My mom would have turned 72 today… And she would have loved reading this blog. We had a wonderful, wonderful day. Like yesterday, we had a RIDE. It started with ~40 km of uphill. Up and up and up. But unlike yesterday, we had perfect weather. Blue sky, small puffy white clouds, and it was in the high 70’s- low 80’s (until later in the day anyway). Colorful homes with big windows and porches, lots of wild and planted flowers, and earthy and pleasant smells… it was all just lovely. And the icing on the cake to the start of our day: we had to wait for about 30 minutes of construction traffic until we got to ride the uphill. Why is that a good thing? Not only do motos have their own free toll lane, and not only is it common practice for motos to ride to the front of any queue, but motos sometimes also get to go when no one else can. So after our 30 minutes of sitting in the queue this morning, the Traffic Master of the Barricade let all the motos through but none of the cars or trucks. Turns out they were painting the lines in the middle of the road, so our best hypothesis is that the motos would just follow along and not make a mess of the paint, unlike many of the cars or trucks that might swerve around on those narrow winding roads. Anyway, imagine a 30-40km uphill climb on smooth pavement on one of the most scenic route you can imagine… And then add the luxury of no cars or trucks in your way. Just riding. Sonrisas. Ernie and I agree that motos aren’t just a cheap means of transportation here; they are part of the culture and identity of Colombia (perhaps like USAmerican’s and their SUV’s, but more admirable?). We have seen every type of human (and human combo) on a moto. Old, young, male, female, blue collar, white collar. Male cops ride double and mom’s will pile on four children. Dogs in baskets and eggs on the floor boards. Very old women riding side saddle and very old men facing backwards.
We plateaued in a town called Versalles, and Ernie and I were both in awe of how it, and its buildings, are still standing. The entirety of it looked as though it could fall to the cliffs below with a strong breeze. After about 30-40km along the ridge top (ahh) we began a 50-60 km drop down. And like yesterday, none of the safe 2-4% grade - 6-8% at least ha ha! The views were gorgeous. The cows, homes, and roads that are cut into and live along the mountain side… The colors were bright and everything seemed clean and tranquilo. We saw lots of signs for animals that could have been crossing the road: foxes, iguanas, squirrels, pumas, anteaters, serpents, armadillos, monkeys, and a hopping rat of some sort (and to LD nerd alert - they write the full latin names on the signs). We did not see any of these animals (boo hoo). But we did see some good morphos. We took our break of the day in La Pintada, where Ernie braved the tienda on the corner that was selling bread-pastry things and cold drinks. He bought us two cokes sin azucar and two… things. The first was a corn dough shell with chicken, onion, and potato insides. Bland, but two of them with a bottle of hot sauce could make a hearty lunch. The second was a hamburger patty (sort of), dipped in egg (we think), then deep fried (or pan seared). It was… It was… Well it was worth eating so that when we get back home we can try and make them ourselves, because we see a lot of potential there.
I wish I could put into words how beautiful Colombia is. Ernie and I have both said this country, its sights and its vibe, are unlike anything we have experienced. I don’t understand why driving or riding a car or moto or bicycle across this country isn’t on everyone’s stereotypical bucket list like running a marathon or going to the Great Wall of China. On second thought, maybe it is a good thing that this part of the world isn’t on everyone’s radar. It isn’t pristine here, but it has an obvious balance of people using resources that is working. More tourists would probably mess that up.
We found a color coded topo map online (see pic on Google maps). Note the area we rode yesterday and today (north and south of Mendellin, Hwy 25 and others), and note how the colors go from green to purple, basically skipping orange and red (or as Tara would say, POOF ther goes 4000 feet). When we zoomed out of the topo map, we saw a clear pattern of green to purple that takes us all the way to the tip of Argentina :0
After our downhill ride we eventually came back down to the river and (for the most part) followed it to Cartago where we are spending the evening. Many vendors selling their tilapia on the side of the road (or was that yesterday?). Unfortunately there was a lot of construction - more construction than we have had thus far. At one point it took us 2 hours to go 30km. Although during some of those construction periods we got to see the crazy shit they are doing, like bulldozing dirt off cliffs (see Google maps pic). Those stops added up to what was likely 2-3 hours of just “sitting on road” time. We went ~225 km today and we were on the bikes for almost 8 hours (not including breaks). We got stared at a lot during the construction wait periods, but so far it has been our experience that if we smile at the person staring, they immediately smile back and usually (but not always) give us a shout out. I had a nice chat with a man from Colombia who (after the staring -->smiling thing) got out of his car and talked to me about where we were from and what we were doing, where we were going, etc. As is seemingly standard in SAmerica, I started in Spanish and after my fumbling was too much to bear, my conversationalist companion switched to English. (Side note, there are different words for everything here! The language barrier has widened, not narrowed). It was a long but great day. But we were both so happy to be doing it because it was so stunning. And outside of one or two long waits in the sun, we got pretty lucky with our wait times for the construction/whether the sign said “Siga” (go) or “Pare” (stop). We saw a rainstorm in the distance, and only got enough sprinkles to cool us down once we got about 30km outside of Cartago. The town is flat, paved, and in a numbered grid system so even though we got “lost” trying to find our hotel, it was easy (and almost fun) to square around the blocks looking for where we were supposed to be. There is a beautiful town square that was filled with old people and loud birds that weren’t grackles.
