This country has too many roads. Too many beautiful tarmaced highways, too many impossibly steep and gorgeous dirt roads, all crisscrossing two mountain ranges with a big, humid valley inbetween. The route choices are endless. As a result, much of our second leg of Colombia has been spent staring and maps, constantly changing our minds and driving ourselves a little crazy with the options.
But luckily, there is no such thing as a bad choice here. We’ve opted for a compromise of some dirt, some asphalt, and lots of last minute decisions. As a result our route across Colombia is starting to resemble a very squiggly line back and forth heading vaguely northward. 7 weeks of riding and we’re not even half way through the country yet!
Leg Two – Ibague to Medellin
Leaving the oppresive heat of the lowlands, our buddy Jonas, and our police station home for the night behind, we headed to Ibague, at that point the biggest Colombian city of our trip so far at that point. Rubbished by the guide books, we actually loved the hustle and bustle of people everywhere, and managed to find a gem of a hostal in a row of seedy hotels. Hostal 3rd Avenue was run by a guy who spends half his year driving trucks in the Canada wilderness, and the Canadian winter in his hometown of balmy Ibague. Winning at life me thinks!
From Ibague, we took on La Linea, a notorious hill climb amongst Colombian cyclists that rises over 2000 metres in 40km or so. Being a beautiful Sunday morning, we shared the road with dozens of lycra clad weekend riders zooming past us, and unfortunately also hundreds of huge trucks
Sunday riders and crazy drivers, ploughing up La Linea
The day started well and I was relieved to be feeling strong again after our heat exhaustion. We cracked out the first 1300 metres of the climb by lunch time, took in some pretty views (ignoring the constant roaing of trucks passing at a hairs breadth) and thought we might actually make the top that day.
Views on the way up (and up, and up) La Linea
Sadly, my broken body once again had other thoughts, luckily timed just as we were crawling past the only accomodation option we had seen for miles.
There are no words. Awful.
The next 18 hours may have been some of the most comically miserable on the trip, as a nasty stomach bug floored me and we experienced a new winner in the “most horrendous accomodation” race . Six cupboard-sized rooms conveniantly located under a bar that blasted music until 5am, and a billiards table right above our heads. The matresses were filthy, the sheets probably had never been introduced to a washing machine, and the owners a frazzled set of misery (probably having not had a good nights sleep in 20 years!). It was the cheapest placed of our trip, and probably still the worst value.
If ever there was a good enough incentive to recover quickly and get back on the road, this place was it. We still had 700m of climbing to do and though I felt slightly delerious with dehydration, staying there any longer was not an option! Loaded with Gatorade , we ploughed on. It was a rough day, but at least we had the road to ourselves thanks to a truck getting itself stuck in one of the tight switchbacks just after our hostal. The idiotic driver blocked all the traffic for 4 hours, meaning at least I could inch up the hill in peace!
Finally getting to the top of La Linea just as the trucks start to come
The destination of Salento was our reward for the tough day, and we found a way to escape the busy highway to spend the last 20km on pretty but tough dirt roads. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it, and Tom had the pleasure of pushing my bike for me on several stretches. Hero.
Salento was the first real foreign-tourist hot spot we’d been to in Colombia and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. A beautiful village in the heart of the country’s coffee growing region, full of great restaurants, beautifully restored buildings and gorgeous countryside. Expensive, but lovely.
The beautiful restored streets of Salento
Unfortunately, it turned out that we hadn’t quite left the horror of the previous night’s hell hole behind us. We appeared to have taken a little piece with us, in the form of some kind of infestation in my sleeping bag, which woke me up at 1am with a delighful full body breakout. I itched the night away on a sofa in the campsite’s reception, and as soon as daylight came we quickly abanonded the camping plans, and via a quick trip to the hospital, set ourselves up in a nice room for a few days.
Once the itching had sufficiently subsided, we enojyed the sights of Salento, visiting a Ocasa coffee plantation, and making up for all the terrible tinto we’d been drinking by indulging in lots of real espresso in the town’s cafes. Colombia is the 3rd largest producer of coffee in the world, producing both “1st class” (the best beans) and “2nd class” (the other stuff) coffee. It only exports the 1st class stuff, which explains why the country has just a good international reputation for coffee. The second class stuff is used to make domestic coffee, which explains why the coffee we drink in Colombia day to day is so terrible!
