I think this might be the end of a “bike tour blog” as it
just doesn’t look like we are going to do all that much touring in Columbia between
now and when we fly home. We had heard from a couple of touring cyclists that
had come down to Patagonia all the way from North America who said that
Columbia was their favourite place to tour. They probably came down to Cartagena
by boat and rode through the valley where Medellin is. They talked about how warm and helpful the people were.
We are encountering that too. People who’s vibe is so friendly
it melts you like the initial rush of alcohol. More than once we have had young
guys come up to us while on bikes to ask about our trip or offer to help us out
however they could and they are really full of admiration for what we are
doing.
That said when you look at a map there are not a lot of
alternate routes to the main ones through the country and there are a lot of
diesel trucks on the road. They are courteous
but the pollution is pretty bad. Here on the coast near Santa Marta it is a
desert and other than the tourist areas on the beaches they do little trash pick-up.
If you have ever been to places like Baja you know that trash sticks well to
desert plants and is a real eye sore. Plus although most Colombians are very
nice, we really stand out with the red and yellow panniers and feel like we
must look so affluent. Being supper easy targets is hard to get out of your
mind. We have yet to see any foreign bike tourists. Maybe if we had real rag tag
warn out equipment it would help but also unless you are in touristy areas
being a gringo you really stand out as well. People call out gringo in a nice way from
the side of the roads all the time.
We will probably do some more riding but will probably
minimize that and include a fair amount of swimming and hiking. We may even
hire some guides to go to the remote northeast coast. In any event I do not
want to have to try and prop up the
semblance of a bike blog. I may post some more pictures.
The people of the Caribbean coast near Santa Marta are really
diverse. It is hard to guess what sort of ethnic heritage the people you see
are. There are all different faces and body types with lots of mixed blood
blacks. The more black people are some of the warmest even though they are
often just scraping by.
We are goiong to focus on safely enjoying the rest of our trip....
