To follow our progress on google maps via Pavinski Traveller, click here: http://pavinski-travel.blogspot.ca/

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Medellin

Medellin (pronounced with silent ll’s: me-de-een), population 3 million and cocaine capital of the world. Despite everyone’s best efforts, Columbia still produces most of the world’s cocaine.  Back in the day (80s/90s) Medellin was the front line of a very bloody drug war lead by the infamous Pablo Escobar, the granddaddy of all Columbian drug lords. Apparently he paid anyone $1000 US for every cop they killed. Free travel in or around Medellin would have been unthinkable back then. But, the government hunted down Pablo and killed him in 1993, and thus opened up Medellin to the rest of the world. So here we are, relaxing and taking in the sights and sounds of Medellin.  From all accounts it’s 100% safe now (guess we’ll see about that).


We never really got the nice long descent into Medellin we were hoping for.  While we descended, it was steep and relatively short-lived, and then back to rolling hills right into town. Needless to say, our legs were very happy to arrive at our home for a few days, the Palm Tree Hostel, near el centro. We both know (but don’t talk about it) the cold hard truth is that we are just going to have to get used to it. The Andes is not known for flat terrain. This is big mountain country.


Speaking of which, the terrain and scenery is quite spectacular – very reminiscent of Nepal. And, given the fresh mountain air (Medellin is known as the city of “eternal spring”), our 5am wake-up is no longer required and we can comfortably get up “whenever” and ride through the day. Nice change of pace. Conveniently as well, for some inexplicable reason, it rains almost every day, but only at night! By the time we pack up and hit the road, things are sunny and dry. Not sure which god is responsible for that, but we thank him/her.


Medellin is a big modern city – flashy, chic, clean, and complete with a state-of-the-art metro (subway) system. Zipping around on el metro we’ve had more than one flashback to Toronto or some place like that (although, Medellin’s system is far superior). In fact, Medellin’s el metro is famous for its sustainable design and linking of poor neighbourhoods/slums (called favellas) with the rest of the city. A highlight has been taking a series of gondola rides (all part of el metro system) to a park on top of a mountain overlooking the city known as Parque Avri. Kind of like a free ride up Grouse Mountain in Van.

As such we’ve been living the city-slicker life the past few days of touring around and relaxing in coffee shops.  Being in the big smoke also allowed us to find a replacement tire for a blown sidewall that occurred a few days ago on my rear tire. We found a “bike shop” about the size of garden shed, but the guy had an amazing array of tires...all for the exorbitant price of 7 bucks each. Hmmm, at these prices, I may never be able to buy bike parts in Canada ever again.

Our hostel has all the comforts of home including a full kitchen, courtyard eating area, and a large grocery store across the street, so we’ve been enjoying cooking our own food and taking a break from deep-fried street food. Amy, the veggie Nazi, has been doing a great job of creating gourmet dishes touching on all four food groups. Although I still indulge in the street food when we’re out and about. Can’t go cold turkey! The only drawback is that Columbians are not wine people. Despite sharing a continent with some of the best wine areas on the planet, the wine here is quite expensive. That same bottle of Gato Negro we can buy in the BC liquor store costs more here! Amy is dreaming of the day we cross the border into Argentina and into wine country. But that’s a ways off. For now it’s all about a nice cold Aguila in the afternoon.  Speaking of which, it’s about that time.

So what’s the plan now? Tomorrow we ride towards Manizales in the heart of the Zona Cafetera, aka “coffee zone”. According to my google maps elevation profile (something I figured out last night how to do), we go up, then down, then back up (I know, why do I need a profile to tell me that?!).  Should take 3 days, but we’ll see how it goes. At any rate, time to see what this Colombian coffee thing is all about. As always, more on that soon.
 
 

 

 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

On the road to Medellin...still


The Andes have arrived. Our cruise through the coastal lowlands came to a screeching halt the day before yesterday when we innocently started up a hill that still hasn’t ended. From about 100 m elevation to a high of 2500 m yesterday, we’ve been pushing and pulling our rigs up through the cloud forests of northern Colombia. After a 30-km day of consistent and somewhat grueling up yesterday, we have come upon the mountain town of Yamural at 2300 m.  Finding a great cheap hotel with a balcony overlooking el centro, we have decided to give our backs and butts a day off and enjoy a day of no physical activity. Un mas tinto por favor. Amy is looking forward to a breakfast of something other than a deep-fried meat-stuffed cornmeal turnover (arepa con carni, one of my favs though).

