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| Still shocked by the sudden death of our friend Juan Andrés, we included Bogotá on our itinerary to visit his family. Tatiana and Sergio, Juan André’s mother and brother received us with open arms in their warm home. |
Spending time with his lovely family it was easy to see why Juan Andrés was such a popular lad, who is so sadly missed. We were able to help put names and commentaries on some of Juan Andrés’ photos and recount our days cycling with him back in Argentina. It was a tough farewell, but the knowledge that we found two new friends there, did help to soften the blow. |
Tatiana and Sergio
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The cyclists gathering | Alain (Switzerland) and Tanja
(Germany) called over one of the evenings
when there was a huge gathering from Tatiana’s family to meet the European
cyclists and hear about life on the road. That’s when the invitations
began to whisk us round from A to B in VIP fashion. |
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Álvaro, Juan Andrés’ uncle kindly took a morning off to drive us round Santa Fe de
Bogotá to include the Montserrate viewpoint, the
botanical gardens and a shopping mall, of all things!
|
Tanja, Alain, Álvaro and Kurt
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View of Bogotá |
Montserrate offered a
spectacular view of this city of 8 million. Red brick is a popular
building material and with little gardens in front of the houses, quite a few streets have a London air about them. At rush hour, unfortunately,
there’s an almost solid lid of soot hanging over down town.
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Pico y Placa is a
system introduced in Bogotá and Medellín to reduce pollution. Depending on
the last digit of the registration number, vehicles are curtailed from transiting during rush hours on certain days of the week.
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Pico y Placa restrictions today
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Colombian palm trees |
The Botanical Gardens have a fantastic
greenhouse simulating the various climatic zones of Colombia and their
characteristic vegetation. The orchid garden is also a magnificent display
of colour. Kurt lost the run of himself and shot no less than 300 pictures!
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Seemingly, one of the “things to do” in Bogotá is to
visit one of its many shopping malls. Álvaro drove us to the Centro
Comercial Andino that even back in November had an impressive
Christmas display of reindeers complete with snow and snow storms.
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Snow scenes in Bogotá
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Kurt, Hector and Jorge |
Everyone got into the spirit of showing us round, including the neighbours. Jorge drove us into town and then, with
his brother Hector, walked us
round the downtown area to the Gold museum.
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In the
Gold Museum, there is a
wonderful collection of funerary objects, masks and unique body ornaments
in gold, dating back 2,000 years. Surprisingly enough, it all escaped the
hands of the Spanish and the likes of Sir Francis Drake. |
An interesting nose ring!
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The Candelaría district |
No visit to Bogotá is complete without a gander through
the Candelaría district. Right in the centre, this colourful area
of colonial houses, balconies, courtyards and museums offers a delightful
glimpse into Bogotá’s past.
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Nuestra Señora de Carmen Church |
Candelaría Church
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As a preview to Medellín’s Botero collection, we
visited his museum in Bogotá and enjoyed the witty depictions of little
fat men, women and horses.
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Botero’s witty characters
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Just 5,000 odd miles from home!
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The salt cathedral’s dark interior |
Zipaquirá, 60 Kms out of Bogotá ,
is home to another tourist oddity. Right in the depths of the local salt
mine cavities, is a huge underground cathedral carved into the solid salt
structure. It takes a full hour to appreciate at a glance this magnificent
piece of architecture but with its dark, damp and gloomy underground
atmosphere and lack of natural lighting, it is not really the cosiest
place to contemplate or meditate, never mind pose for that cheery wedding
snap!
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Back in Bogotá, Darina was surprised to find
herself on the menu of Crepes & Waffles! In a rare act
of auto–cannibalism, she tore through herself to fully appreciate her
well developed flavour and texture. Darina composed of wild
mushrooms, goat’s cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, sprinkled with a pesto
dressing on a bed of rucola is certainly a feast for the eyes and taste buds alike. |
Darina on a plate!
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Ciclovía, Bogotá |
Leaving Bogotá on a Sunday is akin to Quito, Ecuador
and the other major cities of Colombia. Some of the main roads are closed
to motorised traffic and from 7am they fill with cyclists, joggers and
in-line skaters taking advantage of this ciclovía.