Again, I thank Elaine for all our good fortunes and experiences today. XO Mom!
We plateaued in a town called Versalles, and Ernie and I were both in awe of how it, and its buildings, are still standing. The entirety of it looked as though it could fall to the cliffs below with a strong breeze. After about 30-40km along the ridge top (ahh) we began a 50-60 km drop down. And like yesterday, none of the safe 2-4% grade - 6-8% at least ha ha! The views were gorgeous. The cows, homes, and roads that are cut into and live along the mountain side… The colors were bright and everything seemed clean and tranquilo. We saw lots of signs for animals that could have been crossing the road: foxes, iguanas, squirrels, pumas, anteaters, serpents, armadillos, monkeys, and a hopping rat of some sort (and to LD nerd alert - they write the full latin names on the signs). We did not see any of these animals (boo hoo). But we did see some good morphos. We took our break of the day in La Pintada, where Ernie braved the tienda on the corner that was selling bread-pastry things and cold drinks. He bought us two cokes sin azucar and two… things. The first was a corn dough shell with chicken, onion, and potato insides. Bland, but two of them with a bottle of hot sauce could make a hearty lunch. The second was a hamburger patty (sort of), dipped in egg (we think), then deep fried (or pan seared). It was… It was… Well it was worth eating so that when we get back home we can try and make them ourselves, because we see a lot of potential there.
I wish I could put into words how beautiful Colombia is. Ernie and I have both said this country, its sights and its vibe, are unlike anything we have experienced. I don’t understand why driving or riding a car or moto or bicycle across this country isn’t on everyone’s stereotypical bucket list like running a marathon or going to the Great Wall of China. On second thought, maybe it is a good thing that this part of the world isn’t on everyone’s radar. It isn’t pristine here, but it has an obvious balance of people using resources that is working. More tourists would probably mess that up.
We found a color coded topo map online (see pic on Google maps). Note the area we rode yesterday and today (north and south of Mendellin, Hwy 25 and others), and note how the colors go from green to purple, basically skipping orange and red (or as Tara would say, POOF ther goes 4000 feet). When we zoomed out of the topo map, we saw a clear pattern of green to purple that takes us all the way to the tip of Argentina :0
After our downhill ride we eventually came back down to the river and (for the most part) followed it to Cartago where we are spending the evening. Many vendors selling their tilapia on the side of the road (or was that yesterday?). Unfortunately there was a lot of construction - more construction than we have had thus far. At one point it took us 2 hours to go 30km. Although during some of those construction periods we got to see the crazy shit they are doing, like bulldozing dirt off cliffs (see Google maps pic). Those stops added up to what was likely 2-3 hours of just “sitting on road” time. We went ~225 km today and we were on the bikes for almost 8 hours (not including breaks). We got stared at a lot during the construction wait periods, but so far it has been our experience that if we smile at the person staring, they immediately smile back and usually (but not always) give us a shout out. I had a nice chat with a man from Colombia who (after the staring -->smiling thing) got out of his car and talked to me about where we were from and what we were doing, where we were going, etc. As is seemingly standard in SAmerica, I started in Spanish and after my fumbling was too much to bear, my conversationalist companion switched to English. (Side note, there are different words for everything here! The language barrier has widened, not narrowed). It was a long but great day. But we were both so happy to be doing it because it was so stunning. And outside of one or two long waits in the sun, we got pretty lucky with our wait times for the construction/whether the sign said “Siga” (go) or “Pare” (stop). We saw a rainstorm in the distance, and only got enough sprinkles to cool us down once we got about 30km outside of Cartago. The town is flat, paved, and in a numbered grid system so even though we got “lost” trying to find our hotel, it was easy (and almost fun) to square around the blocks looking for where we were supposed to be. There is a beautiful town square that was filled with old people and loud birds that weren’t grackles.
Again, I thank Elaine for all our good fortunes and experiences today. XO Mom!