 
Despite the grind, being in the mountains feels fantastic.  The air is fresh and cool with not a hint of humidity. Hard to believe the difference. We knew we were in a different climate zone when our room didn’t have a ceiling fan – a situation that down on the coast would turn a hotel room into an unlivable prison cell.  Asking the Senora about it, she responded “no necesito(not necessary).  We reluctantly took it, but were pleasantly surprised by cool evening air. First night of no sweating since we got here. In fact, the long-buried merino wool shirts have emerged from our panniers.

The scenery has changed dramatically.  From lowland tropical to steep semi-forested mountain ridgelines.  Kind of like the mountains of the west Kootenays, except they’re green and lush right to the top. Very reminiscent of the mid-elevations in places like Nepal and northern Vietnam. Interestingly though, terracing hasn’t caught on here as in those places. We haven’t figured out exactly what they are doing with the land yet, but we assume cattle grazing and subsistence farming, except that the “houses” in the midst of the hills are very scarce and seem clustered mainly along the road. 

Speaking of houses, one of the best things about cycle touring is seeing everything up front and personal along the way. According to most sources, about a third (+/-) of Colombians live in poverty.  While most towns and cities seem to be vibrant and thriving, we definitely see a lot of what could be called “rural poor”. I believe the technical term is “income inequality” where the rich are extremely rich, and the poor are extremely poor – a problem in most of Latin America.  But a middle class seems to be slowly emerging from what we’re reading and seeing. For now though, there appears to be a lot of people along the way living in near stone-age conditions – i.e., tin/plastic-covered huts, cooking over a fire, washing clothes on a rock beside a creek, and getting around via donkey (lots of donkeys actually, the Juan Valdez stereotype seems true).

Regardless of where we bump into them, Colombians have been wonderful people. Smiley, laughing, good-natured people always willing to help us out with our gringo Spanish and anything else we need. Being in the no-gringo zone (still have yet to see another one since leaving Cartagena), we’re kind of celebrities here, and get a constant barrage of waves, thumbs up (especially popular), and the ubiquitous question “de donde viene”? (where are you from?), followed closely by “a donde vas”? (where are you going?).  Fortunately two questions we can answer with one word each and a smile.

An interesting facet of road travel here is the frequency and regularity of police check points – a group of 10 or so guys every 20 or 30 kms. These are not your pleasantly clad “gidday ma’am” officers checking snow tires, but rather full-on heavily armed, body-armoured, para-military units. I suppose when one realizes that only 10 or 20 years ago, what we’re doing would have been impossible due to the almost certainty of being killed or kidnapped in the various rebellions and drug wars that have ravaged this country in the past century, their presence is welcoming. They don’t bother us, and in fact, often give us the customary thumbs up as we cruise by, so we’re glad to have ‘em if it means safe travels. Other interesting facets of road travel we’ve encountered thus far include seeing our first motorbike accident (thankfully not involving us), and experiencing a highway closure due to nationwide campesino (peasant farmers, for lack of a better definition) protests.  All part of the fun here in Colombia.

So today we relax and enjoy the comforts of a nice hotel on the square, take in the sights, eat the street food, and maybe have a nap in the afternoon. Tomorrow we ride on towards Medellin, and unfortunately, probably a bit more pushing. As someone once said, everywhere is within walking distance, if you have the time...and we have time. Although, we are comforted by the fact that Medellin is below us at 1500 m. We CANNOT WAIT to go downhill. Till then. 

