivers to cross, too.
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The jungle seems to enclose everything. The whole site feels very mysterious.![]()
A rich experience
Yet the end of the trek can be a special moment indeed. Stand on the circular foundations at the centre of the former city, 900m above sea level, and you’ll see green curtains of jungle-clad mountains drawn around you.
“A large portion of The Lost City has not been excavated yet, so the jungle seems to enclose everything. The whole site feels very mysterious.” Matt Leach is expedition lead at our partner Oneseed Expeditions. It was this trek, which he completed in 2018, that made him want to work here in the first place.
Jungles are secretive places, but an Indigenous guide can point out the purpling cocoa beans, the tall wax palms, their purposes for the communities who use them, and their cultural significances.
“Wilson, the guide’s ability to explain the flora, fauna, local customs, and plan for the day in easy-to-understand English made the whole experience so much more rich,” Matt says.
“A large portion of The Lost City has not been excavated yet, so the jungle seems to enclose everything. The whole site feels very mysterious.” Matt Leach is expedition lead at our partner Oneseed Expeditions. It was this trek, which he completed in 2018, that made him want to work here in the first place.
Jungles are secretive places, but an Indigenous guide can point out the purpling cocoa beans, the tall wax palms, their purposes for the communities who use them, and their cultural significances.
“Wilson, the guide’s ability to explain the flora, fauna, local customs, and plan for the day in easy-to-understand English made the whole experience so much more rich,” Matt says.
In the heart of the world
For hundreds of years, the Indigenous communities here wanted nothing to do with the outside world – a BBC documentary released in 1990 represented their first modern foray into communication. The film, From the Heart of the World, delivered a message from the Wiwa tribe, warning that the climate crisis, and the degradation of the land through development, cattle ranches, and drug plantations, was destroying the world.
They are taking out the mother’s heart and they are digging up the ground and cutting out her liver and her guts. The mother is being cut to pieces.![]()
A warning from the Wiwa people in BBC documentary From the Heart of the World
The tribes live as small-scale farmers, many of them eschewing most modern technology. Their spiritual leaders, known as Mamas, live in darkness for their first 18 years, to better connect to the earth. Imagine seeing the Colombian forest for the first time, and yet already knowing it by its sounds, feel, and taste.
Clad in white cotton, which is grown in the mountains, the Wiwa tribe often have something in their hands. For women, it’s bags that they make out of plant fibre. For men it’s a poporo – a hollowed-out gourd bestowed at their coming of age, with lime and seashells mashed within it, which helps release the potency of coca leaves. In weaving their bags, and chewing the leaves of the coca plant, and in the meditative stirring of their poporo, the tribes’ daily lives are informed by ancestral wisdom.
In their world view, their ‘cosmovision’, everything in nature is interconnected and in balance – or at least it was, until the ‘little brothers’ – the people of the outside world – began to destroy it.
Clad in white cotton, which is grown in the mountains, the Wiwa tribe often have something in their hands. For women, it’s bags that they make out of plant fibre. For men it’s a poporo – a hollowed-out gourd bestowed at their coming of age, with lime and seashells mashed within it, which helps release the potency of coca leaves. In weaving their bags, and chewing the leaves of the coca plant, and in the meditative stirring of their poporo, the tribes’ daily lives are informed by ancestral wisdom.
In their world view, their ‘cosmovision’, everything in nature is interconnected and in balance – or at least it was, until the ‘little brothers’ – the people of the outside world – began to destroy it.
Adapting to outside interest
Nowadays, the Wiwa tribe run Wiwa Tours. It’s one of just five tour operators that’s allowed to run Lost City Treks in the area, and one of the first Indigenous-owned businesses of its kind. Yet they still prefer isolation and don’t invite photographs.This didn’t use to be a problem. In 2008, there were only 1,000 trekkers on the path. Less than 10 years later there were over 20,000. On the magical third day of the walk, you’ll have to get up very early to have the archaeological site to yourself before another trekking group arrives.
For Indigenous communities there are more observers than ever attendant to their everyday lives, watching as they wash their clothes, or tend to their livestock, or as their children play in the clearings.
“The local Indigenous community is fairly private but it is common to meet local people in traditional garb going about their business,” says Matt. “Be sure to ask before taking photos of people, and respect them if they say no.”
Responsible tourism in Tayrona National Park
Our Lost City Trek passes a few settlements on the route. The walk benefits these communities: income from tourism helps pay for education, healthcare, and environmental and cultural conservation. As with many of our community-based tourism projects, trekkers stay in camps, not people’s houses, to respect their space.There are only 500 hiking permits issued each day, and only five reputable operators ‘on the ground’ permitted to run the trip. The whole trail is closed for the month of September so that Indigenous leaders can meet on the site to restore its good energy. You can’t go on the trek without a guide, so most departures are accompanied by an Indigenous guide, translator and a cook.
The Lost City invites comparison with Machu Picchu – but its ruins predate the Inca citadel by several hundred years, and are less impressive – they are far smaller and there’s not much left to see. Matt points out that there’s a perversity to admiring dead civilisations like the Incas when there are living ones on your doorstep: “To see the direct descendants of the Tayrona people who built ‘La Ciudada Perdida’ enjoying and practising traditional values at the site, living in close vicinity to the site, made it really special.” As with most journeys, it’s not the end that matters, but the people met along the way.
Practicalities
Why should you do this trek?
This is proper jungle trekking in beautiful forest that directly benefits an Indigenous community. There are river swims every evening, and fresh fruits to enjoy on the trail. The trek is challenging enough that completing it can be a badge of honour.
Why shouldn’t you do this trek?
The cons stem from the same root as the pros: this is a hilly rainforest, with high humidity (don’t expect your socks to dry out), mosquitos, and other biting insects. There is a lot of uneven ground and stone steps, plus rivers to negotiate (beware the most common injury bar an upset stomach: a turned ankle). The weather is unpredictable, and heavy rain can make river crossings and trails more difficult. With little infrastructure around, this trek isn’t circular, so you visit the same camps each night on the return legs.
Best time to go
Go in the dry season, in December and January. It means that you’re more likely to have safe river crossings and a less muddy, less slippery trail. There’ll also be marginally less humidity.
In summary…
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