For us, the big draw of Salento was the access point to Los Nevados national park. We started in the Valle de Cocora, a lush valley filled will sky high wax palm trees.
Camping under the wax palms and full moon of Valle de Cacora
From there, a 2 hour hike took us and hundreds of other day trippers to the hummingbird sanctuary at Acaime
Hummingbirds feeding at Acaime
From Acaime, only the hardy and/or foolish continue up a further 4 hour climb to above the treeline where the paramo begins. Full of crazy frailejone trees, and on a clear day, view of the parks volcanoes – Volcan Tolima, Ruiz and Santa Isabel.
Coming up on to the paramo of Los Nevados
The ramshackle Finca Primavera awaited us at the top of the slog, and we were welcomedwith cup of hot agua panela (a tooth-rotting but delicious sugar-syrup drink), and paid a few quid to camp and have dinner cooked for us. A couple of groups doing a guided hike were staying in the dorms there, and we salavated waiting for them to finish dinner before we were allowed to eat! We pitched up under thick cloud with no view, but woke at 6am to clear skies and a gorgeous view of Tolima to one side…
….and to the other side, the cloud line below us in the valley.
The clouds set in by late morning, so it was a chilly hike to the hot springs at Termales Canon with it’s huge natural pool full of hot volcanic water. Just us and one other pair there, it was an amazing way to thaw out!
The volcanic hot pool at Termales Canon. Pretty special.
Once again, the skies were clearer in the morning and we got a beautiful view of Tolima whilst enjoying the hot springs once again for a morning dip. The rains soon caught up with us though, and we got a massive soaking and four hours of trudging downhill through knee deep mud the next day as a result. Just about worth it though!
Volcan Tolima over the paramo
It had been a rough couple of weeks of body breakdowns (mostly mine…), so from Salento we decided to take it a little easier. With friends to meet in Medellin in a week, it would have been a tough push to get there by bike. Instead we we decided to spend time exploring the gorgeous coffee region and to do the last 100 miles or so by bus. Not a big distance, but a hell of a lot of climbing and energy saved, and a chance for a bit of recovery.
Enjoying our new relaxed pace with a coffee over looking the valley outside Filandia
We started with a hop to Filandia, a lovely restored town much like Salento but with far fewer tourists, and our favourite plaza of our trip lined with traditional bars and coffee shops spilling onto the street.
Cafe culture in Filandia
Our route to Manizales took in lot’s of rolling green countryside, taking quiet gravel roads through the coffee plantations, with berries turning red and ripe for picking in the upcoming harvesting season.
Offroad, cycling through the fields of coffee trees.
The rolling hills of the coffee region
We spent a day at the hilarious Parque del Cafe, a theme park (very!) loosely based around coffee, with a few rollercoasters and a very camp lunchtime coffee-based musical show. Much fun.
Heaven?
Our week of relaxed cycling was perfectly accompanied by glorious blue skied weather, but keeping above 1000m meant none of the humidity of the lowlands. It was still bloody hot though, and our new sleeping strategy centred on finding hotels with pools that would let us camp for a few quid. Definitely my kind of cycle touring!
Trying our luck (and suceeding!) camping at a fancy finca
And again at Finca Venecia near Manizales. A room for $100 or camping for $10. Win.
Our plan to get a bus from Manizales to Medellin was almost foiled when we found that only mini buses ply the route, meaning no luggage compartments to put our bikes in. We had no choice but to almost dismantle the bikes and watch in dismay as various parts where shoved and cajoled into any spare space on the van, greasing the palms of the driver and porter for the pleasure.
Stage 1 of bike dismantling before they got squashed into a minivan
But, 4 nauseating hours later we arived in Medellin with our bikes almost in one piece, and were greeted by a huge strom which trapped us in the bus station for a couple of hours. An ominous arrival to our new home for the next month, but made all the brighter by the arrival of this one, and his rucksack full of british goodies and finally, after 6 months of futiley searching South America for a pair long enough, a new pair of jeans for me! We spent a brilliant few days with Gabe & Will seeing the sights of the city, before picking up the keys to our Air BnB apartment and settling ourselves in for our month long stay with a Domino’s pizza and a proper cup of British tea. Wonderful.
Buddies reunited! Tom & Gabe
Grrrls On Tour 