 

Saturday, August 24, 2013

On the road to Medellin

Day 5 on the road to Medellin. The watch alarm went off this morning, as usual, at 5:15. We aim for a 6 am start to take advantage of the cool temps.  Those are the golden hours for us.  6 to 8 am.  We like to get a quick (?) 40 kms or so, then stop for something to eat and maybe a little “tinto” (coffee).  If we’re at 50 kms by 10 am or so, it just sets up the day for us to find a place by noon or 1 pm, after which it’s just too hot.  The perfect scenario is to stop by noon, find a good place to stay, sit back and enjoy a few cervezas in the shade for the afternoon, then head out for a stroll in the evening to find some food and take in the local sights.  In the evenings, towns come alive around the central squares, which are typically in front of a huge beautiful cathedral.  It's a time when families and friends come out and enjoy the square and buy street snacks and hang out. It's a really cool place to be as the sun goes down.  An added bonus lately has been the frequency of cheap hotels with pools.  Yes, pools (i.e, swimming pools)!  Yep, rough life but someone has to live it.


Change of schedule today though. Woke up to lighting.  One thing we’ve learned, is that when there’s lighting here, it’s going to rain.  No such thing as dry lightening around here.  So here we are waiting out the rain this morning, hoping for the sun to come out and dry things out.  Nice place though, could be a lot worse. Riding in the rain sucks.  Not so much for us, but for the bikes.  When the road is wet, every little piece of dirt, muck, and crap (and there is a lot of dirt, muck, and crap on the roads here) flies up into the bikes and really makes a mess of everything and causes havoc with the chain and gears, etc.  Generally, just not fun.  Turns out to be more work cleaning the bikes afterwards than anything else.  So hey, un mas tinto por favor.

 The riding thus far has been quite good and enjoyable.  Leaving the big city behind and getting into the rolling tropical pastures of interior Columbia has been fantastic.  Being the tropics, everything is very green and very lush.  The best part has been just getting out of the zona tourista and into the “real” Colombia.  We haven’t seen a gringo in 5 days.  We’re it!  And, we are now finding out what the real prices for things are.  Back in Cartagena, there was definitely 2 price schedules, one for them, and one for us (i.e., the “us” price being 3 or 4+ times the real price).  It’s great to be paying 10 cents for water instead of 50 cents.

 So far so good in terms of logistics.  Two flats (one each) so far. Although we had one mechanical issue that turned into a good story.  A couple days ago, just outside Sincelejo, the biggest town on the road so far, Amy’s bike was really grinding and making a lot of noise.  After taking a look we concluded it was just too dirty and full of sand from the beaches (my cleaning job obviously didn’t do the trick).  We had to get this bike cleaned and tuned up.  As we approached Sincelejo, we noticed the usual packs of early-morning riders out on the highway.  Road biking appears to be huge here (apparently a Columbian just came in second in the Tour de France?).  We figured Sincelejo would be a good place to find a bike shop.  It was, and the boys did a fantastico job of cleaning up Amy’s bike and tuning it up.  They worked on it for an hour or two, took it for a test ride, and offered us water and tinto while we waited. When I asked him “cuanto?” (how much?) he said “cinco”, meaning 5, meaning 5000 pesos, which is about $2.50.  Thinking I heard him incorrectly, he must have meant 50, which would have translated to about 25 bucks.  But no, he meant $2.50!  I kind of felt bad paying him so little (but I got over it).



Well, looks like the rain has stopped. Might be time to hit the road. It never rains for long. The weather has actually been fantastic. When the sun is out, it’s hot and dries out immediately. As they say, make hay while the sun shines.  With any luck we’ll be in Medellin in a few days. Hasta luego.

 


 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

One more night in Cartagena


 
 
 
One more night in Cartagena.  Why not?  Feels like home now.  Even bought the t-shirt.  A nice bright pink tank top, Hecho en Colombia (pink seems to be very in here).  And you know what, it’s not so hot now all of a sudden.  The profuse sweating has stopped.  Hmmm, it’s all starting to become normal.  The Senora of the hotel just came by our “apartamento” to bring us a morning coffee.  Gotta love that.  It has been wonderful to spread out our gear, wash the salt out of everything, and most importantly, wash down the bikes, get rid of all the sand in the gears, and spray everything down with WD-40.  Yep, to our delight, Colombia has an ample supply of WD-40 which can be found just about everywhere.  Like giving someone a massage, we could feel the bikes thanking us for the pampering. 