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In addition, throughout Bogotá there are many
bicycle lanes crisscrossing the city,
providing safety from regular traffic.
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Bicycle lanes, Bogotá
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Highway bike lane |
Once out on the main road to Medellín, we even had a
bike lane on the highway through grazing pastures.
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For the first 50km we had hundreds of colourful
cyclists accompanying us to the first pass. A friendly bunch that gave us
advice on the road ahead and even bought us lunch.
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Gustavo, Arturo and Kurt
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La Bandeja Paisa |
By the time we hit Villeta, 70km out of town, we had
dropped 2,000 altitude meters. Boy was it hot!
But with cycling done for the day, Kurt was ready for a Bandeja
Paisa: minced meat, black pudding,
chorizo sausage, pork crackling, fried banana, beans,
avocado, fried egg, arepas (corn bread)
and rice... all for one!
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A couple of steep passes later and we were down at the
Magdalena River, with the Cordillera Oriental behind us.
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The only way is up…
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Ahhh! | 100
Km
downriver we were glad of a rest day by the pool in Doradal, at 38
degrees Celsius. |
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Colombia would be a fair contender for the “40 shades of
green title“ but of course would have to compete with Darina’s Emerald
Isle!
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40 shades of green!
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Loads of rivers
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Cloud forest |
From Doradal we had a few long hard climbs on our way
to the top in Sanctuario.
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Pipes of
running water by the roadside advertise truck wash stations, but were
appropriated by Darina to cool down in the midday heat. |
The business!
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The boys in green |
On this stretch, we had an army guard of honour. Every
few 100 meters there were 3-4 soldiers protecting a bridge or corner and
generally watching over us. It was a friendly bombardment of Colombian
accents from all corners of the country, when we were surrounded by the
boys in green on military service.
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Colourful chivita bus
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It was a lovely 15km downhill to Medellín, where our
good friends Yolanda and Manuel, from Barcelona days had a
welcoming party and an apartment waiting for us.
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Yolanda and Manuel
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Ana Lucía’s 4th birthday |
We had a very enjoyable week of family gatherings and
birthday parties with Yolanda’s huge extended family in Medellín.
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In between, we were shown around this city of almost 3
million, built up into the hills on both sides of the valley.
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Plaza Botero, Medellín
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The elevated metro, Medellín | Getting
round in Medellín is cheap by taxi, but even better on the metro.
Impeccably clean, this 10-year-old elevated train line is a great way to
see the city from a height. A cable car up Santo Domingo hill is
part of the deal. |
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Botero, Medellín’s famous artist has donated numerous
sculptures and paintings to his native city. Plaza Botero is a
great open air museum with tourists from all parts of the country posing
beside his gorditos (fatsos).
|
One of Botero’s gorditos
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All the cane sugar you need |
La Minorista market in
Medellín is well worth the visit. Highly organised and varied, you can
find everything imaginable from panela (cane sugar) to plastic flowers.
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Here, Darina
was approached by a stern security guard asking for her authorisation
papers for shooting pictures. Convinced he was pulling her leg, she
slapped him on the shoulder and complimented him on his Miami Vice vibes.
Not in the mood for a joke, he escorted her off
to administration, where the boss was called to interrogate the Irish
market spy! |
Top secret pic… for your eyes only!
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| As if this wasn’t enough publicity, the local press arrived at the apartment the next morning to interview us about our ganders in their vast continent. Colombian rivalry with their Latin neighbours came to the fore on printing and so we have had to photoshop out a couple of our journalist’s creative quotations, as they do not reflect our opinion. To read the article, Casa de dos ruedas (House on two wheels), click here. |
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Lights over the River Medellín |
The seasonal highlight though is the illumination of a
2 Km stretch of the Medellín River and a
downtown thoroughfare. 12.5 million light bulbs were used to depict scenes
from the different regions of the country as well as Santa, stars,
reindeer and the nativity scene. This spectacle employs 1,500
people and a few hundred more make a living peddling
their wares to the spectators strolling up and down throughout the
Christmas season.
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Lights depicting
Cartagena and the coastal area |
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A wide variety of street food is available
especially in the evening. Stalls are generally strategically located in
front of late night liquor stores where the neighbourhood congregates for
a few social kebabs and booze.
