Overlooking Medellin from the top cable car stop

The second largest city in Colombia. We arrived in heavy traffic on the autopista. I may have been worried by the close traffic, but there are many who ride bicycles on the far right. Traffic politely includes us and avoids us. We come up along side a father and son on short bicycles who madly speed past me on the uphills and who I leap frog past on the down. Playing this game for many kilometers I marvel at their strength and watch the father guide his son, as he motions for taxis to yield crossing exit ramps. As the uphill begins, they pass me by. Motorcycles and taxis fill the road not necessarily in their lanes. I hear a crash and look up scanning for David and the father and son. A motorcycle with two passengers lies across the shoulder. A white car with a broken tail light is stopped. Traffic moves around. People gather, and lift the cycle. The passenger steps away. The conscious driver is carried to the nearby ledge with what appears to be a sprained or broken ankle. Both driver and passenger are wearing helmets, the law in this country. I slowly and politely step through the scene with my bike. Once on the other side I see David stopped up ahead. The father and son, too, are nearby. We trade “oh, we were lucky” talk in my meager Spanish. David calls out, “I’m so glad that wasn’t you!” and we all get back on the bikes and continue in the unrelenting traffic.

Medellin is the home of the most famous Latin American painter and sculptor, Botero. Statues of plus-sized men and women, naked and clothed lined the sidewalks of the park in front of the museum where he  donated much of his art. Men fondled breasts and stroked enormous buttocks feeling no need to look to see who might be watching. We toured the city on the state of the art elevated Metro. A cable car delivered commuters to their homes high up along the mountainside. We expected expensive restaurants for tourists, but this fancy addition to the Metro is utilitarian with only a park offering great views at the top.

Botero's "Adam" & Julie

Botero's bronze "Gorda" in Cartagena, shiny where people touch it.

Cycling Nomads Dave & Kelly

Hang glider soaring alongside our descent into the Medellin Valley

We met Cycling Nomads Dave & Kelly on the way to Medellin today.  They are two Brits cycling north from Argentina to Alaska who offered many valuable tips on what lies ahead for us.  After visiting for over an hour next to hang gliders soaring above and below us, we descended into the Medellin Valley.  Sunday traffic was very hectic and a car/motorcycle accident happened in between Julie and me.  Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and used to be the murder and violence capital of the world, but is now much safer.

The town of Don Matias nestled in a high Andean valley

We stopped for a snack in Don Matias' central square

Sunday morning in Santa Rosa de Osos' central square

Day two of our assault on the Andes

Dairy farm near Santa Rosa de Osos, WI

Today’s climbs (of 1584m) were almost as tough as yesterday’s.  Though we spent the night at the top of the pass  (Alto de Ventanas means “top of the windows”),  we knew we had higher to go.  We did not know we would go 500m down then up and down and up.  The cooler weather with a nice breeze on a sunny day made the challenge a pleasant one.  We cycled through a 2500m high plain for the last 15k through rolling hills with pine trees dotted with dairy farms that looks just like Wisconsin; except for the donkeys hauling milk cans.

The dawning of our assault on the Andes

An overheated cyclista cools off in a mountain stream

We climbed 1761 meters today, higher than any climbs we did in the Colorado Rockies last year. We ate breakfast before departing at 6:30 and stopped at a bakery in Valdivia halfway up. In the midday heat 5 km further on, Julie wished we had stayed in a hotel there. We stopped at tiendas with only 8 soft drinks in the kitchen fridge, and drank 4 of them. By 2:30 in the afternoon we entered the clouds. Pea soup fog so thick at times you could not see the other side of the road. I rode on to the top  of the pass to get a room while Julie walked her bike up the last 5 km. We have hot water in our shower, warm blankets on the bed, and no fan. It is cooler up here.

