Barbosa Colombia, 180km north of Bogota
Buenas from Barbosa,
Last night I camped with Riccardo who makes and sells his own cheese and sausages, near Socorro. It was my best meal since I have been here and we had a great time chatting. From his door I had a steep 5km climb (or it seemed tough at that elevation) and then I descended for 65 of the next 70 kilometers. The amazing thing about that was there were still deep deep valleys below me. I crossed a river and have been climbing since. The locals tell me that I have a ‘large pico’ ahead…I was able to post some pictures the other day and thought that I would include some comments.
you should put your tent ON the pool table
Kurt and my first night camping was in a swamp outside of Barranquilla around 200m from the Caribbean. They were worried about rain getting into the tent and insisted that I camp ON their pool table. The next day we crossed a 50km causeway, which had a town of Caribbean people. That has been the only filthy place (people crapping beside the road piles of garbage, theft etc) that I have seen. Now that I am farther from main highways roads are much cleaner than back home.
camping w/ the army safe or screwed?
Night two I was really coming apart. My lack of training, saddle sores and tropical heat were taking their toll. At a military checkpoint we stopped and camped with the troops (and suffered from food poisoning, ultimately for 3 days). At which point Kurt decided he was not having fun and headed home.
Overall people could not be friendlier–even offering to let me stay in their spare room. When I wanted to go on line, the bakery next door let me put my bike in their storage space so that it would not be out on the street. Best of all everyone gives thumbs up all the time.
Hydronomics $0.50 4L watermelon, or $1.65 1.5L popAt that point, we had just been crawling over "nail clippings" of the Andes, even at their northern head they towered over 3000m above us! As Kurt caught a bus home, I climbed a "toe". (The relief map in our first Hostel implied that we would climb up to a nice cool 2000m plateau and hang out there. Reality was different. after 7 3km climbs and shorter descents I had a 25km climb, 12km descent, 35km climb... and that is where I lost track of things....Here is a picture from my camping spot 7km up the 35km climb. I have no sense of what elevation I am at other than my rate of breath when I get out of the saddle and how hot it is when the sun is shining. I have yet to experience anything which I would call even cool.Cool kids a SENA. I washed in a mountain stream and we chatted until 'late'. They had to milk cows at 3am so I was in bed by 8pm and on the road at 6:15.
- It seems that the Kurt was suffereing some known effect of his malaria meds, malarone, which was contributing to his unhapiness.
andyz on October 16th, 2010
Hey Nat,
Interesting photos!! Sounds like a neat experience you’re having. Keep sending us news on this great adventure.