Eating and biking our way through the Americas .... and beyond!

Colombia: Part 1 – Medellin to Pereira (including Salento)

Hiking through Valley de Cocora, near Salento

We had a FANTASTIC time cycling through Colombia! :) Although it may not have the best reputation, it quickly became one of our favourite countries on this trip. The scenery is diverse and absolutely stunning, the people are friendly (and very pro cycling) and the traffic is relatively light. Best of all, it is still very cheap (the cheapest country that we have travelled through so far).

For safety reasons, we were advised to stick to the Pan American Highway, which we did.  There was a huge military presence along the Pan American Highway, especially at strategic points, such as bridges.  This was both comforting and worrying, at the same time!

Unfortunately, our travel insurance policy did not cover the parts of Colombia that we planned to cycle through, as they were listed as “Do Not Travel” areas on the Australian Government’s “Smart Traveller” website. So, for peace of mind, we took out a separate travel insurance policy for Colombia. As luck would have it, nothing happened and we didn’t need it, but it was a nice safety net, especially considering that the ceasefire between the FARC guerilla group and the Colombian Government ended just before we arrived in Colombia.

Here is an overview of our travels from Medellin to Pereira (including our day trip to Salento and information regarding our flight from Panama to Medellin). It is detailed for our own records, so feel free to skip ahead to the photos!

Getting from Panama to Medellin:

We managed to get a very cheap flight from Panama City to Medellin for USD 126 (incl taxes) each with Air Panama. As the ferry from Panama to Colombia was no longer operating in June, this was the next cheapest option for us and was ridiculously cheap in comparison to the price of a cruise through the San Blas Islands, which our research indicated would cost us about USD 750 per person (the breakdown: USD 600 for the slightly larger boat which can take bikes, USD 100 extra for a bike and USD 50 for transport from Panama City to the little port where the sailing boats leave as we weren’t able to cycle at this point).

Unfortunately, flying to Medellin meant that we missed out on visiting Cartegena and the North Coast of Colombia, which we understand is beautiful. We will just have to come back to Colombia again in the future to see the parts that we missed!

TIPS:

  • If you are going to fly with Air Panama from Panama City to Medellin, you can get bike boxes for free from Rali Bike Shop.
  • Be aware that this flight leaves from Panama’s domestic airport, not the international airport (the airports are at the complete opposite ends of Panama City)! This was not clear on the booking confirmation that we received from Air Panama and does not seem to be widely known in Panama. We wasted a lot of money in taxi fees, as our hotel shuttle mistakenly dropped us at the International Terminal ….!

Thursday 4th June – Friday 12th June: Medellin

Medellin is an amazing city, with a troubled past. We spent just over a week in this wonderful city – sightseeing, updating our blog and getting our spokes replaced on our bikes. We hadn’t planned to stay quite so long in Medellin, but there was a long weekend in the city and the bike shop that had been recommended to us to replace our spokes (Ciclo Linea – Note: the mechanic did an average job of replacing our spokes and we needed to get the spokes on our back wheels shortened in Loja, Ecuador), wasn’t able to fix our bikes until the following Tuesday.

We took an Exotic Fruit Tour through the fruit section of the Minorista Market, where we learnt about and tried a range of exotic, tropical fruits. This was great, as it introduced us to a range of fruits that we would not otherwise have tried and we subsequently ate a lot of these fruits while touring through Colombia. We also took a ride on Medellin’s fabulous Metrocable – a gondala lift system, which has enabled people from some of the poorest suburban areas of Medellin, high up on the steep valley walls where buses were unable to reach, to access public transport in Medellin. This has opened up employment and other opportunities for these communities. The views from the Metrocable were fantastic!

The highlight of our time in Medellin was undoubtedly the 4 hours that we spent on the Medellin “Free Walking Tour” with our guide Pablo from “Real City Tours”. We walked the streets of downtown Medellin and listened as Pablo described the transformation that his city is going through. He took us to places that were once extremely dangerous, but which are now being cleaned up and converted into positive public spaces. We loved the fact that Pablo showed us the “real” Medellin and he didn’t shy away from tricky topics like the drug wars and Medellin’s dark days. 

In addition to the Medellin Walking Tour, we also went on a Pablo Escobar tour with Paisa Roads. Unfortunately, this tour was a huge disappointment, due to the incredibly negative and jaded tour guide, Paula. If you are interested, you can read our review here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297478-d4054877-r280924215-Pablo_Escobar_Tour_by_PaisaRoad-Medellin_Antioquia_Department.html

Saturday 13th June: Medellin – Alto de Minas Pass, Colombia

After nearly 2 weeks off our bikes, our first day out of Medellin was short, but tough.

