Colombia day 16: Colombia high on the white(ish) stuff

That's right: we went in search of snow.

The 4.15am alarm seemed very early. Guess we need rest days like this to make us appreciate the cycling days all the more!

The part of Los Nevados park we were headed to can only be reached by some 3 hours of dirt road (more like offroad) driving. Along with the altitude gain and distinct gasoline fumes in the aging and abused Land Cruiser, we were all a bit bleary and weary before any hiking started! We were in a small group with 3 other English speakers - a mother and preteen daughters from Canada who moved to Colombia in August. Fascinating to hear their stories! (Dad is busy studying for Masters so they get out the way every weekend doing something fun). There were probably 10 jeeps heading up in all, the rest with domestic tourists I believe.

The drive up probably did have the best views of the day, both stunning and precarious roads on sheer mountain sides, and up towards the central range of volocanos we were heading towards. The most famous cones are relatively active so have an exclusion zone. Santa Isabel on the other hand hadn't ereupted for some 8000 years so odds were in our favour for a quiet trip.

This volcano is also home to Colombia's lowest glacier. 100 years ago Colombia had 19 glaciers, it's now down to just 6 and expects all of those to be gone in the next 20 years. Santa Isabel, being the lowest, is retreating fastest and won't last 10 more years. So we were fortunate to get chance to see it, or what's left of it.

The drive back down was equally tiring, riding in the Fume Cupboard as I'd now dubbed it. All the excitement brought out my annoying cough into a full blown cold, so tomorrow we'll take a much more restful rest day!

Colombia day 15: It's a long way to Manizales

After a short day yesterday, we decided to go longer today and made it all the way to Manizales. The roads were busier than the previous day's, but mostly in good condition. There has been a lot of rain in this area in the last few days and there were multiple landslides on the roads. You can tell we are in a wealthier/more touristy area as there were crews out with diggers and trucks clearing them up. We actually had a couple of rain storms while riding too, and quite a lot of grey overcast skies. It makes the climbing a little easier to handle than the intense sun. There were many more jeep taxis on the roads today. These seem to be something like a bus, but a little more flexible. Some were incredibly overloaded with the front seats filled, people squashed into the bench seats in the back with goods piled between them, 3 or 4 people standing holding on to the back and more goods piled on the roof rack, possibly including a couple of sacks of coffee beans. The negotiations when they were picking up and dropping of customers could get quite involved!

Unlike entering Medellín, it's quite a climb up to Manizales. Thankfully it didn't loom over us in the same way as Salamina did yesterday - because it was short day and much shorter as the crow flies we could see our destination for much of yesterday's ride. Manizales is both the northern most city in Colombias zona cafeteria (coffee country), but also the main entry point for a couple of national parks. As we have arrived a day early, we managed to book on a tour to enter the Nevados national park tomorrow and walk up a volcano. A nice relaxing day off. I'm not sure that it will feel that way when the alarm goes off at 4:15am though! Hopefully it will mean that we will get to see snow (or the remains of a shrinking glacier at least). For the last couple of years black Friday has marked the start of our ski season - making the most of REIs #optoutside campaign. So it seems appropriate that we should see snow this weekend.

Colombia day 14: not a turkey trot

A short day, but not a totally easy day. We're heading south along a secondary road towards Manizales for a few days, which means variable quality road paving and an awful lot of sheers drops and climbs. But the views are Spectacular Spectacular.

We rolled out of Aguadas about the same time as Stefan, the German cycle tourist we'd met yesterday afternoon. We rode together for a while but had slightly different speeds and stop cadence on the climbs so leapfrogged most of the way. The ride was basically a small down, small up, big down, big up.

We were barely out of town and about to start the first down when I saw a nice hairy tarantula crossing the road. She was particularly slow moving, perhaps because she'd lost a leg (or two), poor thing.

As we'd seen many days, several houses had large hauls of beans laid out on the tarmac (at least, where the road was blessed with it) to dry in the sun. It's so humid here that it's tricky to air dry products, but with the help of the blacktop they seem to manage it. A few places the beans looked less like eating beans and more like coffee beans. A couple times yesterday we'd caught the distinct smell of coffee gently toasting on the vine, so we're definitely getting into that region.

The long climb to Salamina was punctuated by frequent stretches of washed away rocky / gravelly road. Happily they didn't extend for long - unlike the prior 15km desent which was almost all on dirt and so very slow. The roads remained quiet. I've got the hang of realising when a climb is going to be very sustained and long as many of the mopeds/motorbikes coming the other way will have cut out the engine and just coast down past us. Gasoline is not cheap here, maybe 3 times USA prices? So guess it all helps.

