Colombia: Part 2 – Pereira to San Juan

From Pereira it was mainly downhill, as we left the coffee region behind and entered the flat, hot land of sugarcane and corn! We broke up the descent from Pereira with a stop at the lovely El Parisino coffee shop, for a much needed coffee and cake, and a last look out at the beautiful coffee region.

When we finally reached the bottom of the descent, the temperature was noticeably hotter. We passed a little town which must be famous for its fresh juices, with added aphrodisiacs. We pulled up at an orange juice stand and asked for 2 glasses of pure orange juice, without added sugar or aphrodisiacs. The lady was baffled that we didn’t want added sugar in our OJ, as Colombians always add a lot of sugar to their fresh juices and repeatedly tried to sell us various kinds of aphrodisiacs! We kept repeating, “Just orange juice, thank-you”.

After the descent from Pereira, the riding was relatively flat and uneventful, past fields and fields of corn and sugarcane. After the cool mountain temperatures of the coffee region, we found the heat pretty energy sapping. We stopped for lunch at a lovely roadside hotel and restaurant. We ordered 2 fresh pineapple juices and some pork. We didn’t quite expect the 2 huge jugs of juice that appeared, but we were more than capable of finishing them!

We found a hotel for the night in the little town of La Paila. The hotel room was like a little cell, but it was clean and had a fan. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that there was no water, and as a result, the toilet didn’t flush … When I told the lady at reception that the toilet didn’t work, she said it does work, the problem is that there isn’t any water, because of the drought. Hmmm … to my way of thinking that means the toilet doesn’t work, but I didn’t argue with her!

As there was no water, that also meant no shower. The lady at reception led us onto the roof where there was a big bucket of water where we could have a make shift shower. We put our bathers on and had a cold, but refreshing wash in full view of all of the neighbours!

After our shower, we went to look around the town and get some supplies. We visited one of the local churches, but the locals lingering outside the church didn’t seem too welcoming, so we didn’t hang around long and instead, went in search of food. We found a small supermarket and started doing our shopping. Everyone was looking at us, so we assumed they didn’t get many foreigners in town. At one point a lady came up to me and asked in English, “What are you doing?” I was a bit surprised and said “Ahhh …. we’re shopping”. She was smiling and I think what she meant to say was “Can I help you”, as she then offered her assistance, in case there was anything that we needed and couldn’t find, which was very nice. 

We called into a local bar for a couple of beers and had dinner at a little restaurant across from our hotel. The waitress was exceedingly rude and we were quite happy to leave La Paila the following day!

It was a pretty easy, undulating day from La Paila to the colonial city of Buga, but it was stinking hot. The scenery didn’t change much – more corn fields and sugar cane!

We arrived in Buga around lunchtime and checked into our Hostel – the Buga Hostel, which doubles as a café and local brewery – awesome! After a pizza and fresh juice for lunch, we went out for some sightseeing. We visited a number of Buga’s beautiful churches, including the impressive Basilica del Señor de Los Milagros (Basilica of The Lord of the Miracles), which is the city’s main attraction. Approximately 1 million pilgrims visit the Basilica each year seeking their own miracles. David prayed for the miracle that I would cycle faster! It was a stunning building, both inside and out. Interestingly, the exterior is concrete, but painted to look like bricks. We also visited Buga’s somewhat bizarre “lighthouse”.

After our sightseeing tour, we went in search of a bike shop that could fix David’s front brake. We found one shop, which assured us that they had experience with disc brakes, but in the end they had to take David’s bike to a Specialized bike dealer in order to get it fixed. Unfortunately, David’s shimano XT hydraulic brake lever was broken internally and was unable to be fixed. The mechanic replaced it with a cheap and nasty, used mechanical disc brake, which worked only sporadically. Needless to say, David wasn’t too happy with the result (we have since replaced it with a sparkly new hydraulic disk brake lever on our recent trip to Germany!).

We had dinner at our hostel and a couple of soothing ales. Unfortunately, I started feeling sick later that night …

On our 3^rd morning in Buga, I was feeling a bit better, so we decided to push on towards Popayan. I felt ok on the bike (David always refers to the healing power of the bike!) and thankfully, it was pretty flat all day. The views were of more fields of sugarcane and corn. We bypassed Cali, taking Highway 25 instead. We came past a number of Afro-Colombian townships, which were clearly much less affluent than the other areas that we had been cycling through of late.

At one point, we cycled past a tough-looking gang of youths, but thankfully we didn’t have any trouble. A few kilometers later, a couple of kids followed us on their bikes out of town. When we stopped for a drink they approached us and were overly interested in our gear. Although they seemed harmless enough, we didn’t want any trouble, so we kept cycling.

We arrived in the town of Santander de Quilichao around midafternoon. This town sits at the bottom of the climb up to Popayan. Although David wanted to keep going, to make the following day to Popayan easier, 112km after being sick for 2 days was quite enough for me! I was impressed that I made it that far without feel nauseous!

