Our usual pace has taken a serious change here in the northern portion of Columbia. A combination of national holidays, mechanical issues, route choices and sickness, has forced us to change up our normal schedule. We are certainly enjoying ourselves however! The riding has been fun, the food has been great and we have met so many kind and friendly people in the last week!
January 1st, Necocli, Columbia:
Kilometers ridden: 0
We rung in the new year in the touristy town, lazily drinking coffee while we waited for the bike shops to open the next day. We enjoyed rich conversation together as we had hardly been able to talk to each other the two days prior over the noise of the boats and in between all the logistical challenges of making the lancha journey.
January 2nd, Necocli, Columbia:
Kilometers ridden: 71
We couldn’t believe our luck, the little father and son bike shop in this small coastal town had everything we needed to fix our bike. Well, almost everything, but the broken water bottle cage was hardly keeping us from riding.
They had a spare freehub, a shimano front hub (from which we pirated the axle), rubber glue to patch our tubes, new chains, and most importantly they let us use their shop and tools to fix and clean our whole bike. We spent probably 5 hours there, cleaning, greasing and replacing parts on our bike.
When we finally took off, we were elated to be pedaling down the road and enjoyed a quick 70 km before the sunset. It rained just enough to totally drench us, so we decided to splurge on another hotel room. We were excited to find vegetarian arepas for dinner and ate our fill before heading to bed.
January 3, Apartadó:
Kilometers ridden: 134
A fairly flat day of riding finishing with a climb into the mountains. We were really excited to enjoy the mountain views, but found ourselves not quite out of the heat. Finding cheap hotels in Columbia was proving easy, so we opted to take advantage of the little town we landed in that evening. We ate the best pizza we had had on this trip.
January 4, Debeiba:
Kilometers ridden: 0
I woke up feeling really sick, I had a head cold and was extremely achy. Knowing we had quite a bit of climbing ahead of us, we decided to take the day off so I could rest. We ate a great Columbia breakfast, then I spent most the day in bed, Mark found some veggie burgers for lunch and we decided to return to the same pizza place for dinner that we had been the night before. This time we ordered two of the same pizzas and I think the people working the restaurant got just as much of a laugh out of our return as we did.
January 5, Debeiba:
Kilometers ridden: 116
We woke up rested, but now both of us were sick. We opted to ride, however, accepting that we might be moving at a slower pace for the next few days. Our legs felt better for the day off and a full day in the mountains had us starting to see why Columbia was such a popular cycling destination.
When we arrived at our destination for the evening a small family invited us to come stay in their home and we enjoyed an evening of conversation with them before heading to bed early, exhausted from the cold we were still kicking.
January 6, Santa Fe de Antioquia:
Kilometers ridden: 77
We decided to split up what might be one day of riding into two, and take some rougher roads to get to San Antonio de Prado where Mark had been talking to a bike shop about tires. The route was beautiful. We spent all day on quite back roads occasionally glimpsing the freeway below, glad not to be on it. We ended the day in a small mountain town where we met lots more people excited to talk to us. We were finally in the legendary Colombian climate, finding the night air cool and fresh.
January 7, Ebéjico:
Kilometers ridden: 61
Our route took a rougher turn, we spent half the day on dirt roads, but it was worth it to climb through the mountains. Despite a below average surface quality, the roads were very rideable thanks to the mostly friendly grading. Unfortunately, the rough roads have been wreaking havoc on my butt, and I spent the day in near crippling pain from saddle sores and chaffing, we had to take an hour plus lunch break so I could take my bike shorts off for a little while.
The last 20 km of riding were through a very popular cycling area near Medellin, and we saw many other cyclists on our route. Some of the cyclists we met even bought us some beers at the end of the day!
The bike shop, however, was closed for the holiday weekend. We road to the locally famous bici casa, owned by the folks who run the bike shop, just outside of town where we’re treated by another guest staying there.
We cooked veggie pasta for dinner, glad to have a break from the fried food we’d been eating the last few days, and went to bed without really having a plan for the next day.
January 8, San Antonio de Prado:
Kilometers ridden: 0
We decided to wait for the bike shop to open tomorrow to buy tires. We’ll take today off to tune up the bike some more, give ourselves another day of rest to hopefully fully recover from the cold, give my saddle sores some more time off the seat, and have the opportunity to meet the owners of the bicicasa and bike shop. (They were out of town for the holiday weekend, thus the closure of the bike shop.)
We’re looking forward to some more fun riding ahead, and already planning our next bike trip to Colombia!
Mark’s Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic
Google Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA
Thanks for reading!
-Nic