We got to town soon after midday so got a good coffee and fruit salad snack then looked around for a hospedaje. Stafan decided to push on 23km to the next small town, but we're definitely in holiday mode so decided to just stay here in the larger places.  I doubt we'll find any turkey for dinner, but we will look! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating it today, and all the best to you and your family.

Colombia day 13: Back on top of the world

Today we left the main roads behind us again and regained some altitude. We are taking the secondary road to Manizales, which once again means gravel, landslides, washed out roads, little traffic and breathtaking views

Our first issue this morning was one of mud though. The road followed the river for around 13km before it started climbing and as part of the road construction they were taking gravel out of the river at a number of sites. We had woken in the night to hear a large storm battering rain on the buildings and this combined with the construction trucks had turned the road to muddy gloop. By the time we reached the cafe at the bottom of the climb, the bike and ourselves were covered in it. We haven't got a bike that muddy since a sustrans incident in 2015!

Up and up on the gravel we climbed, there wasn't a great deal of shade in some sections and we both got very hot. Changing from the bike helmet to a sun hat helped a lot - I was no longer dripping sweat like I was doing an indoor training session in June or blinded by sweat. I'm normally of the opinion that the best way of carrying a helmet is on your head, but today was an exception. 

This road is a little different to the small roads we travelled before Medellín in that shops and services are further apart, and the towns/villages are bigger. Our lunch time stop was in Arma, an historic village on the top of the hill. Despite being a little off the gringo trail the town square had a couple of information boards in both English and Spanish giving a little bit of history about the town and the holy relics in the church. We skipped the usual Colombian large lunch for a couple of ice creams and a packet of minature chocolate and banana cakes to take with us. The second climb of the day was around 1000m but unlike the first, was mostly paved. This makes it slightly easier going. 

Our destination, Aguadas, is a reasonably sized town with a lovely town square and a few nice restaurants and panaderías (bakeries). It sits on a ridge and the views make you feel like you are sitting on top of the world. We met a German cycle tourist as we arrived in the square and he recommended the hotel he was staying at. Now we are out of the holiday/tourist areas again the hotel accommodation is much cheaper, AND has hot water for the shower. Luxury! They were also very helpful in letting us borrow a hosepipe so we could clean Dobbin. He should be a little lighter for the climbs tomorrow and hopefully his gears will be a little better behaved.

Colombia day 12: Rolling Rio Cauca

Hot, long, still, rolling gradual climb. I think that best describes today. Although it's reassuring to recall that even on an easy day following along side the river, Colombian road builders have no fear of throwing in the occasional 10% climb to keep the legs warm.

Our Santa Fe Antioquia hostel had breakfast served promptly at 8am as promised. We'd already packed up so were on the road be 8:20.  Even so we only had an hour or so before the temperature went over 30. Thankfully it didn't get much higher than that all day, and we had a few pleasant stretches in a small gorge beside the river that were cooler and also took the edge of the humidity.

We were following Rio Cauca all day, upstream towards its source. We won't get as far as its namesake department, but that's fine as that's one of the less stable parts of the country. In fact tomorrow we branch off of the valley and start our climb back over the Andes again, through coffee country. Tonight we spotted that road contains large sections of unpaved gravel, so it's going to be back to slow and tough compared to the last few days.

Dobbin had admirers as we feasted on pop and a bag of crisps.

The first 75km today was very quiet riding, on generally very good quality roads. We had a latish lunch near Bolombolo, stopping in the first restaurant that unfortunately just did drinks and crisps. Around the corner we discovered two very large restaurants feeding a small army of road construction workers. They were a clue as to what awaited us on the next 40km stretch.

The after lunch stretch was significantly more "lumpy" in profile, this is where we hit several steep grades even though still beside the river. But it's getting a major upgrade so for all 40km we were among construction lorries and regular temporary stop signs to allow access to the work areas. It looks like the old road won't exist when they're done, but the new one could change the feel of this ride quite a bit. Certainly they're straightening corners and flattening out the dips and rises. Possibly cutting past some of the small communites that provide all the handy food and drinks services; I'm not sure if they'd relocate to the new road or just wither away. Certainly the culture of regular roadside stops seems very strong so maybe they just adapt to this sort of upgrade work.

Odd to say but we felt strangely lucky to have ridden it before this big change.  But still, I'm sure those Colombian road designers will find a way to sneak a few 10% grades into the new road anyway.

La Pintada old bridge, from the newer bridge.

Colombia day 11: Back in the saddle

We woke up this morning with the awareness that once again, we'd failed to get ready for an early departure. By the time we'd repacked our bags, worked out a route through the centre of town and eaten breakfast it was almost 9am. I had also had to do some emergency stitching as I'd managed to tear a two inch hole in the front of my icebreaker jersey when I went to zip it up. At least our late departure meant we missed the worst of the morning traffic. The first few miles were interesting cycling as we needed to take a couple of major roads to cross the river, but within a couple of miles we were out of the worst of the traffic and on the long climb out of the city. There is a motorway which runs towards our destination Santa Fe de Antioquia, but it is not cycling friendly and so we were on the old road over the mountain instead of through the new tunnel. This did mean that we had some wonderful views of the city.