Navigating our way out of Medellin was relatively easy and we didn’t have any trouble. It is definitely one of the easiest cities that we have cycled in. 

After the first 10kms or so, we started to climb. It was gentle at first, with the occasional short descent; however, the final 8kms were pretty steep and unrelenting. We were surprised by the quality of the road. We had planned to turn off the highway at Caldas and take some back roads, but the traffic was so light on the Pan American Highway, that we decided to keep going.

About 4kms from the Alto de Minas Pass, we met a friendly German couple (Sven and Kira from Boundless Biking) and their little dog. We chatted with them for a good hour and got lots of great tips for Colombia.

After saying good-bye to the Boundless Bikers, we cycled the remaining 4kms to the top of the pass. When we finally crawled to the top, we received cheers of support from the people in the restaurants, many of whom I imagine passed us on the way up. It was around 2.30pm by this time and we decided to have a late lunch at the Juancherito restaurant and thank goodness we did! Juancherito is a meat grill restaurant and the food was amazing. We were served by Stefan, the manager, who spoke some English. When it was time to pay the bill, Stefan gave us a 25% discount on our meal and wouldn’t accept a tip!

We were quite the celebrities at the pass and many people stopped by our table for a chat and a look at our bikes. One big group of mountain bikers/motor bikers even wanted to take photos with us! This happened quite a lot in Colombia. While climbing up mountains, we would often see people hanging out of their car windows taking photos and movies of us – very funny!    

At this stage, we were still planning to keep cycling to the town of Santa Barbara, 16kms downhill from the pass, but Stefan said that it wasn’t a particularly nice town and that it would be much nicer and safer for us to stay at the pass. He said we could either camp for free next to his friend’s house, or in the paddock behind the restaurant, with access to the restaurant’s bathroom facilities. He also promised us a free breakfast at the restaurant the following morning! We hadn’t planned to camp in Colombia, but this was an offer that we couldn’t refuse. We took him up on his very kind offer and camped behind the restaurant.

When we were just finishing our meal, 2 other German cycle tourers (Andre from Radrauschen (https://radrauschen.wordpress.com) and Tobi) reached the pass. They joined us at Juancherito and were also persuaded to spend the night in the paddock behind the restaurant. 

Our first day of cycling in Colombia couldn’t have been better and we went to sleep in our tent feeling very grateful for the kindness and generosity of strangers!

KMs travelled: 37kms
Elevation gain: 1073m
Elevation loss: 112m
Maxiumum elevation: 2,340 m
Highlight: Stefan’s amazing generosity and kindness and meeting the other cycle tourers!
Lowlight: More mechanical issues – there appeared to be something wrong with my rohloff …

Sunday 14th June: Alto de Minas Pass – Irra, Colombia

After our free breakfast at the restaurant (thank you Stefan!), we hit the road (with Andre and Tobi) for an incredible, windy, almost 40km downhill!  It was so much fun – we were overtaking cars and trucks – and the valley views were beautiful! Weeeeee! :)

When we finally made it to the end of the epic downhill, we found ourselves in the nice little town of La Pintada. With 42km already done, we found a little café with wifi and settled in to check emails and have a freshly squeezed juice. 

After an hour or so of relaxing, we got back on the bikes and headed towards Irra – our goal for the day. The ride was predominately flat and easy, with some very gentle climbing, as we followed the River Cauca. I was surprised by the apparent affluence of the area that we cycled through. A number of houses beside the river had swimming pools. It wasn’t at all what I had expected from Colombia.

It was really nice to ride in a group for a change and David cycled most of the way with Andre, with me following and Tobi bringing up the rear. We stopped to pick fresh mangoes and had a nice lunch together in a restaurant by the river.

We arrived in Irra around 4pm to find that there was a festival in full swing. We found a room at a not-so-very-nice hotel on the outskirts of Irra, which we had to lock with a padlock! It was our cheapest accommodation on our whole trip – only 20,000 colombian pesos (US$6.50). There was a rodeo/bull fight in town and although, we don’t agree with bull fighting, we thought it would be an interesting cultural experience. Unfortunately, the locals weren’t particularly friendly and we couldn’t work out where to buy a ticket, so we gave up and had an early dinner instead.

KMs travelled: 107km
Elevation gain: 695m
Elevation loss: 2389m
Highlight: Our free breakfast at Juancherito Restaurant and the incredible downhill from the Alto de Minas Pass
Lowlight: The hotel in Irra

Monday 15thth June: Irra – Manizales, Colombia

Andre and Tobi had camped by the river the previous night and we had agreed to meet them at 7am. We rolled out of Irra just before 7am and were surprised to see that many of the locals were still partying! Unfortunately, Andre and Tobi weren’t there to meet us, so we continued on alone. But, they caught up with us an hour or so later.

