Flats and Fake Deserts, June 11th-13th

Girardot-Espinal-Guamo-Natagaima-Aipe-Villavieja-Neiva

June 11th

The morning dawns rainy and grey 

We smile and hope it stays that way 

The cloud cover limits the heat 

That we are desperately trying to beat

Our road is flat and the shoulder wide 

Making for a smooth and easy ride

A few pedals and we start to fly

Suddenly the kms are passing by

We glide past farms and cows

Colombians have planted as much as the soil allows

The valley bordered by mountains tall and green

I'm sure they're further than they seem 

Occasionally we pass some chickens and turkeys 

Or cross a river that is brown and murky 

Eventually the clouds clear and the sky turns blue

We put on more sunscreen and pedal through. 

Our road

The afternoon continues much the same as the morning. We pass multiple stands selling hand-woven sombrero type hats, clay pots, piggybanks, and wind chimes. For whatever reason these items seem to be the local specialties. Never in Colombia will you see just one stand selling something. There will always be at least five (more often more) selling the exact same thing, for the same price. It is still a mystery to us how they make any money. Maybe they don't. 

The "towns" we pass are just tiny groups of houses. We stop to camp in a dry field. The family who owns it is very friendly and tells us that if we need anything, just ask. 

June 12th

In the morning we try to get an early start to beat the heat, but today there are no clouds, thus the sun is already burning bright at 6 am. Our plan for today is to get to the desert of Tatacoa, a unique geological formation that several people have recommended to us. To get there we need to cross to the other side of the River Magdalena, and after talking to a few people along the road, we decide that the best option is going to be to take a boat from Aipe. 

Aipe is a cute town with good grocery stores and fruterias. We stock up on yummy food for the next day or so. Finding the boat to take us across the river is a bit of an adventure. Here's how it goes. 

1. Ask nice lady at grocery store how to get to the desert.

2. Follow her directions, then ask random guy on the street if we're going the right way.

3. Descend down steep hill to a branch of the river.

4. Take bridge across it.

5. Ride dirt trail through some fields and arrive at second, smaller bridge. 

6. Choose between two small dirt trails that both lead away into pastureland.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

7. Choose left trail because it looks more traveled.

8. Follow trail until it ends at a flooded field.

9. Return to first bridge and ask the different random guys we meet there how to get to the desert.

10. Go back down dirt trail, cross second bridge, and take right hand fork. (Turns out we should have followed the example of Robert Frost)

11. Ride tiny dirt trail past a bunch of cows.

12. Reach a red gate, open it, and go through it.

13. Ride on another tiny trail by the river.

14. Reach a rocky bank along a big river.

15. Wait for motorized canoe that is coming our way! 

Our boatman

The boat ride itself was only 5 minutes or so, and thus we made it across the mighty river Magdalena! We crossed the same river weeks ago to reach Mompox; it is big here, but nothing compared to its size in the north.

On the other side we order some fresh fruit juices at a restaurant and spend a little while avoiding the mid day heat. Then we ride out of town and off towards the desert. This road has been newly paved and it great for riding! We're immediately struck by how green it is, and that somehow, there are still cows out here. 

Our winding desert road

Once in the desert we meet some wonderful people from Medellin who have come out here for the weekend with an astronomy club. Apparently the desert is one of the best places in Colombia to see stars. They kindly invite us to join their astronomy party in the evening.

Side note: they also explain that the Desert of Tatacoa isn't really a desert, it's just a really, really dry forest. That explains all the greenery. 

For the rest of the afternoon we hike around a bit through the crazy formations, and then pay $2 each for the use of a cold swimming pool at one of the little hostels. It's amazing! 

Cool formations! The soil is extremely dry, flakey, and fragile.

A cute kestrel on a giant cactus

Impressive shadows

Exploring 

Hello cactus

All of the soil used to be as high as this tower, but slowly it was worn down by erosion and now we have these crazy formations. 

Once the sun goes down we spend hours enjoying the constellations, and have the opportunity to see Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and various globular clusters through a telescope. The night sky is spectacular. 

So many thanks to our new friends from Medellin for an incredible evening! 

June 13th

One of my closest friends from high school today is getting married today! I wish I could be there with her to celebrate. Congratulations and best wishes to Emily Hisey and Zack Palchak. :-)

We'v decided that the desert of Tatacoa is Colombia's version of BLM land in the States. You can come here and do whatever you want. Throughout the night we listened to motorbikes zooming by on the road, a car going by and honking its horn loudly every 2 seconds, other people camping and counting loudly and repeatedly from one to ten, donkeys braying, dogs barking, roosters crowing, etc. Since sound carries well across wide open spaces, we had quite the symphony. 

