Colombia

At the start of the trip, the first month felt like forever. Everything was new, stimulating, exciting, challenging. Our brains were working overtime to process it all. Nothing was routine. After the first month, somewhere in Guatemala, we remember looking back at all we had experienced and wondering how we could possibly handle another three months the same. As we previously mused here, once we developed a routine around the bike touring aspect of the trip, this gave us more brainpower to process the ever-changing and stimulating environments and interactions and time sped up.

What extra brainpower looks
like - next to a statue by a now
extinct tribe

We have just completed a month in Colombia and it has flown by. This is the longest that we have spent travelling around one country but it has been an extreme pleasure and our favourite country on the trip.

It has delivered in spades on landscape. In the north, we enjoyed lush, green pastures; blue, brown and red rivers; tree-lined, shady boulevards to cycle along. Further south we passed through desert, up and down the Trampoline of Death and around volcanoes.

Lizzie + Vistas

Animals +Vistas

But it has been the mountains that have left such a strong impression. Once in the Andes, we cycled through seemingly impossibly remote villages, wondered at the ethereal sense of clouds hugging mountain sides and were moved to tears by some of the spectacular views that summiting the mountains entail. Every day the views were different, constantly making us exclaim in delight. We couldn't find enough words to describe the different formations, valleys, ridges and outcrops we were seeing and didn’t have the capacity to capture and hold the memory of the splendour of each one. The only option was to be utterly present, drinking it all in and feeling their magnitude.

Mountain Views

We urge all of you to visit Colombia if you get the chance. This is not only because of the landscape, but also the people. Aware of the reputation of Colombia, as a lawless and violent kingdom of drug kingpins, the people we met were especially welcoming and warm-hearted to travellers - although, this seems to be their nature anyway, they were keen to know what we thought of their country and to make our experience a positive one.

On our second day of riding, we were checking directions and some ladies opened their door to us, offered us a chair, a coffee and a chat, whilst we made up our minds. Later that day, a young man on a moped pulled alongside us as we rode and we chatted in broken Spanish. After a while he sped off, only to return ten minutes later with three wooden butterflies which he gave to us. “Butterflies represent liberty, and on your bike you are free”, he said to us as an explanation of his unsolicited gift. When we stopped at a shop later, someone put cardboard on our saddles to stop the sun from making them uncomfortably hot; and that night, the firefighters at whose station we camped shared their pizza with us. That was just one day.

Kindness on Day 2

Throughout Colombia, passing cyclists have ridden with us and chatted warmly about their country; more than any other country, passers-by frequently stop to ask us what we are doing and offer words of encouragement. Farmers have invited us into their houses for food and to spend the night if we wanted. Nowhere have we been where kindness and hospitality have been such a matter of course.  

That kindness and curiosity has at times been accompanied by a desire to take our photo. We’ve met many Colombian tourists, out and about visiting their country, and we have become a feature of many of their holiday snaps. On those occasions we’re often being tourists too, visiting a lake or a church. Perhaps more entertaining has been when we’ve been papped on the road, dirty and tired, standing alongside our new friends and grinning for their photos.  This has particularly been shopkeepers, cyclists and policemen. On one occasion a sleeping child was thrust in a photo with us; he managed to remain 80% unconscious for the experience.

Colombia is also much more of a cycling nation than those in Central America. We’ve enjoyed the mornings when our route has coincided with a local favourite, and the masses are out for their pre-work ride. On these occasions we are left for dust by the light weight roadies, but the cheery ‘bueeenas’ (apparently a warm rather than lazy version of ‘buenas dias’) and their sometimes slowing down for a chat gives us energy and keeps us chirpy even on the longest climbs.

Colombia is well ahead of the rest in its making provision for cyclists. Major cities such as Bogota and Medellin had cycle paths in the city as early as the 70’s and on Sundays they close a number of key roads to traffic turning them into ‘cyclovias’ for cyclists, walkers, runners etc. We wonder if London could handle losing the Euston Road every Sunday?

The final thing that deserves a mention is the food. On this whole trip we’ve felt so aware of moving through areas where different produce is prevalent.  In addition to the staples, each area has its speciality. This has the bonus of meaning certain food is incredibly ripe and fresh, but it can also mean it's availability is fleeting. Often on the road we battle between the desire to cover some miles and the urge to stop to pick up an incredible snack we’ve just seen for sale by the roadside (hungry or not, sampling the culinary delights is all part of the experience). For three days you might see reams and reams of a certain fruit for sale and then suddenly it's gone. Unfortunately you just don't know when that moment will be. Never has that been more devastating than when we stuttered our way past the town of Santa Rosa where succulent chorizo swung from roadside stands; but on an awkward stretch of road we hesitatingly pedaled on, only to later learn that this town was both the cherub of the chorizo region and marked its southernmost point. We've not had a whiff of chorizo since! 

The roadsides are littered with stalls selling
huge quantities of fresh fruit - usually too much
to fit on our bikes...

Agua Panela (a sugar cane-based hot drink) with
cheese - a great mid-ride snack, especially if it's cold

On to Ecuador and new flavours we go.

Las Lajas - a very scenic church built into
the hillside near the border with Ecuador