 Missions for today include tracking down a copy of Guia de Rutas, a road map of Columbia put out by the government, which is supposed to be pretty good.  We don’t have a good “cycle-touring-scale” map, so that would be a bonus.  The problem with regular maps is that they are typically intended for people in vehicles.  One hour in a car is roughly equivalent to one day on a bike.  So, while a stretch of road 200-km long shown as a line without any details might be fine in a car, that’s two+ days of riding for us!  

 Another good reason to enjoy the comforts of Cartagena for another night is to allow Amy another day to recover from a previous night of "gastrointestinal issues" (use your imagination).  She’s on the mend now and we think it’s passed.  We both know this is unlikely to be our last struggle with that issue.  Hopefully it'll be kept to a minimum.  Ironically, the water seems to be really good here.  Almost everywhere we have stayed where they have plumbed-in water, it’s drinkable (at least that’s what they tell us).  In the words of the Senora: “El agua de Cartagena es bueno” (the water in Cartagena is good).  I’ve been drinking it and it seems fine to me...we’ll see how that goes.

 I promised a bit on food.  As mentioned, food here is pretty basic, yet tasty and filling.  Lots of starches (rice, potatoes, plantain) and meat.  Veggies?  Who needs ‘em.  One guy we asked about the lack veggies replied with “I am not a donkey”.  Amy thinks we’re going to die of scurvy.  Interestingly, there are lots of veggies in the markets.  They just don’t seem to make it into the street food or restaurants.  Although, there is a lot of fruit around, and fresh fruit juice for 25 to 50 cents a glass.

Breakfast is quick and easy with most Columbians picking up a small shot of “tinto” – strong black coffee with sugar – and an “arepa” which is a fried patty of corn flour mixed with cheese or other things, or an “empanada” which is a deep-fried turnover filled with meat and cheese, and other things.  They sell them for 75 cents on every corner.  My fav has become a thing I call “papas”, or potatoes, simply because I haven’t figured out what it’s called yet (but they understand what I’m pointing to).  It’s basically a big samosa stuffed with potatoes, onions, and herbs, and sometimes a boiled egg in the middle (“papas con huevo”, my fav). 
 
 
 Lunch is the big meal of day here.  The classic meal is a plate of rice, fried plantain, some kind of side garnishing (e.g., tomatoes with onions), and a slab of meat (pork, beef, chicken) or fish (the entire fish, head and all).  Every little place on every corner serves up a “plato” or “plato typico” or “plato del dia” (plate of the day), which is a plate as described along with a bowl of soup and a glass of fruit juice.  Prices vary but usually in the $3 range.  That’s been our go-to and main meal of the day too.  Interestingly, dinner is very low-key and just a snack like a cheese sandwich.  Basically they reverse our lunch-dinner scenario, which we have adopted (when in Rome....).  Street food rocks.  I love it.  Amy’s less excited about a diet of deep-fried plantain and cheese than I am, but I think we’ll survive just fine.









Alright, party’s over, time to get the road on the show.  Tomorrow we ride south into the Mountains!  The next major destination is Medellin.  By all accounts, that should take us a week or 10 days.  Not exactly sure what’s in store for us, but hey, that’s the fun part!  It could be a zona sin internet (no internet), so don’t panic if you don’t hear from us for a while.  We’ll post when we can.

 

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Palomino and back to Cartagena

 
OK, a lot to catch up on over the past week or so.  We have been firmly in the no-internet zone along the Ruta Caribbean (actually no electricity or water for some of it).  Leaving Taganga was easy.  Why that place has a “must do” label attached to it is beyond us.  It is now our mission to inform all travellers we meet not to go there.  This becomes even more obvious when one ventures down the road a bit, as we have now done.  Once out on the highway and heading up the coast, and after one somewhat largish hill climb (no doubt a warm up for the Andes), we entered an entirely new zone: Parque Tayrona, the crown jewel of Columbian National Parks.  The last 60 km of our 90-km day was indeed the nicest stretch of riding yet.  Downright pleasant and a beautiful end to our foray up the Ruta Caribbean.

