Factoria de paste de Cocaine

While in the jungle of Colombia on our trek to the Lost City, We were offered a tour of a cocaine paste factory. Sara did not want to go, but I did. If you ever wanted to learn how to make cocaine paste then here it is.

The tour cost 20,000 COP which is about $12USD. Quite expensive but I guess the "cooker" who showed us around was risking a lot. There were military patrols ALL over the jungle they even had drug dogs with them. The "factory" we toured was about 1/4 of a mile outside of the village our first camp was at. The little village must have known about it, but I'm pretty sure they get a portion of the admission fee. The "cook" said this factory was very small and they had a larger one up in the mountains where the military was less likely to discover it. The factory consisted of 4 posts in the ground with a tarp streached over it. The entire factory covered an area about 10'x10'. They had 2 55gal plastic drums and several buckets. The cook prohibited us from taking pictures of him. And he said we had to hide our camera's memory cards so if we got checked at a military check point they wouldn't see the pictures of the factory.

This is coca leaves on the branch. This is where it all starts. They need 100k (200lbs) of coca leaves to make 100g of cocaine paste.
This is a tarp they mix chemicals on. On the right is fresh coca leaves. In the middle is salt and calcium. On the left is coca leaves soaked in gasoline and then the salt and calcium are mixed into it. This tarp is actually only used to mix the salt and calcium but he was showing us the ingredients.
This is a 55 gal barral which has almost 100k of coca leaf "mash" in it. After being soaked in gasoline for several day. The leaves are now ready to have the salt and calcium mixed into it.


After the salt and calcium are added they drain the gasoline and other ingredients into a seperate barral. This has to be mixed to ensure the calcium and salt adhere to the coca. They then add water to the barral and sulfieric acid. Then mix it more. This somehow adheres all the cocaine mix together. Then they let it settle. All the gas goes to the top and all the mix settles at the bottom. Then they drain the gasoline off and I think dump it into the river (great for the environment).


They take the mix and add "pigiment potasio". I have no idea what that is but they get it from a purple bush. The cook said that the locals and hospitals use the stuff for stomachs and to put on cuts. They mix the pigimento into the mix very slowly. The cook said if you do it too fast it ruins the whole batch. This pigimento potasio causes the mix to clot and traps all the sulfiric acid and left over gasoline. He kept mixing in the pigimento and then cheking it to see the size of the clumps. When they were of the correct size he stoped adding the pigimento potasio. Then he took the purple mix and strained it through a T-shirt 5 times.
After the 5th straining all the pigiment was out and the liquid was clear. This was basically water and cocaine paste now. He took the clear liquid and added "soda" he said they use soda to clean sinks, tubs, and swimming pools. Apparently its used as a heavy duty cleaner. He added a table spoon of the soda and mixed it.
He asked that we take no pictures of him but I snuck this one. I wish I'd gotten more if his face in it. He's mixing the soda into the glass of mix now. You can see he has a gold watch, I never got close enough to see if it was real (I think it was).
He strained the liquid through cheese cloth. This is less then 1g of cocaine paste.


He then rung out all the liquid and scooped it onto a spoon. This is what they bag up and send to the cocaine factory. They make the paste in the deep jungle because that is where all the coca plants are grown. They need such a large amount of plants that its easier to make the paste in the jungle. The cook said this factory usually has 4-5 guys working and that they make 100g of paste every week. In the factory higher in the mountains they have 50 workers and make 100g of paste a day. This paste is taken to another factory (probably more secure) where one more chemicle is added and the actual cocaine powder is derived. The cook said the final chemical is VERY flamable and dangerous. The 100g of paste yields about 900mg of pure cocaine. The cook also said that 100g of paste is worth $3000 USD. I'm not sure if that´s what he gets per 100g or if that´s what the drug lord gets. The cocaine business in Colombia is a way of life. These are just normal villagers and this is simply their job.

Ciudad Perdida-The Lost City

For the last 5 days we have been on a trek in the jungle to the Lost City outside of Santa Marta, Colombia. The Lost City is the archaeological site in an ancient city. It is believed to have been founded about 800 A.D., around 650 years earlier than Machu Picchu!! It was founded in 1972 by some treasure robbers. Today only about 1/3 of the city is uncovered. There are sites all over the mountains, but this one is the most famous.
Our group consisted of 5 hikers, a cook, a guide, and the guide brought his 10 year old son to add an extra challenge for us. The cook used a mule for the first two days of the hike to carry the food. After that the trail became too rough for the mule to make it, so the cook carried the food himself.

