In search of the Lost City

Quick entry.. more later...

Have decided I´m going to do the 5 day trek to visit the Ciudad Perdida. It´s a tough 5 day walk through hills and mosquitos and trudging waist-deep through rivers in deadly heat, but everyone I´ve met here who has done it say it´s a must-do.

Even people who have done Machu Picchu say this is better as it´s more "raw" with jungle overgrowing and less visited. Plus there remains about 85% of the city yet to be discovered!

I´ve decided that due to the recent rains and chaos at Machu Picchu, I´m going to avoid doing it this year, and do Ciudad Perdida instead. This also has the advantage of opening up a whole new itinerary to me, as the MP trek would have taken up a week.

It is a site that was only discovered in 1975, and for many years wasn´t reachable due to FARC activity. The army now controls the area, plus indigenous tribes (whom you get to meet on the trek!)

As for my knee... it´s feeling a bit better nowadays since I´m wearing a support. A guy here who has a similar knee problem did the 5 day trek and said it was fine while wearing a support.

I got a massage later this day for my upper back problem... haha I sound like an old guy ... but I´m determined to not let my physical state hold me back from satiating my adventurous desires.

I´m going with a group of 10 other people from the US, Holland and Sweden, plus I´ve HOPEFULLY managed to get to sleep on a mattress for most of the nights as I think a hammock might wreck my back. I have to sleep in a hammock one of the nights though.

OK folks... Pete out for the next 5 days...