 As the industrial traffic thinned out, the roadside trees got bigger, the vines hanging from the trees got longer, the calls of the wild got louder, the rivers got cleaner, and the ocean bluer, we knew we were finally where we wanted to be.  We had found the beach paradise we were looking for: Palomino, population hundreds.

 If our travels are any indication of development trends, it would seem that the Columbian Caribbean is exploding, as tourist development spreads up the coast.  From Cartagena to Taganga, it would be hard to find a low-key uninhabited beach.  From all accounts, this area (Palomino) is on the development radar and will likely be very different in 5 or 10 years.  But for now, it’s just sand and surf, and dotted with a few backpacker places catering to those looking for basic beachside accom in the midst of endless sand and palm trees.

 After a bit of struggling with loaded bikes on wet sand, we crawled into Finca Escondida, a classic backpacker place on the beach complete with camping, beachside bar/restaurant with the typical traveller vibe, and a fridge full of Aguila (the local cerveza) – all for 15 bucks a night.   How does that saying go?  Seek and yee shall find?  Whatever it is, this is it.  Time to kick back and live the Corona commercial.

 The beach is about 1 km off the highway and the actual town of Palomino, making for a nice stroll to break up the beach time.  With a few days of R & R on our hands we had time to venture out into the dirt streets of rural Columbia and really get into the local vibe and food.  Not a gastronomical adventure by any stretch, but local food here is pretty good basic gut-filler – mainly rice, fried plantain, and some kind of barbequed meat or fish – and a lot of deep-fried street snacks.  More on the food in another post.  That’s a whole other story.  Soon.

 After 4 days of watching the sun rise and set, with good quality beach time in between, and a few happy-hour Cuba Libres before bed, we decided we needed to stay a bit longer.  The knots in our backs needed a bit more work.  But once again, all good things must come to an end, or at least a temporary hold-off.  After 5 blissful nights we decided to head back to Cartagena on the bus, since backtracking sucks, and head for another beach near Cartagena called Playa Blanca.  Easier said than done.  With 2 bikes and 10 separate luggage items (i.e., panniers, etc), local buses are no picnic.  We survived, barely, including one unannounced bus change in the middle of a highway off ramp, where, to our surprise we could see our bikes lying on the ground while we were sitting quietly on the bus, and a guy frantically throwing bags and luggage around.  We just barely missed losing our “tool box” kit as the bus was pulling away, which would have been irreplaceable.   Needless to say we weren’t impressed.   Arriving in Cartagena was then followed by a 40-km ride in the heat of the day, contradicting the 18-km description we had.  Buses, ferries, dirt roads, and a very very long push along a very loose white sand beach finally brought us to Playa Blanca in time for sunset.

 Playa Blanca.  Hmmmm, how to describe it.  Could be one of the nicest beaches either of us has ever seen – the classic Caribbean white-sand beach complete with turquoise water over coral.   Problema: the entirety of humanity seems to think so too and has decided to park themselves on this beach without electricity or fresh water, offering everything from cabanas to massages on the beach.  Kind of a high-density, unregulated, no-rules, free-for-all.  Not our scene, but hey, we busted our butts to get here, so we stayed a couple of nights in a zero-air cabana where together we might have achieved 20 minutes of sleep.  Oh, did I mention the blaring latino top-40 till the wee hours?  Ah well, we made the best of it for 2 nights and enjoyed the fantastic swimming, pretty decent snorkelling, amazing sunsets, and walks on the beach.




So here we are, back to the reality of the big city, Cartagena.  Right back to the place we first landed – Hotel Villa Colonial – where to our surprise, the owners gave us the “apartamento” suite for the price of a room.  Words cannot describe how nice it was to pull into that reception.  A quick trip to the grocery store around the corner and we’re cheffing up (ok, Amy’s doing all the cooking) pasta along with a good bottle of Argentine Pinot Noir.  Life is good.


The plan for the next couple days is clothes washing, gear maintenance (the bikes need work – sand + salt + bikes = not good), and catch up on much needed sleep.  And then we set our sights on Medellin and the Zona Cafetera (coffee zone)!