El viaje

Danger, excitement, a jedi craves not these things!

But true explorers do!

Having teased Lu for the entire trip for not yet being a true explorer, for having to collect explorer points in order to get a recognized seat at the true explorers table, i felt more than happy to finally submit. What we did that day was not for the faint of heart.

Having slept humbly and well in our servant quarters we got up early. Knowing that we had a 6 hour drive to Cartagena in front of us, we still needed to explore the surrounding jungle, at least a little bit.

The recommendation of the hotel staff was a little path quite close to the premises.“30-40 minutes up the hill, until the river bends“: they said. Lus question whether or not we could swim that way back in the river was answered like such: „Technically you could , but no one does that and we really would not recommend it.“

„Come on Jojo, we will just walk up for a bit and let the current take us back, the staff said it is totally fine.“ It was not until later, when she told me , what they had actually said.

So off we went on that little jungle path.

The first half an hour was super easy. I was wearing only some shorts and a little plastic bag for the phone not to get wet. Lu like this.

We also encountered 3 people who were carrying car tubes to let themselves float down the river a bit.One of them was nice enough to take a picture of us.

The rest was just quiet , super humid and unbelievably beautiful. Surrounded by the surreal jungle sounds.

After around an hour we got this view.

And the closer you look, you actually realize what is going on! We were looking at the Pico Cristóbal Colón.

Pico Cristóbal Colón is the highest mountain in Colombia, with an estimated height of 5,730 m. Remember that here , we were maybe 3 km away from the sea and the sea level, looking at a 5.7k snow covered peak. Bonkers!

This view was extremely motivating, so we carried on hiking in our flip flops, hoping that we would get the next view around the next corner. We never saw the peak nor snow again but it did not get any less spectacular. So, on we walked.

At some point we encounter an indigenous Tairona heir in front if us.

The Tairona or Tayrona was a pre- Columbian culture, which consisted in a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada, Magdalena and Guajira. Ethnohistorical data shows that initial contact with the Spanish was tolerated by the Tairona; but by 1600 AD confrontations grew, and a small part of the Tairona population moved to the higher stretches of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This movement allowed them to evade the worst of the Spanish colonial system during the 17th and 18th centuries.

At the time of the conquest, the Tairona had different traditional cultural practices than modern Native American populations. Ethnographic sources highlight freedom to divorce and acceptance of homosexuality, which differed significantly from their catholic conquerors. The Tairona religion, and to some extent modern Kogui religion, separate much of the domestic life between genders. Modern scholars have determined that the descriptions of Tairona homosexuality were an attempt by the Catholic establishment to abolish the Tairona male meeting house, which was the site of intense and permanent religious activity. These rituals are believed to be very similar to those of the Kogui, modern descendants of some of the Tairona chiefdoms. Many of the adult men are involved in rituals, sometimes lasting days, and consisting mostly of coca chewing and meditation.

In 1599, the Tairona revolted against the Spanish, apparently because economic and religious pressure from the Spanish had become intolerable. The main aggression was the killing of priests and travellers along the roads connecting the Spanish city of Santa Marta and the Tairona centers of Bonda and the villages of Concha and Chengue. Secondary targets were the churches and houses of known bureaucrats of the colonial administration. However, these data are from Spanish testimonies from the trial against the Tairona chiefs in 1602. The Chiefs of Chengue and Bonda were sentenced to death, their bodies dismembered, their villages burned, and much of the population was relocated. By the mid-17th century, many Tairona populations were completely abandoned and the region was engulfed by forest.

Their descendants today are the Kogi, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo people.

We are not sure which exact tribe the dudes are from that you can encounter everywhere here in the region but they wear beautiful white clothes and mix and mingle casually . We saw one on the first morning in Santa Marta.

Our encounter in the jungle was a little more demystifying. Because the dude was wearing heavy rain boots and had an usb speaker with him, out of which, blasted some very bad and very loud reaggeton music. He did not pay us any mind.

Another 40 minutes or so and i started to have a faint feeling of some doubt. We had to get back, let alone drive 6 hours to Cartagena, so i suggested we take the next possibility to take a turn towards the river. Lu wanted to head on , but while extremely beautiful, it also gets slightly spooky all alone in the jungle,so she agreed. Luckily, we heard the river soon after and headed its way.

Both of us completely soaked from humidity and sweat , we were looking forward to the well deserved refreshment swim back. Happy with ourselves, we took a selfie,

put the phone in the plastic bag and jumped into the river….

And another quick one upon entering.

And at first it was truly refreshing and enjoyable. All alone, just us two, far from civilization, no sounds. Peaceful.

But what if something happens? Are there crocodiles here? Why is the current getting so strong? Actually , what the fuck are we doing?!

The situation got out of hand rather quickly. The more Lu was asking me these questions , the more i realized, i did not have answers, or at least, not truthful ones.

Suddenly, we both realized that we got ourselves into a situation. It was better to stay calm. It was not so easy to do that.

We had to get out of the water because the current was getting stronger and stronger.

At some point i had to drag Lu out to put a security cigarette (i had originally hid from her in my plastic bag) in her mouth to calm her down. I had a couple of drags myself. We did not fully panic, but it was close.

Another problem was that when getting out of the water to avoid rapids with stones below, did not mean that there was suddenly a way or path on shore that you could simply walk along. Pathing through dense jungle with nothing but flip flops and a phone in a plastic bag is no fun. No fun at all.

We considered turning back, but pathing up stream, mind you, swimming up stream was even more idiotic.. So we pulled our buttcheeks tighter and battled our way down stream. Out of the water when rapids, in the water when, presumably safe. We were freezing too…

Not exactly sure how long our escapade lasted but we finally did arrive back at the river turn where we had a bath the day before. Thats a solid 3 hours later.

Shaking we got out of the water and it took another good 2 hours before we could laugh about what had just happened.

Let alone be proud of it.

That came much later.But it did come.

So, proudly , and honestly i can now say and claim that i am married to a true and fearless explorer. Worthy of any seat on any fucking table. Even the one in Valhalla.

The quick 6 hour drive from Palomino to Cartagena after all this mess , is hardly worth mentioning at this point.

We did have a good dinner and an even better gin/tonic in Cartagena though.

But immediately collapsed after..

The deep sleep of the righteous.