In Quito

After a week cycling in Ecuador we are in Casa del Cyclista in Quito. Over this week we’ve already managed to fall in love with Equador. Just after crossing the border we took a dirt road through Paramo El Angel, truly magical landscape of high mountains in tropics – rolling peaks covered with fraylejones all the way until the horizon. There, we also beat our record of the highest altitude we reached on bikes – 3750 m asl, that, I’m sure, it is going to be beaten very soon J

From there we dropped down to Otavalo, very interesting indigenous town, where one of the biggest and oldest market in Andes is held every Saturday. We obviously couldn’t miss such event, where one can buy everything from livestock to finest crafts. We got ourselves only warm llama socks for the cold Andean evenings.

We left Otavalo on Easter Sunday just to cross the equator line on this exact day to be able to the ‘magic trick’ with balancing an egg  (in this case it was the Polish Easter egg) on a nail, that can be done with ease only on equator ;) And the day after we were already in Quito.

We stopped in very friendly Casa del Cyclista run by Santiago and his family where we’ll stay for a week or so; we need to do some bike maintenance as well as catch up a bit with the blog, so keep checking :)

In San Agustin – finally

12 days in the saddle, nearly 800km – that's far more than we did in the whole February and I think neither we've ever cycled so many days in a raw. The road was easy, but at the same time boring for most of the time; first a quick ride on a plateau through Bogota's neighbouring towns to avoid the crazy capital, then fast downhill cycle where in one go we dropped from some 2500 masl to 300 masl and then flat again in hot and humid valley of river Magdalena. The only questionable attraction of this ride was the co-called Tatacoa Desert, which is actually not a desert, but a tiny area, where nearby mountains block most of the clouds, so it doesn’t rain much there, but when the rain falls, it is normally heavy and forms peculiar forms in the ground that is made out of red clay. But because of its micro scale it looks like a miniature of Grand Canyon surrounded by pasture lands – if it wasn’t on our way I don’t think it is worth a hassle.

So it was a fast ride, good to cover some kilometres; until the last three days where we got closer to the mountains (roller-coaster again) and coffee lands as well; why the coffee is important? Because at that time there was general strike of coffee farmers that we’d heard of in news, but we also had heard that only areas where the coffee is grown are affected, so we didn’t pay much attention to it. Until we came across the first fallen tree on the road; we passed it and there was another fallen three, some huge rocks and burned tires and crowd of guys at the age ranging from 12 to 70 armed with sticks. We found ourselves in the middle of the protest, which had a form of blocking the national roads. That day we managed – with some hassles – to pass three blockages, but – as we found out from locals – the protestants were letting to pass only to pedestrians and cyclists, so all those towns had the deliveries cut off for eleven days and some people were stuck in one place for a week. Luckily, that night the coffee farmers’ representatives signed the agreement and the next morning all the roads were open again. What it meant for us was that, as the previous day we had the road only for ourselves, this day we had to share them with all this, hold for eleven days, traffic.

We arrived to San Agustin tired, so we are going to hang out here for few days to recover our strength and to see the area, which is very magic; not far from here the very Colombian river Magdalena has its source, it is also here where the two largest Colombian sierras (Central and Eastern) meet and continuous South all the way to the bottom of Chile as Andes.  So it seems quite obvious that this place was once very important site for some ancient mysterious culture, that didn’t leave much evidence about whom they were apart from countless peculiar stone figures scattered on both sites of Canyon of river Magdalena. And that is what we are going to see today.

Another unexpected weekend - festival in Villa de Leyva

After lazy few days around San Gil and Barichara our next destination was the capital city of Boyaca district – Tunja. We’d already spoke with German, our host in Tunja and he told us that there is a Gastronomic Festival in Villa de Leyva next weekend and if we make it on time, we could go there together. We love festivals, (like all cyclists) we love food even more and Villa de Leyva is supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns in Colombia, so it couldn’t be a better plan for weekend. We had a glimpse at the elevation chart of the road ahead and there was a big hill before Tunja, but the first 100tish km was sort of rolling and pretty much staying at the same altitude. It looked doable in 3, maximum 4 days… we should have analysed the chart better. As we very quickly realized the hills were surely rolling but at a killing grade 9-11% (a small digression: someone one in Mexico told us that the national road must be built so that the hills aren’t steeper than 6%, because trucks cannot make it. Wrong! They should see Colombian trucks; I’m amazed with them! They can make any hill). These, plus temperatures 

'The Hill'

reaching 40C, caused that after 45-50 km we were not able to move any further. And there was still this ‘Hill’ ahead; the more closer we were getting to Tunja, the more often people were telling us stories: that this hill is one of the toughest in Colombia, that is part of national cycling race, because not only in 55km the road goes 1500m up, but there are some steep climbs, sharp turns and what’s the worst – it is on high altitude (the peak is over 3000 masl) where there is far less oxygen.

On Friday afternoon we arrived to the bottom of ‘The Hill’ and, after all those stories, we doubted if we could make it in one day. But it would be a pity to miss the festival, mmmmm…food! So we made a quick decision - we were just by the town called Moniquira, it was 4pm, 60km to Tunja; we decided we’ll be there the same evening - by bus, our bikes had to stay in Moniquira. We went to the bike shop to ask the guy if he could help us with storing the bikes over the weekend. He called someone who knew someone in the council and in less than an hour our bikes were safely locked in local sport centre. We very lucky to meet this super helpful people over there. We grabbed what was necessary and at 5:30 we were on the bus to Tunja. Why we didn’t take our bikes on the bus rather than coming back on Monday morning to cycle ‘The Hill’? We believe that if you take another transport once, it’ll be easier to do it second time and even easier to find a pretext for the third time etc. There is always an excuse – wind, rain, hills, heavy traffic, dangerous area… and there are some cyclists who travel this way, but for us there is always a manner to cycle whatever is ahead. That’s the part of the adventure and the more you sweat, the more you appreciate it.

We arrived to German’s flat and Raul excited about the festival started asking:

‘So how this is going to look like? We could have some food there? There’ll be some stands?...’

German answered: ‘Well, surely we can have some food there and we can look at the stars…’

‘Look at the stars?’

‘Well, I guess so, it is an Astronomic Festival.’

‘Aaaaa….astronomic! I understood (g)astronomic when we were talking on the phone’:)

I was equally happy; I love star-gazing as much as I love food! And however it wasn't what we expected and even the star-gazing wasn't successful, because it got cloudy in the evening we had fun and interesting weekend. German showed us little treasures of Boyacá, that otherwise we'd never visit. Like all those tiny and pretty colonial towns hidden somewhere up in the mountains or down long and bumpy dirt roads; by far my favourite was sleepy Iza, where one side of the market square is lined with cakes and puddings stands.

Delicious! I had a sample of every single one and that was a mistake, because I couldn't decide which one I want! We strolled down streets of Raquira and Nobsa, lined with local hand made products – pottery and woollen goods; in that places I'm glad I travel by bike, otherwise I'd buy too much; but if I think about Colombian hills, I buy nothing. The next day we went for a ride along the biggest lake in Colombia (and lake at the highest altitude I've ever been to – 3015 masl) – Lago Tota. Beautiful, scenic ride and beautiful lake. This area is also 'the kingdom of onion'; wherever we looked around there were onion fields stretching until the horizon. :) And actually, the weekend turned to be gastronomic, maybe not festival, but definitely, feast. In Villa de Leyva German invited us for lunch to a restaurant specialized in contemporary local cuisine, them the deserts in Iza, hand-made ice-cream and a taste of local chorizo and meat cooked in typical for this region way – very slowly over a bonfire.

And on Monday morning we jumped on the bus back to Moniquira, we picked our bikes and we faced ‘The Hill’. And it turned out to be much more pleasant ride than the previous 100km of ‘rolling hills’. Long, but steady climb and very beautiful views.

So since midday on Tuesday we are officially ;) – by bike – in Tunja.

An unexpected weekend in El Playon
Our plan was to make those 95 km uphill from the low lands, which end in San Alberto to Bucaramanga in 2 days. A very hard climb, the road winds constantly up and down so that you gain several hundred meters in few km and then go downhill to loose it all, and then again more climbing and more downhill; the average grade for the hills is 6% -10%. After an exhausting day we arrived to El Playon, for us just a dot on the map perfectly located half way to Bucaramanga. I went to the city hall to ask if they have any space where we could camp for a nigh and they told us that we could camp in the sport hall, so we went there and, I have to say, they were super helpful they open a small room, so we could sleep under roof and even let us use the shower - there is not a better thing you could offer to a cyclist after a whole day sweating.

Once we settled down two guys from the council came to see how we were doing, the web master Ivan and journalist for the city-hall, Javier.

