A fairly eventful few days since Pasto.
The biggest event is that we are now in Ecuador, finally! Whew, Colombia proved
to be a longer haul than previously anticipated. The ‘ole PanAmerican (highway)
snakes up and down through the Andes like a goat trail. It’s actually quite
fascinating. The human (town) patterns are reversed from what we are used to.
Here, the highlands are the lush green zones where most of the towns and people
are, and the valley bottoms are harsh deserts with very little of anything. So
the basic pattern we appear to be into is going from one high-elevation town to
the next, with usually a major descent (1000 to 2000 m) into a hot desert
valley bottom, followed by a major climb back into the highlands and more
towns.
We
seem to have figured out how to manage the climbs. The important thing is to
not get caught in the middle of a major climb in the middle of the afternoon
with no town in sight (as previously happened on route to Pasto). There are
simply no options because another 25 kms or so is just not going to happen when
you’re pushing a loaded bike at 5 km/hr with zero energy reserves. Solution:
overnight at the bottom, start the climb fresh in the morning, overnight midway
if necessary.
We’re actually using the desert thing to
our advantage, and are currently sitting poolside for a rest day at a hotel
smack dab in the middle of nowhere, except that it sits right at the bottom of
one of these dry hot valleys. Looking around, it could be southern Nevada. It
would appear that rich Ecuadorians have figured out that coming down from the
chilly high elevations to a hotel with a pool can make for a nice weekend – or
in our case, a wonderful place to rest up for our next climb. Amy is overjoyed
to be lounging beside a pool for a day (OK, so am I), given that hours previously
we were in our gortex jackets and gloves – it’s very chilly at 3200 m, but
scorching hot at 1500 m. 
The ride from Pasto to the border was
amazing. After an initial 600-m climb to get us to 3200 m, we cruised down
through an exhilarating 1450-m descent – maybe 10 turns of the pedals the whole
time. And again, gortex jackets and gloves at the top, tank tops at the 
bottom.
The next day we climbed back up, but it was such a nice day, and the scenery
was so spectacular, we didn’t mind. And, we cycled by our first active volcano,
with a tell-tale puff of smoke rising from the caldron, which was very cool.
Our original plan was to blast through the
border that day, but with about 20 kms to go, Amy’s rear tire got shredded on
something that left an irreparable 1-cm gash in the middle of the tread. We
carry spare tires, so not a major problem, except that an overnight stop in
Ipiales (border town on Colombian side) was now necessary to find a replacement
tire. Luck was on our side with our choice of 3 bike shops within walking
distance from our hotel. As mentioned previously, Colombians are big into
cycling. We bought a tire along with a new water bottle to replace one of mine
that I should have replaced years ago, and also a set of spare brake pads for
Amy (something tells me we are going to need new brake pads eventually). After
a sleepless night in Ipiales due to an insanely loud TV emanating from the
hotel owner’s room (TVs should be banned from public spaces in Colombia), we
were up and at the border by 7 am. Passage through the border was relatively
quick and uneventful, which is the way you want it to be.
Border-crossing in this part of the
world is interesting. Unlike the Canada-U.S. border where you inch up to a
toll-booth kind of situation and then proceed to be grilled by a border guard,
there is no line in the sand here where someone stops and grills you. On either
side (a bridge across a river in this case) there is an immigration office –
which is up to you to find in the midst of all the chaos – where one enters to
get one’s passport stamped. No one tells you this, you just have to know to do
it (we learned the hard way in Central America). So on the Colombian side we
need a departure stamp, followed by getting an entrance stamp on the Ecuadorian
side. Failing to do so makes you illegal, which could be a problem down the road
for obvious reasons. No one seems to care what we’re carrying or how we are
travelling. Just get the stamps, and away we go. Perhaps they just know that we
aren’t smuggling a family of refugees in our panniers J
The final tally was 52 nights in Colombia – more than we had originally
planned, but that included an initial 18 nights getting acclimatized and
exploring the Colombian Caribbean (which was sort of a side trip). Upon
reflection, our collective thoughts on Colombia are that it put on a fantastic
show for us. From the beaches of the Caribbean, to the coffee-covered mountains
of la zona cafetera, to the colonial
towns of the south, the diversity of landscapes and sights is truly awesome.
And to the people of Colombia, two huge thumbs up for their wonderful and
friendly nature. We both agree that Colombians are some of the nicest and
friendliest people we have ever encountered. Very noisy people mind you, but,
very nice just the same. With the violence of the past, in the past (hopefully),
Colombia seems to be a rising star. Viva Colombia!Colombia trip stats:
Total kms on bikes: 2106
Number of riding days: 30
Average kms per riding day: 70
Cheapest accom*: $10
Most expensive accom*: $39
Average cost per night accom*: $25
Best beach: Palomino
Best town/city: Salento
Rob’s fav street food: papas con heuvo
Amy’s fav street food: ice cream (cono doble)
(*accom = private room)
Amy’s top pros/cons on Columbia:
+
—
Driver encouragement (honks, thumbs
up) constant noise
Diversity of scenery crazy drivers
Fresh limes and lime juice lack
of veggies
Rob’s top pros/cons on Columbia:
+
— the people constant noise
beaches to mountains wine is expensive
cheap beer rooms without windows
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