We still manage to wake up pretty early in the morning, determined to make it to Neiva. After a short bike out of the desert, we turn left onto a road that we will take into the city. The road, much to our surprise is paved! There is next to no traffic and the sky is completely cloudy, even a bit rainy at times. This makes for excellent riding! When we reach the outskirts of the city, the road expands and it's not too difficult to navigate the traffic. We've made excellent time. By 12:00 we've already done our shopping and figured out where to meet our warmshowers host. 

This begins a lovely afternoon. We meet Erika at her place of work, a small business that is working to promote peace and social development in Colombia. Erika is a wonderful person. She's is open, welcoming, happy, and so excited to have cyclists staying at her and her boyfriend's place because they just signed up on warmshowers. Immediately I feel like we are best friends.

She takes us out to lunch with one of her coworkers, Cesar, and we enjoy a typical Colombian meal with soup, rice, eggs, french fries, and even a bit of salad! 

In the afternoon I do some cooking and Danny goes on a bus adventure to find a part of our tent that we accidentally left behind camping in a field a couple days ago. Luckily the bus travel isn't complicated and Danny is able to find the part! 

We spend a fantastic evening talking to Erika and Carlos, our amazing hosts, and Boris and Charlotte, two French cyclists who are also staying here. They have just biked up from Argentina and have tons of stories and information to share with us!

One of our favorite pastimes, looking at maps! 

 

Check out this midnight snack! 

So many thanks to everyone for delicious food and interesting stories and advice. 

Route and Area Notes

- Girardot to Neiva: paved, big shoulder the whole way. Not too much traffic but increasing near cities.

- Desierto de Tatacoa: accessed from Villavieja, 4 ways to enter. 1) paved overland route from Neiva, 2) rough (but, people told us, not too rough, whatever that means - we didn't take it) overland route from Pueblo Nuevo, ~30km north of Aipe, 3) by ferry from Pata, about 20km north of Aipe, 4) ferry from Aipe. See Tam's detailed notes above for directions to the river from Aipe. The motocanoa was COP$3000 per person, and I think it's just one guy going back and forth, so ask around to see if he's shuttling people. If not, Pata may be a better option. The road to/from Neiva is a great ride, no traffic (except right next to the city) and good road condition. No shade, either, so go early. 

- The observatory in the desert is about 6km east of Villavieja. The pavement ends there. The observatory is closed on the weekends, apparently. Just after are a number of posaderas and restaurants, and about 7km past those is another natural attraction, Los Hoyos, which is apparently some natural pools. Saturno, one of the first few little places on the left after the observatory, rents its pool for COP$4000 per person for the day. It and all the other places have zonas de camping, but we just wild camped. 

To Bogota... and Beyond! June 3-10

Villa de Leyva-Ráquira-Guachetá-Lenguezaque-Ubate-Bogotá-Mosquera-La Mesa-Girardot

Our night in Villa de Leyva was vastly bettered by local empanadas and garlic-olive bread, and by meeting two brothers: German, an architect designing a hospital here, and Angelo, a classical guitarist.  I can't say I've ever had a better time making pasta, with a feast for the ears emanating from Angelo's deft fingers.  

He strummed and plucked a long mix of classic rock- Kansas, Led Zeppelin, Simon & Garfunkel- the melodies and the chords at the same time, then launched into a series of technical and romantic songs.  The pasta tasted terrific, and we enjoyed chatting with the two of them for a bit as well.

The next morning, we headed south on some well-surfaced roads, taking advantage of an arepa-specializing restaurant in Tinjaca and enjoying the colorful handicrafts of Raquira.  

Cheese arepas, Colombia's version of the quesadilla/pupusa/grilled cheese

The whole area appeared to have been influenced in a positive way by the colonial draw of Villa de Leyva.  After Raquira, the road turned pretty bad, and we began to climb.  

We had hoped to make it to Ubate but were so slowed down by the rough road and giant hill that we only reached Guacheta and decided to stay.  The owner of the hotel we decided to stay in, Gabriel, was really accommodating, even letting us use the kitchen of the restaurant.  In talking with him, he told us that Colombian currency didn't have enough value for him to save up enough to travel.  It's hard to know what to say in this situation, other than acknowledging our good fortune to be from a more developed country, but what I really wanted to point out was that he owns a hotel and was wearing an expensive Lacoste shirt.  Even with the exchange rate in Colombia, his hotel is undoubtedly worth a lot more money than we have spent on this ridiculously long trip, and it's possible to spend much less than we did.  We hear excuses from our American friends, too, all kinds of reasons they can't travel.  Really, all but the very poor have the means to get out there and go, but most put other things first (a career, a family, cable TV, beer, eating at restaurants, heating, basically anything that costs money).  And that's fine -- people can live their lives however they want -- but I wish people would acknowledge their actual priorities rather than simply saying "I can't."