Within the first hour of the hike we reached a hill that took us about 1 hour to climb up. Usually in mountains trails uphill consist of a bunch of switchbacks, but in the jungle they make the trail go pretty much directly up the hill!! This is the view from the top of the mountain/hill.

There are 5 active guerilla groups in Colombia today, and a few of them had control of this area until around 2005. In 2003 8 tourists were kidnapped by one of the groups for 3 months. It wasn't until 2005 that they started letting tourists back into this area. Now they have soldiers stationed all along the way, and they have around 65 soldiers stationed at the Lost City itself. They have copies of our passports, lists of who is on each trek, and they count us when we walk by to make sure we are all still there. It is kind of intimidating, but at least all the soldiers seemed really nice. This is me with two of the soldiers.

The guide's son and another kid at this house kept picking me these pretty flowers.

Nick and Fredrico swimming in a really nice swimming hole by the first camp area.

Around this house they had a whole bunch of marijuana growing. Also they had the cocaine paste factory that Nick did a blog about.

Leaves of the plants.
This lovely flower is not so lovely. I guess if you crush the petal into a dust and put it in water or another beverage and drink it you will be hallucinating for hours. This is a trick the men use in buses in Colombia. They will offer a woman sitting beside them a soda with this dust mixed in already and within 15 minutes they are able to steal money, credit card information, and whatever else they might want without the woman knowing a thing.

Another beautiful view.

A huge frog. We also seen a lot of crabs the size of baseballs after it rained one day!

The jungle.

The Koguis are the indigenious people, that are actually decendents from the people that lived at the Lost City. These are the first indigenious people we have seen on this trip that do not cater to tourism at all. Actually we felt horrible for going through their land. They rarely spoke to us, rarely made eye contact, and the guides were often very rude to them. I felt we were very unwanted there. These people knew about the Lost City way before it was "discovered", but they kept it quiet because they didn't want a bunch of tourists hiking through their home.

Our German friend, our guide, and me after panting our way up another steep hill.

We crossed this river 8 times. On the way back from the Lost City it had been raining a lot, so the river was really strong. It was a little scary at times crossing it.

This is the beginning of the steps up to the city. There are around 1,200 stone steps, and they are steep, mossy, made for small feet, and slick!

Me taking a break from climbing stairs.

This is map drawn on a rock of all the rivers in the area.

The military camp at the city.

We made it!!!!

You might want to click on this picture to enlarge it because that light spot in the middle of the picture is a beautiful waterfall above the city.

We do not think this dog belongs to anybody, she just loves the trek. She joins a group and hikes with them back and forth between camps. The son of the guide kept beating her though for attention. That kid proved to be a real brat!!

This is our little shelter we got to sleep in. They just laid mats down on the floor and covered them with mosquito netting. It was a really nice location! Beautiful views!!!

Another huge frog.

This rock is supposed to be a frog. It is a fertility rock. The frog is leaping to the moon, since the moon represented women.

The city is made up of a bunch of circles. They would make two circles and build their homes on top. One home is for women and one for men. They would bury their dead in the circle under their house. This is a series of steps and circles leading up from the main plaza.

This is the main plaza area.


This is the type of house that used to be built on the circles.

Me and the guide.

A wonderful waterfall and pool in the city. The military use it to bathe.

More steps leading to more circles.

The soldiers playing soccer.

Nick sitting on the seat for the leader that overlooks the plaza.

That tin roof is our cabana tucked in the trees. Three soldiers actually sat beside our place for part of the night. I could imagine it would be a good place to come down the mountain and kidnap someone.

The clouds hanging over the mountains.

The day we left the city is was raining most of the time we hiked. This is me soaked head to toe!!!

We got to sleep in hammocks at the other sleeping places. It was quite comfortable! This is me and Fredrico entertaining Matt the brat.

The night before the last day it rained really hard and caused a lot of trees to fall into the trail. This is one guy climbing through a tree.

This is our cook. As you can see he had his machete hanging on his belt. It is a very useful tool out here.

This was the first place we slept, and where we ate lunch the last day. This is where the weed is growing. Today the lady is doing laundry in the river.

We made it back to the village where the car picks us up. This is the playground. It is pretty sad looking!! What happened to the swings?

We made it!!!!! Both of us wet, dirty, and happy!!