We found a nice hotel at the start of town and went to the local chicken restaurant for dinner – it was the perfect place to people watch! Unfortunately, I started to feel nauseous again that night ….

Gone were the flat days surrounded by sugarcane and corn, from Santander de Quilichao we started to climb and thankfully, the scenery became much more interesting.

This was a big day of climbing – 1875m in total – and I still wasn’t feeling 100%. As always in Colombia, we got a lot of support from the locals and cars going past – there were lots of horns honking and thumbs up!  The most amazing support came when we were about 10kms from Popayan. I descended a hill and a group of about 30 people dressed almost entirely in hot pink started cheering me on from the footpath. It was surreal! I have no idea what they were doing there, but their support propelled me onto Popayan!

Cycling into Popayan itself wasn’t the most enjoyable of experiences. The traffic seemed to increase, in direct proportion to the decrease in road quality. Thankfully, we found a wonderful hostel in the heart of the old town (the “centro historico”), called ParkLife Hostel, which was located directly next to the Catedral Metropolitana Nuestra Señora de La Asunción. We even got a room with a view, overlooking the park and the cathedral – sweet!

Outside our hostel we met a young American couple who had also planned to cycle tour through Colombia. However, within a week of arriving in Cartegena, one of their bikes had been stolen, so they had sent the other one home and were backpacking through South America instead. So far we have had a couple of things stolen in Mexico …. But, so far, so good. Fingers crossed that our good luck holds out until Ushuaia!

 

Thankfully, I woke up feeling much, MUCH better and as I hadn’t been able to eat dinner the night before, I was starving! David made us pasta for breakfast and it was amazing!

This was a beautiful day on the bike. The scenery was magnificent – green, lush and hilly, with brilliant blue skies! We climbed 1309m on this day, but in total we descended more than we climbed. The main problem for me of this day was the wind in the morning, which was incredibly strong. On one of the descents, a strong side wind actually blew me off my bike!

Approximately 20kms from El Bordo, our destination for the day, we stopped at a little shop to buy some more water. The lady behind the counter was an absolute delight and offered that we could camp next to her shop for the night. But we needed to push onto El Bordo, as we wanted to be in Pasto in two more nights. She told us that a Japanese cycle tourer had also stopped at her shop that day. We assumed that it was the same Japanese guy that David met in Mexico, so we cycled on in the hope of meeting him that night in El Bordo. Unfortunately, we never caught up to him.

A soccer match was underway when we rolled into El Bordo. We stopped briefly to watch, before turning our attention to the daily issue of finding somewhere safe to stay. We saw a sign for a campground on the outskirts of El Bordo, but we weren’t able to find it and ended up in a tiny, cramped room at a hotel in the centre of town.

El Bordo turned out to be a very friendly place. We had a nice dinner at a little restaurant across from our hotel, which served a very tasty Sancocho soup, which was fast becoming my favourite food in Colombia!

This was an incredibly tough day – probably the toughest day on our Colombian tour due to the unexpected heat in the valley.

The day started with a nice, long descent from El Bordo into a super-hot, dry valley. After a few flat-ish kilometers, the terrain became hilly and undulating. At an elevation of between 600-700m, it was incredibly hot. Although we passed a few small villages at the beginning of our ride, as we progressed into the valley, it became more desert like and there were no villages and more importantly for us, no more drink stands.

We started to see hills full of cacti, which reminded us of Mexico. We were drinking so much in the heat that we both ran out of water and I started to get cramp in my right thigh. I was feeling a bit miserable by this stage, despite the dramatic scenery and river views.

Thankfully, just as we were getting really desperate, we descended into a little, green valley, which looked like an oasis. There was a town nestled in amongst the trees and David pedaled on ahead to find us somewhere to rest and get something to drink. We collapsed at the first little roadside restaurant that we came to. The locals welcomed us (laughing at our dusty appearance) and gave us some Gatorade! We had one each, plus a litre of water and then devoured a wonderful lunch, with homemade ice-cream for dessert! Surely, we had earned it after that ride! We filled up our water, re-applied our sunscreen and then reluctantly left the cool shade and hit the road again.

The morning had been hard, but we still had a big climb ahead. Thankfully, as we started to climb, the temperatures eased, and so although we were constantly climbing, it was actually easier than the hilly section in the valley. The scenery started to change as we climbed, and became more lush and green.

We made it to the little town of Pueblito El Tablon Gomez (at 1200m) by late afternoon. As we pedaled towards the village, a number of fruit stands appeared and we stopped at one to buy some fruit and drink some fresh pineapple juice – yum! The owner gave us directions to a nearby hotel, which was thankfully close by.