Ivan invited us to have dinner in his place; we accepted, we love to meet locals and spend time with them. When we were having dinner they offered us to stay a couple of days so they could show us around and see how we like El Playon. They are just starting to promote the town as touristic spot and they are full of ideas. The main attractions are the waterfalls that we were supposed to go and see on Sunday with the team from the City Hall that was going there to take pictures of them for their web. On Saturday we were invited to go to the nearby Balnearios (restaurants by the river where you have access to swim) and then to a finca which grows heliconias, super beautiful tropical flowers. The plan sounded great! To be invited by the council to the best places of this municipality just to give our opinion and see if we enjoyed or not as a tourist. Good plan!

The Saturday run smoothly, swim in the river in the local Balneario, had lunch and then we went to visit Don Agapito, great character who grows the famous heliconias, those flowers are breath taking!

Sunday, the big day! The plan was to go by car with more people, but in the morning Ivan explained me that they could not find any transport so we will go just the 4 of us with moto-taxis (regular motorbike that can carry one passenger). Ivan has one motorbike so they will need to rent just two to take us up to the mountains where the walk to the waterfalls starts, in San Pedro. It takes more than 45 minutes riding uphill to San Pedro to start walking, our guide, Don Paolo and his friend were already waiting for us it the path straight away, because so the walk was also new for Ivan and Javier so all of us we were super excited. The waterfalls are seriously beautiful, the first one called Salto del Indio the highest, over 30 meters, an easy walk but then to go to the other 2 the difficulty grown severely; our guide had to use the machete to open track and set rope to climb up or down, pure jungle. Each waterfall has its unique beauty with astonishing locations, magic corners within the jungle; it took us over 6 hour to reach the finca of our guide, none of them Ivan or Javier did this walk previously so we weren't fully prepared, tired and hungry - that's how we arrived to the finca maybe 40 minutes after our guide :) 

When we arrived the food was almost ready, plenty of food for the exhausted tourists. What a lovely lunch prepared for all of us by Dom Paolo’s wife, Thank you Senora!

It was starting to be late so we walked back to San Pedro to meet our moto-taxis. But we arrived too late and they were already gone; our hosts tried to call them, but they didn’t pick the phone, I guess they weren’t bothered to do this long ride up again on their Sunday evening. It wasn’t until after 3 hours of waiting (with hope that they will maybe come) and frenetically looking for some guy from San Pedro who would ride us down, until they encounter one. Only one, which meant we had only two motorbikes and 5 people. The plan was to go Ivan and one of us in one motorbike and the other 2 in the moto-taxi (regular motorbike). Quickly Javier came and told me ‘I go with Ivan and you two, because you are slim, go with the moto-taxi’ we said fine, of course a bit more risky but who cares after 3 hours waiting. When we arrived unfortunately something happened that spoilt the day, the guy from the moto-taxi asked me for an awful amount of money and none of our host from the council stood up to pay for the fee so I had to pay it, this money would last us  for a week in Colombia. It was weird! Sometimes people acts in a way that surprises us, the whole thing of coming to us with the idea of promoting their village and see how we like it and at the end finished the day with this gesture it has left a bit of bitter taste in our memories of El Playon.

Anyway all the best for those guys and its project of promoting El Playon

Just a small update - we are in Mompox, some 300km away from Cartagena
After we've been off the bikes for some time everything starts almost from the biginning; so on the first days we took it easy, checking our bodies how they are copeing; not only with the break of five months, but also with the extreme temperstures that reach here over 40 degrees Celcius i the middle of the day and drop to 30 at night.
We are still on the low lands so we've had fairly flat roads, though we've faced first Colombian gravel roads and have aparently plenty ahead. Until the next week th climbing won't start we will see how it goes we have hundreds and hundreds of meters to climb ahead.

Ready, steady, go! Part Two: South America!