We are getting good at judging when there will be roadside shops and restaurants on a road - on the top of the hill is almost a certainty. So with just over 1000m of climb in 25km, we stopped for a snack lunch at one of the roadside shacks on the top of the hill. The views on the descent were stunning, and at almost 2000m is our longest descent on the trip.

Santa Fe de Antioquia is a lovely old colonial town. From the last few kms coming into town it seems to have also turned itself into a bit of a resort town. It's off season, so all the posh resorts were closed or had only one or two people in the acres of deck chairs surrounding the pool. Compared to other places we've stayed the town is pretty expensive too. It's been good to wander around and get a feel for some of the country's history. 

Tomorrow it's going to be a long day in the heat and humidity again, although as flat as it gets in these parts. So it's time for a early night and hopefully an early start. 

Colombia day 10: rest day, wet day, dry day

I mentioned before that Medellin marks a transition in our trip. Another, unexpected, transition occurring here is of my cold to Emma. I've had evening time running nose ever since we started riding: literally as that stopped Emma's has started, but she's suffering it a bit more in the sinuses than I did. Thus, this morning we just had a slow lazy morning at the hotel guesthouse rather than get up and ride the closed streets Cyclovia as planned.

Midday we strolled the nearby botanical gardens, and then took metro system to the cable car than runs way up over the Eastern "wall" of the valley stopping at a few stations for local barrios (neighbourhoods) before heading up to the Parque Avrí forest over the top of the mountain and outside of the city boundary.

The view on the way up is astounding and really gives a sense of the size of the city, spread along the valley floor and spilling up the mountains on both sides. Generally the higher you get, the more impoverished the barrio. The last station before the park is Santo Domingo, which 2 decades ago was one of the most dangerous "no go" zones of this famously dangerous city. The cable car was built last decade as part of a package of measures to tackle this, another being the landmark city library built alongside it. CNN ran a story on exactly this just a few days ago: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2017/11/15/innovative-cities-colombia.cnnmoney/index.html

As we looked down we could just make out an urban downhill mountain bike race going on through the alleys and stairways of the town, with a big party happening around the finish line. Fiesta!

It started to rain when we got to the Avrí park, so we just did a little exploring in the wet before heading back down. 

As our ticket included transit to anywhere in the metro  system we carried on through to El Poblado touristy area for a beer and bite to eat. Shock horror! All the bars and restaurants had gone dry. Turns out it's presidential primary elections today and that means no alcohol sales this evening. Hence loads  of police patrolling the area too. So we ate some Colombian style Mexican small plates (so much delicious avocado! Rico! Even speaking as a Californian. London is going to come as a shock) then scampered back to our guest house for a sneaky beer (as it's a private bar they're exempt).

Back on the bike tomorrow as we start our second week of touring.

Colombia day 9: Descending into madness

Today we fell off of a cliff. Well it felt a little like it anyway, as we took a wrong turn on the way into town and ended up on a long steep descent into Medellín. It actually turned out well as it dropped us near the post office in El Poblado. We've decided to send some of our camping gear back to Bogatá and rely on hostels and hotels for our accommodation for the rest of this trip. This has reduced the weight we are carrying on the bike by more than 12kg which has the side affect of reducing the strain on the rear axle as well as making it slightly easier to go up hills. 

Medellín traffic is as crazy as in Bogatá, but with fewer bike paths. Fortunately we've manouvered a fully loaded Dobbin through London on many occasions, so nothing really scares us on that front any more. It was pretty tame to tell the truth, as the speed of the bike isn't a limiting factor. The sheer weight of traffic is what's slowing everyone down and while we can't squeeze through gaps the mopeds do, we can still go through gaps the busses and cars can't.

Medellín is known as the city of eternal spring - being close to the equator means that it is a pretty similar temperature year round and it's elevation in the Andes keeps the temperatures from getting too high. Ever since yesterday afternoon when we were riding on the plateau south west of the city, we started to see the nurseries and garden centres which abound in this mellow climate.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the centre of town, finding our bearings and wandering along the section of Carrera 52 which dedicates itself to bicycle and motorbike sales and repair. The stock levels in the bike shops were pretty amazing - as well as new bikes and cabinets full of all the components you could need on a modern bike, there were boxes of different axles, bearings and races and all the other odds and ends you could ever want. No spare freehub for a tandem hub which is no longer made though, not surprisingly!

We have 2 nights booked here so tomorrow is a rest day before we continue our travels.