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Snacks on the street
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Now, do a right job on them, d’you hear? |
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Don Matías |
After a week, it was time to move on and being experts
at leaving we chose the Sunday to take advantage of the 30 Km of closed
highway on the way out. Being our last ascent of the Andes, we
didn’t mind our 2-day climb up to Alto de Ventanas.
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On the road, we bumped into Jessie (USA), Clyde
(USA) and Peter (UK) on a
mission to cycle Alaska – Ushuaia in 11 months. Amazingly, they fitted in 15 minutes to chat us
despite their busy schedule.
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Jessie, Clyde and Peter
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Yarumal is renowned for being feo, frío y
faldudo (ugly, cold and steep). |
TV strikes again! |
We didn’t find it particularly ugly, it
was quite fresh, but it was definitely way too
steep for comfort. In fact, had it been any steeper we would have been pushing upside
down! In any case it took us so long to get to the centre that the local
TV camera was already waiting for us by the time we got to the plaza. And
once the shooting was completed they also cashed in on a radio interview
for Medellín.
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The next day was our last one in the Andes. After 11
months criss-crossing the backbone of the continent, we celebrated our exit
with a 40km downhill. Since leaving Ushuaia,
at the end of the world, in January, we have experienced an amazing
variety of landscapes, climates and cultures.
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Our last Andean pass
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Flat at last! | We worked
our ways up, cruised our ways down and rewarded ourselves with excellent
campside cuisine or stale biscuits, depending on available supplies. It was
at times taxing, seldom boring and often exciting, but after 10,000
Km of ups and downs we’re looking forward to nice flat
coastal stretches for the next while. |
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Our first Post-Andes day was indeed flat, but very hot.
We’d better get used to 35 degrees plus, as it’s what’s ahead. Excellent
weather nonetheless for salpicón: a finely diced fruit salad in its
own juice, topped off with a scoop of vanilla ice and a blob of whipped cream.
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Salpicón
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Where’s MY beer? |
Colombia is one of those places where it’s still
possible to see a horse tied up in front of a downtown bar/store while
its owner is in stocking up on supplies or knocking back
a shot of aguardiente.
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In Caucasia, we came across a goose
merchant skillfully marching his goods up and
down the busy market streets.
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He’d mind geese at a crossroads!
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Lots of black exhaust fumes |
One of the negative features of Colombia is the poor
quality of diesel used.
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At the end
of most days on the road, our appearance was more like that of chimney
sweeps than cyclists. This is certainly the worst we came across in
all of South America. |
Filthy dirty
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Thirsty weather |
Another disappointing aspect was the behaviour of many
drivers, especially those employed by the Expreso Brasilia Bus Company.
A little more respect for human life (and cyclists) would be greatly
appreciated. Travelling on the main drags for security reasons, coupled
with heavy holiday traffic resulted in noisy days and exhausted bodies.
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In Don Pelayo we were sent to a motel when we arrived
at 4pm. It turned out the caretaker was given an hourly rate for room
rental and couldn’t get his head around the idea of an overnight stay.
He directed us to the
next village. Of course,
there was no hotel, and after being sent from Billy to
Jack looking for a vacant room to rent, Luís and Alejandro
approached us and offered us their spare room for free.
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Luís and Alejandro
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There we pitched our inner tent as a protection against
mosquitos. Across the road in a little bar we had a couple of drinks by their mega speakers pounding out salsa rhythms, while a neighbour rustled up dinner for a few pesos. |
Mosquito protection under thatch |
The whole village was on for sacrificing a hen or two for a gallina criollo (hen stew) dish in our honour when we finally retired for 40 winks.
Unfortunately, the disco went on until 3am, when the noise was promptly replaced by dozens of cocks crowing. It was then that Darina went on the rampage,
armed with her Swiss-army knife,
to get hold of the main ingredient for a few tasty gallo criollos (rooster
stews)!
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| The nice flat coastal stretch wasn’t far away. We hit the Caribbean coast at Coveñas just before the Christmas rush. |
It
was exactly like those mid-winter ads selling idyllic tropical seaside
holidays with palm trees, white sand, turquoise waters and a few fishing
boats for decoration. Traffic doesn’t make its way down to the 10km
coastal stretch of private holiday homes, making this beach just what the
doctor ordered.
