750km north of Bogota
Hey,
I am in the first internet cafe I´ve seen since leaving Cartagena and cannot upload photos here… Though we have passed larger towns, we stuck to the route.
The first day and a half of travel we were actually heading north east along the Caribbean coast away from our destination. Outside of larger towns are some serious slums.
We are told that this is the rainest winter in 60 years, which has any other routes closed down. The upshot of the weather has been that we have yet to ride in the full tropical heat–enjoying either rain or cloud cover instead. In 200km we will be starting our climb up into the Andes (still on hwy 45) and out of the heat/ humidity.
Considering we are on the only north-south highway on this side of the continent, traffic is very quiet. We have yet to encounter a speed limit over 80km/h, though most cars drive in the 50-60km range. Also there has always been a bike lane (actually a nearly-broken-down-65cc motor bike/ horse/ donkey cart/ home-made wagon/ pedestrian lane) which has been nice.
Kurt and I enjoyed one cooked meal too many and were felled for a day with food poisoning. The night it struck we were camping with a group of soldiers running a military checkpost. Nothing like being on all fours vomiting and having a guy in full camo w- automatic weapon shine his flashlight on you. Of course he came out of nowhere and only wanted to know if we were doing OK.
We made 17 km the next day and a family took us in, made a bed for Kurt to nap on, and camomile tea…and generally looked after us while we vowed to cook our own food from now on.
Great times so far, a completely different world here with different challenges. At no time have we felt threatened and drivers move so far over that they would take out cars or motorbikes going the other way before we would be in danger.
Cheers
Nat
