It’s always nice to reflect whilst travelling back on the highs and lows of these trips, and I know I have a few readers who are considering Colombia as a cycling destination. This trip with http://www.skedaddle.com is all about the cycling in the mountains. I did about 13,500m of climbing over 935km and those who…
Visiting Cartagena
After the formal Skedaddle bike trip I had planned to stay in Cartagena for a couple more days to sight see, as I’d been told beforehand it was a lovely city. Our trip hotel was in the Old Town so I decided to stay there for the extra days. The Old Town is a Spanish…
Wednesday Day 11, into Cartagena, 94km + 24km, flat
This was the final day of riding, again along flat, hot roads, but a bit better surface than yesterday. We left Tolu in two groups, the “slow” group first, which included me, 30 mins before the faster group, aiming to get to lunch at the same time. The day was in two parts, 94km of…
Tuesday day 10: flat to the coast. 97km 290m
After the transfer last night, and a late supper, we woke to find ourselves on the flat vast expanse that lies between the mountains and the coast, basically already at sea level. After a fairly good breakfast, we transferred again for about 40 mins to cut down the riding on the flat hot area. Before…
Monday Day 9: Santa de Rosa to Taraza, 146km 1250 m ascent, 3,700 m descent
Well Monday was an interesting day! Some very demanding conditions made it one of those days I was glad to complete safely and in one piece. We started the day at 2,600m asl in dull damp cold conditions with wet roads after overnight rain. I hadn’t slept too well, waking at 0400, and last night…
Sunday Day 8: Medellin to Santa Rosa de Osos. 85km 2200m
A shorter post tonight and maybe photos added later as the WiFi and phone signal is pretty poor here. We are back up high tonight at around 2,600 m asl which is about the same as Bogotá. The day started with an interesting 12 km getting out of the city in Medellin. On Sundays some…
Saturday: Day off in Medellin
Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and according to my Lonely Planet has a population of about 2 million. It feels like they are all on the roads driving motor bikes, scooters or cars. It’s a bit of a concrete jungle and the roads are endlessly full of traffic jams. The cars and…
Friday Day 6: La Pintada to Medellin 45km 1500m
The plan for today was to ride out of the night stop hotel, back down the hill to the Rio Cauco, follow that for about 21km then turn up into the hills and ride a further 50ish km to lunch then transfer by the coach into Medellin, where we stay for two nights, with tomorrow…
Thursday Day 5: Anserma to La Pintada 107km 1170m
At last I woke this morning feeling much better and managed to also sleep solidly for about 8 hours. First day since I’ve been in Colombia I’ve woken up after 0600. Breakfast was limited today in the hotel “conference centre” which was a 1970s looking room with a few chairs. Anserma is another bustling town…
Wednesday Day 4: Manizales to Anserma, 69km, 1500m
We stayed last night in the very busy sprawling conurbation Manizales. It was hugely busy and the traffic even in the evening was manic! In Colombia it feels that in terms of the pandemic the towns and cities are back to normal. Busy bustling places. However here masks are worn everywhere inside and outside. Our…
Stephanie in Colombia 2022 