Towards the Andes

To see details of this section:

https://strava.app.link/mGlCoNEoxJb

We left Buenavista and continued our ride towards Medellín. We struck lucky with the weather as it continued to be overcast which meant high humidity but lower overall temperatures. I was rather gutted to have missed a small turning which would have taken us over the old bridge. However we got a good view of it as we crossed the new bridge. 

The pedals that I'd bought in Mexico city had begun to develop a little play and I was keen to add a bit of grease to them. I pulled into a small workshop and explained my predicament and the owner quickly removed the dust caps, pressed some grease in, replaced the dust caps and wiped it all clean. Five minutes from start to finish and he wouldn't take any money for it. (Money is Plata in Colombia. Plata also means silver. This is from the colonial era when gold and silver were exported back to Spain)

We are loving the Colombian food. Arepas are like tortillas but made from a different type of maize flour. Patacones are slices of plantain that have been smashed into thin disks and double fried. It usually comes with chilled límon (lime) juice of which free refills are the norm. This plateful was devoured at a roadside restaurant. In the same area were about 10 restaurants, each was about one lorry length from the next so that there is space for drivers to pull over in the gaps between them.

We passed through Caucasia which, like every other town swarmed with motos. I like this picture as the female driver has her baby on a sling in front of her. 

The town square had several food stalls around and we could not resist one advertising toasted sandwiches. It was yummy even if the bread was fluffy white and sweet. Even better was the nispero smoothie. Made from a fruit that only grows in that region. 

Colombia has the highest biodiversity per unit area in the world. Many species only exist in specific areas. It has 1900 bird species and between 40 and 45 thousand plant species. 

Later we bumped into these two cheerful guys. We had a great laugh with them but sadly didn't get their names. When we told them how far we had ridden they did a wonderful bow legged walk to indicate how they would feel after that long on a bike. 

We took a rest day in El Jardin. We had a lovely hotel with a pool - it cost £6 per night. Unreal. It also has cable TV showing the Giro D'Italia. We wandered into town for more delicious food and were both amused by the attention to detail in the tower of food we were presented with. 

It was school closing time and this group of interested youngsters were eager to speak with me. I ended up giving them an impromptu English lesson after they dug their English exercise books from their bags and presented them to me. They were amongst dumbstruck when I told them that my nearest town was Manchester, home of Manchester United. 

A photo of the pool at our hotel. It was lovely and we spent a whole afternoon hanging out by it.

After our rest day we continued to ride up the Cauca River. It is huge. We went to the middle of this bridge to look down on it even though we didn't need to cross it at that point. In the distance we could see mountains.

There are many tributaries flowing into the river. This one was a most amazing orange colour. Probably as a result of quarrying upstream. We also saw ones that were a rich green. When they meet the main channel there are amazing patterns as the two streams of different coloured water begin to mix.

As we worked upstream the sides of the valley became steeper. Lots of small rivers flowed down and these were regularly redirected into hose pipes for washing passing vehicles. The way to advertise your washing station is to point your hose upwards so the spray of water is highly visible. This also creates a great resource for hot cyclists to cool off underneath.

Passing through one settlement we stopped for water and met Orlando on his hand cycle. He was as keen to photograph our bike as we were to photograph his.

Finally we crossed the Cauca River for the last time and started climbing. We have had the Andes in our mind for a long time and it was exciting to actually begin climbing into them. 

Of course climbing is hard work but the views are something else. We gained about 400m before passing a hotel and deciding we were ready to stop for the day. Tomorrow will be uphill all day.

Google photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/p8J9ERd7iN2bGiZy9

Email miketoyn@gmail.com if you would like an email update whenever there is a new blog post or if you want to get in touch

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/two.boldlygo/