El Rio and Colombian Cloud Forests
La Cuidad Perdida, Tayrona National Park, Colombia
Trekking in the Colombian cloud forest isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but when an opportunity came up to visit one of our key charity beneficiaries; the El Rio Foundation in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta our Director Cathy jumped at the chance.
El Rio Hostel, Cathy Casey
El Rio Visit
Our close ties to the El Rio Foundation in Santa Marta have been in place since it’s inception 10 years ago, founded from a need to support children growing up in a post conflict zone. While they may be growing up in peace, their parents have suffered through and continue to recover from unimaginable trauma.
The El Rio Foundation provide free sports, art and drama clubs for over 600 children per week adding over 300 hours of academic tutoring hours last year too! On this trip we were privileged to witness the opening of a bright new play area with adjacent vegetable, fruit and herb garden all built in just three months with volunteer help from guests staying at the award winning Rio Hostel!
Photos: Carol Melo Franco and Cathy Casey
The Foundation is run by the family of The Climbers Shop Founder Frank Davies. Franks son, Ben Davies and his business partner, Guy set up community English lessons and a small recycling and waste management project in the Santa Marta region of Colombia, which grew to involve the majority of local hostels and hotels on the northern Colombia Caribbean coast. By 2017 they had opened their award winning hostel. In 2019, they sponsored a Community Jungle school (providing year-round education to nine children with no access to any other formal education) and started to run sports sessions in the local town. The growing community work of the hostel was sadly interrupted by the Covid pandemic, however, they were able to send out 1000 food packages to help local families with the support of Viva Air and other local hostels.
With the success of the hostel’s community work, the Foundation was formalised in June 2020. And post Covid, when face to face activities were once again possible, the Foundation started to expand. In September 2021, they ran one football session and one multi-sports session a week involving 55 children from one community. Within 15 months, they were running 20+ sports and arts clubs and now work with 550 children each week across seven communities!
Columbian Cloud Forest
Just down the road from the El Rio hostel is one of THE best treks in Colombia; La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City). Our visit was in August which meant 30 degrees during the day, 98% humidity and rainstorms every afternoon.
It is trying conditions for any type of clothing and equipment, especially when most of the trail is unpaved with a lot of sticky mud - and don’t even mention insects!
We opted for the four day trek which made for a very comfortable distance each day and overnight stays in hostel type camps. Foot admin was critical due to the rain and sweat so in addition to boots we took sandals that could be worn with dry socks, a fashion crime made necessary by the vast quantities of flying biting beasties. This meant our feet could dry at night ready to climb into wet socks and boots the following morning.
The same was true of our clothes, even after drowning ourselves in Expedition Quality insect repellent the rain and sweat simply washed it off so long trousers and long sleeve tops were an essential to prevent against insect bites. Climbing into wet, stinky clothes each morning was a little unpleasant but there were showers at each of the overnight camps which meant we could be clean for our set of dry evening clothes.
Climbing up to the parts of the city that have been excavated from the jungle via the steps placed there by the ancient Teyrona people was breathtaking. A fraction of the city has been uncovered and it continues to be the cultural centre of the indigenous Wiwa and Kogi people, descendents of the ancient Tayrona.
Top 5 Kit Picks:
Dry Bags - The afternoon rains were torrential and relentless. We opted for one large drybag to use as a liner with lots of smaller dry bags inside; different colours so we could find our clothes/wash kit/first aid easily. Being strict about keeping the dry bags closed meant we knew nothing with more legs than us could creep in overnight.
Bug Spray - mosquitos, fleas, flies; they all feasted on us in droves. We used Lifesystems Expedition Max but long sleeves and trousers (tucked into socks to complete the fashion crime) were the best barrier.
Footwear - The La Sportiva Ultra Raptor offer a great fit and all of the support of a tough trail shoe but in a higher boot form. Why the boot version? We only saw one snake on the path but it was a Coral so deadly venomous. Ankle protection rocks!
Cotton Sleeping Bag Liner - Even though there were fleecy blankets provided at every overnight camp the cotton liner offered privacy for cleaning and dressing.
This meant I could use my Pits & Bits to keep clean and therefore chafing to a minimum.
What we didn’t need:
I always travel with a Be Free water filter both to guard against bugs and reduce my use of single use plastic, however, the Guiding companies that operate under license within the park had installed water filtration systems in all of the camps we visited.
Mosquito Net - these were provided at each overnight camp.
Waterproof jacket - with 98% humidity we would have been soaking wet inside due to condensation anyway, so we opted just to get wet. A poncho or the ultimate breathable waterpoof; an umbrella would have been a much better option.