Finding El Dorado Ruins in a Dangerous Jungle | Expedition Unknown

OK, here we go.
Let’s do it.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): My team is currently hiking in the mountains of northern Colombia.
It is hot.
It is humid.
And we are miles from civilization.
We got here the same way those before us did, by being obsessed with legends.
And no legend has sowed more destruction than El Dorado.
We’re hiking into territory that is so uncharted it might as well be on another planet.
In fact, everything you’re seeing from here on out, you may be the first people to see it since the Tairona were here 400 years ago.
We’re basically off trail from this point onwards.
Stay.
Ooh.
Watch out.
You OK?
Yeah.
It’s a challenge.
It’s a real challenge.
Hey, guys, let’s get rain covers at the ready.
I think it’s going to dump.
We’re going to get wet.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): It’s astounding that the Tairona built cities in this environment and easy to see why so many of the Spanish who searched for them never returned.
Wait, no!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, Brian!
Brian! Brian!
BRIAN: Yeah? JOSH: Are you OK?
BRIAN: I’m OK.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): After sliding off the ridge, my director of photography, Brian, was saved from a far more dangerous fall by a tangle of vines.
Our local guides race to the rescue, cutting away the vegetation.
JOSH: Now, Rob, your first outing an “Expedition Unknown,” easier or harder than– than you were told?
I– I– I just want to survive the one.
Then we’ll worry about the second one.
Welcome to the team, man!
JOSH (VOICEOVER): Freed from the vines, we toss Brian a rope and haul him back up to somewhat safer ground.
Yay!
Brian! – Good man.
Whoo!
JOSH (VOICEOVER): Crisis averted, we forge ahead.
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] What about this way?
JOSH: OK, right behind you.
I got to say, I have made a career out of going to very remote, difficult places.
I have never been in a jungle environment that was more challenging than this one, ever.
This– this is madness.
Whoo!
JOSH (VOICEOVER): We finally find some relatively level ground.
I’d be thrilled, except for the river running through the middle of it.
We could almost do it here, but it’s a little too spicy.
Yeah, I mean, if you take a tumble right here– JOSH: You’ll go down.
Yeah, you’re going down.
You’re going down all the way to the river.
And it’s raining.
So does that mean this thing is going to get fatter?
Yeah, this is going to slough off.
JOSH: OK, let’s keep moving, guys, before it gets too heavy.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): The recent rain is going to make this river impassable.
We cross now or we don’t cross at all.
All right, here we go.
Nice and slow, everybody.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): The rushing water nearly pulls me off my feet.
Nice and easy!
A little deeper here.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): If someone gets swept up in this current, they’ll be in Brazil by sunset– Almost there!
JOSH (VOICEOVER): –something my field producer, Dave Duce, learns the hard way.
Help!
Dave!
Grab him!
Grab his arm!
Just give me your hand!
Give me your hand!
Come on!
[BLEEP] Come on!
That’s it, bro.
You OK?
[BLEEP] dude.
Dude, we got you.
He’s OK!
All right.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): Another close call.
After cheating disaster, my producer, Dave Duce, catches his breath and we soldier on in search of a lost Tairona city deep in the Colombian jungle.
OK, so how are we doing GPS-wise?
Let me check.
Let’s take a look at where we’re at here.
Here we go.
OK, so according to the GPS we’re sort of halfway up.
We still have a ways to go.
Undertaking this hike is such an education on why all this stuff is still off the map.
Oh yeah, this is where you start understanding why, one, research is so difficult, even why looting was so difficult and why the Spanish had such a hard time with these folks.
One of the things I keep thinking about as I slip and fall and trudge up this thing is there might be nothing here.
Oh, for sure.
You know, that’s– that’s one of the risks of exploration.
One of the benefits with the LiDAR data is that we’re moving towards a target, whereas before we have the LiDAR data, we were just, like, moving around in the forest.
Right, at least we’ve got a guide now.
At least we’ve got a target.
SANTIAGO: Yeah, yeah.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): For the Tairona who connected all these sites with paths and stone stairs, reaching other cities was an afternoon stroll.
