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 being a rest day. The route from lunch to Medellin was a busy road not really suitable for riding and Medellin is a huge city, again not really suitable to ride into.
The run out along the river was on a dual carriageway way mainly but with hardly any traffic. It looked like a new road replacing a winding old one. There is a lot of major road construction going on wherever we have been. After about 21km we turned off and crossed the river ready to start climbing back into the hills. At the bridge crossing, I was with two other female riders and we got stopped by the local police. I have no idea what he wanted as none of spoke enough Spanish to understand him. After a bit of omi-directional conversation, he let us through and we started the first climb of about 15km which rode 1000m.
I’m not sure how much it’s come across so far, but despite being in some huge spectacular scenery, this has generally not been what I would call a “back of beyond” tour. Many of the bike tours I do are on quiet roads in remote areas where you can go miles without seeing people. Colombia has not been like that. Most of the places we have stayed have been bustling towns or cities, and the roads have been primarily main arterial routes through the mountains, with habitations on those routes. Todays climb was different, it felt like a small country lane up into the mountains. There was virtually no traffic, and it could have been designed for cycling as there was quite a lot of shade from low trees either side of the road. i was now feeling much recovered from the previous tummy upset and was able to hold a steady power all the way up the 15km to the first cafe stop, climbing 1000m on the way. To give those of you who ride in Mallorca a comparison, Sa Colabra is 9.4km and 650m. So about half as much again in distance and height.
We had a cafe stop at the first peak which was very welcome as I was dripping with sweat from the humidity. I had a local drink which is fruit, ice and milk done in a blender. I had passion fruit today. At least I can cope with dairy again after the last few days upset! Then a short decent before another 5km ish of climbing, about 300m of up, to a village called Fredonia. At this point the storm clouds gathered and the heavens opened with a deluge of rain. We were lucky enough to be riding through a town at this point so we dived under a garage forecourt cover to seek shelter from the tropical rain. It probably lasted about 20 mins. At this point a decision was made by the tour leader that although it had stopped raining the descent we were about to do could be quite difficult on the wet road, and with only 17km to go to a late lunch stop, and where we were already planning to rack the bikes, to transfer into Medellin, he decided to rack the bikes there instead. As we’d done the best part of the climb today, and we have a lot more days ahead of us, I don’t think anyone minded.
At lunch we found a new friend. There are a lot of dogs hanging around most of the cafes and restaurants and most are a bit of a nuisance scrounging. However at this restaurant there was a little sweet thing (and I don’t really like dogs), who just looked at us with big dopey eyes, and asked gently for our left over meat. Each chuck we gave him was gone in a flash. But he was very discerning, refusing the hard rice cakes that most of us dislike anyway! he had learned that being gentle and quiet got him a lot more left overs that being a nuisance.
A long bus journey into Medellin followed with stationary traffic jams on the way in. It is the country’s second largest city and from I’ve seen so far is full of sky scrappers, in a narrow valley. We have a day off tomorrow so some exploring time. The hotel is in a very busy bars, clubs and restaurants area, so given it’s Friday night, I’m sure the music I can hear from my hotel room will continue until late. Fortunately I travel with a set of noise reduction headphones!
Stephanie in Colombia 2022 