The swimming hole in Puerto Valdivia

We followed the Cauca valley as it narrowed and soon were in the mountains. Kids swim in mountain streams and water from higher up is piped through hoses that squirt high onto the road so Julie can ride through to cool off. We met a 7-year-old bike racer named Paolo, who raced ahead of us for a couple of kilometers at 33 kph. He’ll enter a 3 km race in Medellin next week. Two Colombians are racing in this year’s Tour de France. This town is at the bottom of a 2500m climb we will attempt in la maňana. We’ll cross a bridge over the Cauca and follow a tributary up and up and up. As we were crossing a pedestrian suspension bridge to the church we saw a procession approaching. Many people are on horseback, probably from surrounding pueblos not reachable by road. We don’t know what the holiday is and most of the crowd did not go into the church. It seemed to be a reason to dress up and gallop up and down the one street in this steep river valley town. We ate at a nice restaurant with a urinal in the dining room.

Paolo Casas from Taraza, Colombia

Julie showers with her bike

A procession carried the Virgin Mary across this bridge from Puerto Valdivia

Don't look at what that man is doing

Find the photographer in the photo below

The crowd gathered in the square below the church

Vanessa, Iman & amigos talking to Julie in La Apartada

We cycled fast through the cool dawn, arriving in Caucasia at 10 am; our goal for today. I replaced Julie’s front brake cable and got a spare. The bike shop owner did not charge us for the two cables. He guessed that we were heading to Argentina. We decided to push on at noon, following the flat Cauca river valley, to stay in a small town tonight. We passed men panning for gold in the muddy backwaters of the Rio Cauca. The Spanish Conquistadors lusted after the gold ornaments that Pre-Columbian Indians buried with their dead, and robbed graves to get at it. Julie says it was a great day for cycling and we can see mountains in the distance, possibly the Andes.

Magical Realism in the land of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One dollar for a 25 minute ride around Planeta Rica

Julie biked 5 km more than I did today. We were off again before dawn and joined bicycle commuters on a bike path into the city of Monteria. After breakfast there we climbed a total of 482m through rolling hills in 39C heat, stopping for cold drinks every 10-15 km. After one such stop, I left ahead of Julie to use the bathroom at a gas station a short ways ahead. Julie then biked by without seeing it and went as far as the next toll booth wondering why I didn’t wait for her, where is that gas station, and did I get abducted? Back at the gas station, I did wonder what she was doing, though I was preoccupied with fixing a broken bike rack. I had put the Axiom front racks on sideways; which is not how they are designed to carry the load. I fixed it by putting the broken rack on right side up, attached to the frame in two places. I may leave the other rack on sideways attached in three places until it, too, breaks. I was just finishing the repair when Julie rejoined me.

On the bike path at dawn between Cerete' and Monteria, Colombia

Bike path along the Rio Sinu' in Monteria, Colombia

This iguana along the Rio Sinu' is about a meter long

We woke up at 4:30 and were off before dawn to avoid the midday heat. We stopped often to eat and rehydrate. A 40 km stretch along the Rio Sinu’ is very flat and marshy; a birdwatchers paradise. These birds are all new and wondrous to us, except for a Great Blue Heron which is just like those on the Apple River. We also saw iguanas up close, a Jesu Cristo lizard running on top of the water, and a sidewinder snake hopping sideways across the highway; narrowly avoiding getting run over.

Sunset over the Caribbean at Covenas

We had a shorter day to a beach resort area on the Caribbean coast popular with domestic tourists. We did not see any Gringos. Our plan to have lunch on the beach at Tolu was thwarted by a Beach Monitor who told us that there are no restaurants on the beach and took us to one without a view. We later cycled by dozens of beach cafes. In the heat of the afternoon, near 40C, we cycled along an 18 km shoreline filled with hotels and cabanas; not sure where to stay. At about 2:30, Julie asked what my plan was, and said “I want to stop now.” So we did. After a cool shower and doing laundry, we swam in the surf and walked down the beach checking menus at beach restaurants. They all offered only meat, chicken, or fish; with patacones, fried plantains. I’m becoming a pescado vegetarian.

Departing Cartagena on the Puente Roman bridge

Luna is a pet parrot at the Luna Verde Hotel

We had to leave Cartagena before we got any fatter, and continued our journey south on a new continent. We crossed some very flat stretches along a marshy area, then some rolling hills at the end of the day. The distance here was a little further than I expected; and the heat, in the 30s (Celsius), affected Julie more than me. We’ll take it a little easier until she gets acclimatised. I don’t want her suffering from heat exhaustion like I did in Northern Mexico.