400 years later, the jungle has swallowed everything.
Now, just seeing if something is out here takes decades of archaeological research, a cutting edge helicopter, LiDAR scan and a group of people nuts enough to trek out here.
Well, you know, maybe we find just a perfectly preserved staircase and just walk right up.
Don’t think so.
Be positive, Santiago.
It could happen.
OK, well, I guess we keep climbing, yeah?
Yeah, let’s go.
All right, let’s keep climbing.
Come on.
Don’t fall and die, everybody.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): The break’s over and the hike starts again.
The final push up the mountain is punishing.
In the rain, it would be impossible.
Thankfully, the weather holds and we keep going higher.
It seems to go forever, until it doesn’t.
JOSH: We’re on level ground.
Whoo!
OK, coordinates-wise, how are we doing?
– We are where we should be. – We’re here.
SANTIAGO: We are here. – This is it.
SANTIAGO: This is it. – Nice work!
SANTIAGO: All right, man.
Nice job, everybody.
Yeah, we are on the coordinates.
OK.
Santiago, I don’t know how to break this to you.
I do not see a lost city.
Of course, not.
We still need to verify that something is actually out here.
Right.
First thing to look for, flagstones.
Flagstones, so it’s those flat stones, right?
Flagstones, grinding stones, walls, anything that looks made by humans.
OK.
That’s where our verification comes in.
Places are lost for a reason.
SANTIAGO: Absolutely. – Machetes out?
SANTIAGO: Absolutely, machetes out.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): We get to work clearing centuries of growth while keeping a sharp eye out for any evidence of human construction underneath.
Josh, hear that?
JOSH: Is that stone? SANTIAGO: It’s a stone.
Are you sure?
Oh, ho, ho, ho!
Hear that?
That does sound like stone.
Hey, let’s tear it back, come on.
Here, like, cut some of it.
Watch out.
Yeah.
OK, it’s roots.
Oh yeah.
Oh, there we go.
I love cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck.
JOSH: Ha ha, look at that.
Is it a wall? – Yeah, it is.
Oh, definitely a wall.
Unbelievable!
All right.
It’s a wall!
We got pottery.
JOSH: What type of pottery?
Hey!
Pottery, look at that.
So it’s dark in the center, sort of reddish on the outside?
SANTIAGO: Yeah, yeah.
It’s a fine red type.
Tairona period.
We’ve got a wall.
We got pottery.
We’ve got a site.
This is crazy.
JOSH (VOICEOVER): The Spanish spent centuries searching for El Dorado, and we just found traces of a city that may have fueled the legend.
After clearing a portion of the wall, we scour the area, uncovering more evidence of habitation.
Oh, we got more stone.
Come here.
Over here, check this out.
Look at this.
There is stonework everywhere.
SANTIAGO: Oh yeah.
There’s more over here at the edge of a ring right here.
JOSH: Look at that. SANTIAGO: Right here.
JOSH: Look up here, there’s a ring.
SANTIAGO: We’ve got the edge of a ring right here, and we’ve got another edge of a ring right there.
All this is a terrace.
JOSH: Just like Ciudad Perdida. – Just like Ciudad Perdida.
JOSH: Big open terrace.
Yeah, yeah.
60 feet across, yeah.
Come on.
These terraced platforms would have been connected by stone paths and covered in round thatched roof buildings.
The wood structures may be gone, but we still find traces of what life was like inside.
SANTIAGO: We got a grinding stone over here.
Oh, look at that!
Unbelievable!
Grinding stone means people.
JOSH: This is kitchen. This is eating.
This is family.
This is everything.
SANTIAGO: That’s what it is.
And it’s just been sitting here waiting to be found.
Think about the last person who touched this, you know.
That was 400 years ago.
It’s absolutely crazy. – It’s awesome.
That’s one of the things that I love about this job.
JOSH: This is so cool.
I mean, that’s history right there.
SANTIAGO: All right.
Awesome.
All right, let’s keep looking.