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Paradise yet again!
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Caribbean rhythms |
After the Atlantic Ocean, the Beagle Channel, the
Magellan Straits and the Pacific Ocean, this was the last remaining body
of water left for us to discover. Once plunging into the sea, we felt we
had given this magnificent continent a fair go.
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Striking it lucky, we managed to rent a house for a few
days and a few dollars. There we lounged on the hammocks, strolled along
the beach, jumped into the sea and treated ourselves, once again, to
some splendid home cooking.
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Wee house for a few days
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View from the hammock
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The best hairdresser location |
The world came to us on the beach, being the only
gringos in town, and we got morning price for everything from Darina’s plaits to our new beach bum attire.
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No more bad hair days for a while! |
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¡A la orden! is probably Colombia’s most popular and frequently used expression.
Meaning “at your service” it’s the opening and closing phrase of everyone
who has something to offer or sell, whether you buy or not! Walking
through a market place, there’s a chorus of ¡a
la orden! with every melody, tone and degree
of enthusiasm imaginable. |
¡A la orden!
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Painted fruit… true! |
Thatched cottage
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Herons by the roadside | There’s a great variety of
birds on view by the roadside including ibis, herons, spoonbills, parrots
and a lot we would have to invent names for! |
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A typical lunch
consists of fish/meat served with rice, beans, salad & banana chips. To
drink there’s 101 flavours of fresh fruit juices, but a favourite is sugar
cane juice with lemon. All of this comes for a reasonable price of less
than 2 Euros. |
Typical lunch
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Sugar candy colours of Cartagena |
Cartagena de Indias
was certainly the perfect place to round off our 15
months in South America. This magnificent fortified colonial town of sugar-candy coloured buildings overlooking the Caribbean was once a pirates’ paradise.
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Views from
Cartagena |
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The Spanish empire used Cartagena to store their looted
spoils from the Americas before shipping them home. For that reason,
Cartagena was a prime target for pirates, and a few managed to hold it for
huge ransom. The infamous
Francis Drake was
one of the successful ones making off with a nice little handful.
| 
San Felipe Fortress
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Canon protection |
Raids like this led to the building of a massive
defence system including a colossal city wall and the San Felipe
Fortress. With canons scanning the Caribbean, it’s easy to take a step
into the past and relive a little of Cartagena’s colourful history.
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Cartagena is a very special place to spend Christmas.
Unlike Europe, where everyone is wrapped up behind closed doors, here the
celebration is out on the street. The music blares from open windows and
everyone pulls out a chair to share a chat and a rum
with their extended family in public.
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Life is out on the street
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Traditional costume |
Children play in the streets, show off their new toys
and have impromptu carol singing get-togethers on their doorsteps into the
wee hours. The doors are wide open and Christmas trees, flashing lights,
cribs and snow scenes are there for all to see. It’s a far cry from the
turkey and pud in winter woollies that we’re so used to.
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Our international seafood
Christmas lunch
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Beyond the beautiful, green landscapes, the best thing
about Colombia is its people. They’re a cheerful crowd who always had a
friendly shout or joke as we passed through. Rarely did we sit in a
restaurant without someone joining us to entertain and quiz us.
These smiling, happy people are wonderful ambassadors for their own country.
They do all in their power to make the tourist feel at
home and so promote Colombia abroad. Colombians love their country
and we were very happy to share a little of their paradise with
them these past 5
weeks.
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Colombian flag
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In South America,
we bumped into 85 other touring cyclists on various trips, mostly on or
near the Pan American highway. We really enjoyed their company… and as you’ll see from the graph below, it’s
no wonder that Darina’s German skills have improved no end this past year!
One third of the cyclists were female. |
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Touring cyclists we met in South America
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After 14,000 Km in South America, we have reached the
final shore alive ‘n kickin’! |
14,000 Km later… |
If Rio de Janeiro was the perfect starting
point, Cartagena is most definitely the icing on the cake and a wonderful
place to raise our glasses to this amazing continent and the New Year
ahead. Since our curiosity is not yet exhausted, time is not an issue and
Central America is just around the corner, wouldn’t it be an awful pity not to check it out? Watch this space
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