The first section of the ride was lovely – with rolling hills. A big group of road cyclists with a support car passed us at one stage and gave us some drinks and snacks! It was awesome – we need a support car more often! ;)

We stopped for a fresh juice shortly after we met up with Andre and Tobi and then continued climbing on to Manizales together. Along the way, we met a friendly female road cyclist from Manizales, who decided to tag along with us for the ride up to her home city.

About 18kms from Manizales, the real climb started. Manizales is in the heart of Colombia’s coffee growing region and the views were amazing.  Our group scattered, as each of us settled into our own rhythm. It was hot and humid by this stage. I struggled on the climb in the heat and could feel that I had lost a lot of climbing fitness after a couple of weeks off the bike. I was super envious of the female road cyclist on her light road bike, with no panniers to haul up the mountain! :) David kindly waited for me at regular intervals and we stopped for a yummy lunch of empanadas half way up the climb, which definitely helped me on the second half.    

David had been trying to cut sugar out of his diet since we arrived in Colombia. But, this is tricky when you’re cycling so much in hot conditions. He bonked about 1 km from the top of the climb, so we pulled into a petrol station for a coke stop.

When we finally reached Manizales, it was thankfully all downhill to our chosen hostel – the super friendly, Hostel Kaleidoscope. I was completely exhausted and I think I would have cried if I needed to climb much more on that day!

Taking advantage of the hostel’s kitchen, we went food shopping in the afternoon and in the evening the boys made a big vegetable curry for dinner!

KMs travelled: 53km
Elevation gain: 1742m
Elevation loss: 372m
Highlight: The company on the road and the support from the locals as we made our way up to Manizales!
Lowlight: My lack of climbing fitness on the climb up to Manizales

Tuesday 16th – Sunday 21st June: Manizales

We had intended to spend only 1 or 2 rest days in Manizales, but in the end we were there for a week after David fell badly on a downhill mountain biking tour at Nevado del Ruiz, near Manizales! :( He was cut and battered after the crash and could hardly walk for a couple of days, so cycling on was out of the question.  One of the wounds became infected, but thankfully, it cleared up with medication after a few days.

While David recovered, I went on a walking tour of Manizales with Andre and Tobi (Manizales has some pretty impressive churches!) and took an amazing coffee tour at Hacienda Venecia, where I learnt all about my favourite beverage. :)

Monday 22nd June: Manizales – Pereira, Colombia

This was our first day back on the bikes since David’s fall, so we didn’t want to go too far. We thought 50kms to Pereira would be a good distance and it was thankfully more downhill than up.

We had to retrace our steps a bit through Manizales, but then we enjoyed a wonderful descent along the same road that we had cycled up the week before. It was downhill for about 16kms and then it was rolling hills, but mainly uphill, for the next 22kms, before a nice descent into Pereira.

Around lunchtime a massive downpour started. We took cover at a popular roadside restaurant and waited for it to pass, while sharing a massive meal of meat and carbs – a Colombian standard!

We spent the night at the lovely Kolibri Hostel, which was in a very nice part of Pereira, close to some wonderful restaurants. We had dinner at the restaurant in front of the hostel – it was one of the best meals that we had in Colombia! We would definitely recommend both the hostel and the restaurant.

KMs travelled: 50km
Elevation gain: 1387m
Elevation loss: 1251m
Highlight: The morning descent out of Manizales and dinner in Pereira
Lowlight: Cycling through some dodgy parts of Pereira on our way to the Hostel

 

Tuesday 23rd June: Rest day visiting Salento and the Cocora Valley

Although, we certainly hadn’t earned a rest day after only cycling for 1 day, we didn’t want to miss out on visiting the beautiful town of Salento or hiking the nearby Cocora Valley. We got up early and caught a local bus to Salento at 6.20am – yawn! We had time for a quick coffee in Salento and then we took a shared jeep (crammed full with 10 hikers!) to the Cocora Valley to start our hike. The hike was BRILLIANT and was definitely a highlight of our time in Colombia. The Cocora Valley is special because it is the only place in the world where you can see the Quindio wax palms, the Colombian national tree. They are the tallest palm trees in the world, which can grow to a height of 60 meters. We hiked for 4-5 hours, through mud and over wooden, swinging bridges, before visiting the Acaime Hummingbird Reserve and climbing up to La Montana. From La Montana we enjoyed some magical views as we descended into the Cocora Valley.

After the hike, we made a beeline for BegaTown Restaurant, where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch, including one of the best hamburgers ever! Afterwards we wandered around the touristy streets of Salento, admiring the colourful buildings, listening to street performers and eating tiramisu! What could be better?! :)