My priority for a few minutes was to find a stegosaurus crossing the road (this is an ad for the "dinosaur park" near Villa de Leyva). This is a stegosaurus, right? It's been a while since I last used my old dinosaur placemat.

While leaving, we gave Gabriel our contact information in the hopes that he would come visit us someday, wherever we end up. Then we biked to Ubate, following relatively smooth and flat dirt roads for the first time in awhile.  Instead of trying to brave the traffic into Bogota, we hopped on a bus in Ubate and found ourselves a short while later in the big city!  Even though we had a map showing some of the many bike lanes in the city (see below for the map), getting around was still a challenge, and we arrived at our friends' place around 5.  Meet Levi and Erin:

They have been teaching in Bogota for the last few months and just accepted a job at High Trails, our former place of work!  A mutual friend put us in touch, and the two of them were kind enough to have us at their place for a few days.  Actually it felt more like our place, because they were out adventuring over the long weekend and left the apartment to us!  We made tons of delicious food, visited almost every bike shop in the city, did a lot of work on the "Where" page of our blog, sightsaw, and did a lot of other random stuff.  Most importantly, we rested our legs for the first time in a while.  Many thanks, Levi and Erin!  See you down the road!

Homemade pizza with salsa for cheesy crust dipping

At the ciclopaseo on Calle 116. Every Sunday, this and some other roads in the city are closed to cars so that people can get outside on bikes, skateboards, or roller blades without worrying about being hit by a bus.

The big old church at the Plaza de Simon Bolivar. Most fun on our trip to the touristy area of La Candelaria was witnessing guinea pig gambling: place your money on the pail that the guinea pig enters, and win big!

We also made a lot of bread. One of Tam's neat loaves:

And one of mine:

I dubbed it "the brain bread."

The best chocolate croissants ever.

After what seemed like just hours after arriving, we hopped back on the bikes and headed out of the city.  We had a fantastic route planned with bike paths all the way, but that plan ended quickly when our riverside trail met an eight lane highway with high medians.  Who designed this bike path?  We found a different way and made it out without ever feeling too overwhelmed.  Even so, it wasn't a fun ride.  The traffic died down a few miles outside the city, but around 4, heavy fog set in, reducing visibility to a few feet.  

With a long descent to hot climates just ahead, we were happy to set up camp in the brisk temperatures of 9,000 feet in a quiet field behind a gas station.

The next morning, we began said descent. Stopping at a restaurant in Anapoima, a ritzy area with country homes for Bogota's elite, we ordered our staple meal, rice and eggs, and the guy offered fruit salad as well.  We hesitantly said yes, hoping to receive a bowl with fruit in it. Instead, we got this:

Fruit salad, Colombian style. Ice cream, yogurt, cheese, mysterious flavored sauces, maraschino cherries, a cookie stick, and some fruit underneath.

From now on, we're sticking to rice and eggs!  Nothing else!

We ended up in Girardot, where we ate some more arepas and I shaved off my beard.

Before:

After:

Route and Bogota Notes:

- Raquira to Guacheta was pretty rough. Rideable, and not so bad as the area around Gambita (see our previous post), but not easy going.  Fortunately the rough part is limited pretty much to the ascent, and the road into Guacheta are better, some parts paved.

- The 45A from Ubate, as seen from the bus, looked awful for cycling. From Zipaquira to Bogota, there was a bike lane every time I looked up from my book. I don't know about the whole way, but definitely at least in parts.

- Getting around Bogota is simple in theory but not in actuality. Calles run east-west, their numbers increasing as you go north. Carreras run north-south, their numbers increasing as you move west.  Bike paths are abundant but sometimes deposit you into a freeway.  My recommendation for getting around: stick to the biggest roads possible that have bike lanes. And use this map.

Email me for a high quality version. This is much better than the Open Cycle Map for Bogota.

- The majority of bike shops in the city are on Calle 68 from Carreras 24-30. There are others on Calle 127 near Carrera 55.  The service we received at most of these shops was awful; probably better to do everything yourself.  We are not bike mechanics, but after realizing that the bike mechanics at the shops aren't either, we watched YouTube videos of the repairs we needed to do, then just asked to borrow the tools.

- Leaving the city through Calle 80 wasn't horrible, but Highway 21 was almost until the intersection with 21 to Soacha. There was room in the bumpy drainage gutter to get off the road if necessary. Traffic for us was exacerbated by construction. If I were to do it again, I would take back roads -- or a bus. The descent to Girardot had trucks here and there but nothing too bad.