When we got to the top of Ciudad Perdida after three days of intense hiking, we were asked to sign a guest book which posed the question, why did you do this? We wrote the truth, which was that we finally just couldn't come up with a good enough excuse not to. We had gone through them all: Sinus infection, check; mosquito allergy, oh yeah; aversion to hammocks, that's me! But in the end we felt that we'd regret it more if we passed, so after a big shopping trip to Exito, the WalMart of Colombia, and confirming with our guide Manuel that yes, there would be coffee, plenty of food, snacks, and blankets, we were off early last Friday morning on our jungle adventure.

It started, as all things do here in South America, about two hours late. In route we had plenty of time to get to know our fellow trekkers as we went from taxi to city bus to back of mini-van on the way to the trailhead. There was a young, outgoing Israeli couple. The guy, Doron - would wake us up singing Bob Marley tunes and our guide started just waking him up in the morning, figuring that was all the alarm we needed. Between his truncated English and jovial ways he reminded me a bit of Shrek, our group's friendly ogre. Both of them were super upbeat though and kept us entertained with tales of their days in the Israeli army.

There was also a real tough Australian girl named Jesi who grew up on a farm, walked uber fast, and didn't complain once when she got pink eye in both eyes and could hardly see, or when her hammock collapsed multiple times in one night.

Rounding out the group were Tina and Marco from Slovenia. We got along with them great and ended up hiking with them much of the time, when we could keep up that is! They are in their mid-twenties and have been together for over 12 years. They get confused for sister and brother, both tan, slim, blonde, and serious sports adventurers. They have a passion for sky-diving and both have over 100 jumps. In Florida just a few months ago they jumped 50 times in one week! It was fun hearing them talk so passionately about it, but it didn't make either of us too eager to take the plunge.

Our group's fearless leader Manuel has been leading treks to the lost city for 12 years, and worked on the archeological dig there 12 years before that. He's 50 years old and has a bum leg but we barely kept up with him most of the time.

The first day of hiking was really tough. We'd only gone about 50 feet before I was huffing and puffing and Josh and I had assumed our rightful place at the back of the group. This was very humbling for me. Usually I like to do everything fast. But by the end of the trip I was used to bringing up the rear and had stopped thinking of it as "making people wait for me" and more in terms of mere survival, going at my own pace, my own sanity, health, etc. Because this trail was no joke. Plus, I should add, we were by far the oldest in our group (apart from Manuel who does this 3 times a month - crazy man) - everyone else was in their early to mid-twenties. Not that this is an excuse or anything…

When we arrived at the first camp we made our way to my favorite swimming hole ever. To get in you either have to climb down a steep rope or jump from over 10 feet high. We both jumped, me screaming the whole way. The water was freezing and so refreshing. Waterfalls and slippery rocks everywhere. Heaven.

So I had survived the first day of serious elevation gain and was coming to terms with my place near the back of the pack when I ran across my first true test of the trip - 50-plus flying ants under my mosquito net. Josh made a valiant effort to kill as many as he could, but I didn't want to test it by turning on my headlamp to read. Instead I tossed and turned and got little more than a couple hours sleep.

The second day was uneventful with some elevation gain but more down than up, and a much more successful hammock rest. The third day things got interesting again. We were set to hike a good 6 hours to arrive at Ciudad Perdida (where we would rest in mattresses for two nights - hooray!). But on the way there we had to cross a river 9 times, sometimes in water up to my chest, and then climb 2000 stairs. The river crossings wouldn't have been so bad except that we hadn't come prepared with sports sandals and had to cross in our tennis shoes, and then hike in wet ones the entire day. (Our shoes still aren't completely dry.) Going up the stairs was tough, but towards the end we had young Colombian military guys cheering us on - they were incredibly friendly and supportive - so we toughed it out and made it all the way to the Lost City.

You'll see from our pictures that it was a lush and unusual setting, with fascinating history, but I'm still not sure if it's a must see or not… That night I got to translate as our guide told the story of what happened in 2003 when he led the group of tourists that were kidnapped by the guerilla group FARC. Staying in the exact same spot almost 5 years later was slightly unnerving, although nothing could have kept me awake on those mattresses!

After a day of rest in the Lost City we made our way back down. I was not too happy about facing an 8 hour day, 9 more river crossings, and the idea of descending 2000 wet, steep, narrow, and slippery stairs. I had already fallen once pretty hard in camp and was really worried about doing some permanent damage going down. Luckily our guide Manuel carved a magic stick for me and along with some encouragement from Joshua and the rest of our group it was all I needed. I did use a couple of my nine lives on that descent, but we made it out safe and sound, with only about 100 mosquito bites, several bruises, musty shoes, and a little dysentery to remind us of the journey :)

We've been resting up back here in civilization for a couple days and now we're off on the next leg of our trip. We won't remember Santa Marta with its smelly streets and lack of ambiance too fondly, but we will miss Nora, Johnny, Jacqueline and Marlene at Hotel Bahia Blanca who all took such good care of us. Now we're very excited to be hopping an overnight bus to Medellin and then on to Zona Cafetera - the coffee region. Along with good coffee it's supposed to have great thermal baths, some mellow volcano hiking, and wax palm trees. So hasta luego jungle and sea and sand - we're off to the mountains!