Round terraces
In the forest.
Giancarlos1234 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lilo2111 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lilo2111 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lilo2111 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gavin Rough from Waterloo, Canada — CC BY 2.0
An ancient city deep in the mountain forest of the Sierra Nevada, built by the Tairona people around AD 800, some six and a half centuries before Machu Picchu. It consists of 169 round stone terraces cut into the mountainside, linked by paved paths and small plazas, in dense forest wrapped in cloud. It stayed hidden from the world until 1972, when looters found it, and archaeologists then began to study it. Descendants of its builders, the Kogi, Arhuaco and Wiwa peoples, call it «Teyuna», and it is still sacred to them; visitors sometimes meet them in their white clothes along the way. There is no road: the trip is a four- to six-day round-trip hike over some 45 kilometres of mountain trails and rivers, sleeping in camps with beds and mosquito nets. At the end you climb about 1,200 stone steps through the forest until the green terraces open up before you. The trek is hard and needs good fitness, with deep mud in the rainy season. It can only be done with a licensed company and guide, and the price is the same at every company for a given number of days.
In the forest.
The final climb.
Teyuna's keepers.
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; on foot only, with treks leaving Santa Marta via the village of El Mamey
Four to six days round trip; four is faster and harder. The price is fixed across licensed operators by number of days.