Tierradentro to San Agustin, Colombia
I was picking fruit from some trees in Tierradentro (for making juice) and got talking to Carlos, the resident archaeology student. I had been planning on hiking up to the mountaintop tombs next day at daybreak, but he convinced me to start an hour earlier. So it was that sunrise found us on the sacred grounds of an extinct culture with the tallest peaks in Colombia towering behind us.
From there I had a 40km ride on a dirt road back to La Plata, and then headed up a pass towards Pital. I was told that this road was paved, which was only 1/2 correct. There had been rain storms that day, and the greasy clay and rock slides had traffic at a minimum. (I am so close to the Equator now, around 2 degrees north, that the days and nights are almost an even 12h each and there are really only two seasons here– Wet and Dry. They come twice a year each. Right now is a Wet season and at least once a day there is a construction delay while crews clear mud/rock slides off the road.) (Houses here are built from bamboo and mud with the odd lag bolt thrown in.)
From Pital I took the much shorter, but unpaved road to Tarqui. The rains created some active river crossings and slightly challenging, but really fun riding.
Once I find a quicker internet connection I will post up some pictures.
The plan from here is to work on a Coffee plantation and check out the local ruins while I wait for Matt Hawkins to join me. Then we will ride to Mocoa, Pasto and on to Ecuador.
