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Finding the Lost City and Cocaine FactoryJan 22, 2008
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The Lost City, mostly platforms
A tablespoon of rock cocaine
| After some beaches in northern Colombia, Rachel and I were ready for some trekking. Years ago I read a great National Geographic article about the Indians of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, mountains in the northern part of the country, and now I was in position to visit the area. So we signed up for a six day trek to the famous "Ciudad Perdida", or Lost City, in the exact same area as the NG article. Well, to make a long story short, we found the Lost City. We had a fun group ranging from young potheads to an elderly American woman. The countryside was beautiful, we swam at every opportunity, slept in hammocks, and fought off mosquitos as best we could. In this last regard, some of us fared better than others, with Rachel and a Korean-American girl getting the brunt of it. The Asian girl looked like she had back-herpes after the trek ... not a pretty sight. The nights were cold and damp, and there was no power. However, in between dinner and bed we amused ourselves in a variety of ways, most anticipated but dissapointing of which was bug wars. As were were mostly hanging out by candlelight, we would be bombarded by many suicidal bugs, flying directly into the flames. Some were quite large, and these we would trap in clear plastic cups. After thoroughly inspecting and admiring them we would transfer two to one cup for the big fight. The main bout was between a giant, flying cockroach versus a praying mantis. It was pretty much a draw as they just climbed all over each other, without payng any attention at all to the other, let alone fighting! Bummer. On the last day of the trek we knew we had an optional side tour of the supposed "cocaine factory". For ten bucks we could choose whether to go, for an hour, to this place - the only problem was that everyone had different information on what exactly the place was, and this lead to wildly different preconceptions of what was to happen. Everything from an up and up, museum type show ad tell, to a full-fledged cocaine processing plant, and we heard such stories that after the tour we would all be doing lines or be able to buy bricks of powder or rock cocaine. Half of the group, including me, decided to go, while Rachel stayed behind with the others. We were lead to a secret location, accessed by a 20 minute hike up streambeds and completely unmarked. There was a large, camouflaged tent hidden under the canopy with a veritable laboratory of chemicals inside. It was a half hour show and tell demonstrating the process from coca leaf to white powder, and after watching all the different processes, and all the different, disgusting chemicals involved I was farther from ever "doing coke" than I had ever been. At the end stage, he produced a tablespoon of product in the form of smokable, rock cocaine, and gave it to us in a bag (two of the others took it for themselves for the upcoming Carnaval, and also bought some pot). I found the side trip educational, and worth the extra money and time. As I had taken many photos, including ones of his face, the guy made sure to instruct me not to show them to any ot the Colombian military in the area. A great trek to an interesting and beautiful area. It was difficult to photograph the Indians, but I got a few shots, which I hope to show later. |
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