We are excited! Tomorrow we are back on the road!
Somehow naturally, without our intention at all, our adventure got divided into two parts. Last year in September we arrived to Portobelo in Panama, which for us was the end of North America; that was when we had the opportunity to earn some money, but just before that we did 3-week backpacking trip in Colombia with Ania and Kamila; and then because of various circumstances we decided to go home for Christmas. 
Now, after nearly 5! (I've just realized that! Long time!) months, we are back in Cartagena, the place where we stepped on South American ground for the very first time. A week ago we were in Medellin, but we decided to come by bus (the same way as we got to Medellin) uh here so that we won't miss cycling any part of Colombia. 
We took advantage of being in US and Europe and got some bike parts and other useful stuff that are hard to get here. Lets do a small sum up of what we are starting with the second part.
First of all bikes, that Raul was working on them for few days. We both have new chain and casette; it was the second change of them. We changed it for the first time after about 8000km, and now - after 16770km. The crown sets seem to be still working fine in both bikes. All the cables and housings has been changed as well (it was the second time for the gear ones; first time - breaks). Raul had to service his rear hub, because the cones were worn off. And we changed my front tire, which has been with me since Alaska. My rear tire has still some life left as it was changed in Portland, Oregon. Raul's front tire came with him from Alaska and still can do a little bit more, while the rear one is fairly new (has been changed in Chiapas, Mexico). However, we carry two new tires - one each  -  a bit thicker (the thickest possible that will fit on our bikes) and with a grip that is better for gravel roads, which we'll have to face more often in South America. We also carry 5 spare inner tubes, because we learnt that south from US in size 700 we can only get the skinny tubes for road bikes. And we have new  grips, the one with a platform for long hours on a bike, thanks to which the wrist is more relaxed. It was a present, thank you guys! Ah! The last thing - speedometers. Both, mine and Raul, had to be exchanged two times already and the last ones we got somewhere in Mexico. They were both of no-brand and didn't last long. So now we invested in something better. Mine will even show us the altitude and the grade while climbing. Another present; thank you Parents!
We also got few new stuff for camping, but first of all we finally got the zips in our tent fixed! Because to open/close them was becoming an art; we had to hold here, squeeze there and pull the zipper at a certain angle and all of it at the same time to make sure that it won't separate in the middle of the night. It costed Raul many hours of unravelling, but was undoubtedly necessary. We are planning to do more treks now that Andes are just in front of us. That's why we got trekking shoes, instead of lighter trainers that we had before. For the same reason we decided to exhange the big transverse rear pannier that Raul carries for a 50l backpack that will do the same job as the pannier on daily basis, but when we want to go trekking we'll have comfortable backpack. And the last thing is a present as well, which I believe is going to be very useful; it's small JetBoil stove, which will be just perfect to prepare hot cup of something for lunch in cold days up in the Andes. Thanks Sis!
So that's us. Ready. South America! We are coming! ;)
 

Back in Colombia

So what was going on with us for the last three months? We got to US and managed to top up our budget; we spent some time in San Francisco, which I personally like a lot; we went to LA to visit our friends and had great time with them. We even managed to do a few days trip to US Parks that we like so much. This time we choose South and the heat of the desert. We went to Anza-Borrego State Park and Joshua National Park, which is stunning! And then we flew to Europe for Christmas to spent some time with our families.

Now we are back in Colombia. We flew to Bogota and that is where we left from three months ago. We went to exactly the same Hostel we stayed in the first time. Three months ago, a day before our flight to US we walked Ania and Kamila to the bus stop, because they were going to Peru after three weeks of travelling with us in Colombia. So when we got to the hostel this time it seemed as if we just said ‘Bye’ to the girls. Somehow it felt to me as if we never left Bogota.

Few days ago we picked our bikes and when we first saw them they looked miserable. We left them covered with a tarp, but in the meantime they were doing some painting and had to move our bikes and never covered them back. So they had thick layer of dust on them, they were splashed with whitewash, full of spider webs and with tires flat. I thought we’ll need hours of hard work before they can take us anywhere. But it was enough to wipe the dust off, pump up the tires and they looked so much better!

Our first ride after 3 months was a real challenge! 10 or so kilometres uphill on a steep windy road full of crazy Colombian drivers under genuine tropical Sun with all those extra kilograms of food and other luxuries that we brought from Europe. But we made it! Slowly, but surely we got to the top :)

We are now in Casa del Cyclista just outside of Medellin taking advantage of the generosity of Manuel, his wife Marta and daughter Manuela, who not only open their house for us (and other cyclist; including us there are 5 cyclist in the house now!), but also let Raul use their bike shop, where he can give his ‘babies’ new look. And in the meantime I’ve been doing, as usual, the ‘computer stuff’ (which is anything that involves using computer – writing, organizing pictures, googling etc.), but I cannot complain, because I’m sitting on a porch of their little ‘finca’ (finca means house in a farm, but here they use it for any countryside house, whether you do farming or not) with beautiful Antioquenas mountains in front of me. 

Ah! And Journal is completed all the way to Panama! Have a look!