After making our way past a few aggressive dogs (just what we needed after that day!), we found the hotel. It was a bargain at $7! But, you get what you pay for and the shower didn’t work, so we had to make do with a “bucket shower”! There appeared to be a couple of nicer hotel options closer to town. We had a nice fish dinner at a restaurant near the hotel and collapsed in exhaustion in bed.

This was another super tough day and our biggest day of climbing – in total 2392m! But, in hindsight, I think it was slightly easier than the day before, even though we had to climb more, as we weren’t battling the same temperatures.

The morning section of the ride was lovely. Starting out from Pueblito El Tablon Gomez around 7am at an elevation of 1200m, the temperature was refreshingly cool, even a bit chilly. We stopped to buy water in town before we set off, mindful of our experience the previous day. We climbed for about 8km, all in the shadow of the mountain and we wishfully hoped that the remainder of the day might be all like that (of course, it wasn’t!). Then we enjoyed a fun descent for about 15kms, including a tunnel section. We stopped frequently to soak in the views – stunning mountain vistas, which made us feel that we were truly cycling in the Andes now!

At the bottom of the descent, we crossed a bridge over the river, which was manned with military personnel, like all bridges and positions of strategic importance along the Pan American Highway in Colombia. I tried to take a photo of the canyon, but was told to keep cycling by a guy with a big machine gun. I wasn’t going to argue with him!

From the bridge we started to climb, and we were in the full sun. It was hot and steep. We passed more military personnel as we climbed, who were generally friendly and supportive.

After climbing for what seemed like ages, we came across a little flat section, with a pub. We were both almost out of water by this stage, so we stopped to refill out water bottles and have a coke. There were at least 8 scantily clad women inside the bar, so we suspect that the bar may also double as a brothel. Not to worry, they were very friendly.

With our water restocked, we pressed onto the town of Chachagui, which seemed quite prosperous, where we stopped for lunch and more homemade ice-cream!

Interestingly, as we climbed, not only did the temperature cool, but the landscape became greener.  It seemed quite bizarre to us. Normally, mountains become more barren as you climb, but here it was the opposite. The hills that had been so brown and barren in the valley became lush and green in the mountains as we climbed upwards of 2000m! It was very beautiful.

It was an exhausting climb and we stopped frequently in the afternoon for more coke stops, whenever we could. At one point, we passed through a road toll and came across a pack of at least 15 tough looking street dogs. David told me to use my “dog dazer” (which emits a high pitched sound that only dogs can hear and which they don’t like) and the pack scattered! I hadn’t used the dog dazer very much up until this point, and with Peru getting closer, we were pleased to see that it was effective and worth the money! 

When we were about 2kms from the summit, it started to rain and we saw a beautiful rainbow. By this stage, David’s knees were starting to hurt and we pushed the last 1km to the top. This was our biggest day of climbing (2392m) and we realised that climbing more than 2000m per day is a bit much for us. 

Once at the summit, it was thankfully all downhill into Pasto!!! Yeah!!!

Pasto was much larger than we expected. We hadn’t planned where we would spend the night, but when we saw that there was a hotel called “The Koala Inn”, we decided to give it a try, hoping to meet some fellow Aussies! The place is no longer run by Australians, but it was clean and as close to a backpackers as we could find in Pasto (unfortunately, guests can’t use the kitchen). Best of all, Andre was also staying there (he was having knee problems and had separated from Tobi), which was a wonderful surprise!

With a few big days of climbing under our belt, plus a rest day in Pasto, I was feeling in pretty good cycling shape and ready for Ecuador!

Leaving Pasto via some small, steep dirt paths, we made our way back to the highway and climbed for about 17kms to the top of a big hill. Being a Sunday, we were joined by a number of friendly local road cyclists, who were very interested in our tour.

On top of the first hill we stopped for arepa (a type of corn bread) and cheese! As someone who lives to eat, it is these moments in between that I LOVE while cycling!

After our snack, we put on our cold weather gear in preparation for the seriously awesome, 25km+ descent from the summit. The scenery was beautiful – the mountains looked like a green patchwork quilt! We all stopped to snap photos on the way down. When we got to the bottom of the descent, we crossed a bridge and stopped to take more pictures. But, again, the military wouldn’t allow this!

From the bridge it was a steady climb up to the village of San Juan. As we climbed, it started to rain. We had planned to stop at a restaurant on the way for lunch, but we didn’t find one. We had a quick stop at a little drink shop and then pushed onto San Juan, where we found a nice restaurant for lunch and a reasonably priced hotel.

After a quick shower, we jumped into a colectivo to go and visit the stunning Las Lajas Sanctuary (Andre and Tobi were camping nearby with a local family and we picked up Andre along the side of the road). The colectivo took us to Ipiales (which seemed very run down, so I was pleased that we were staying in San Juan) and we then took a private taxi from Ipiales to the Sanctuary with Andre. The Las Lajas Sanctuary is a basilica church built within the canyon of the Gualtara River – it was quite touristy, but without doubt, one of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen!