  We investigate the effects of inelastic cotunneling on the electronic
transport properties of gold nanoparticle multilayers and thick films at low
applied bias, inside the Coulomb blockade regime. We find that the zero-bias
conductance, $g_0(T)$, in all systems exhibits Efros-Shklovskii-type variable
range hopping transport. The resulting typical hopping distance, corresponding
to the number of tunnel junctions participating in cotunneling events, is shown
to be directly related to the power law exponent in the measured
current-voltage characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings
in light of models on cotunneling and hopping transport in mesoscopic, granular
conductors.
