Hudson Doyle's travel blog: Cycling in Colombia part 1

After arriving by sailboat I spent a few days hanging out in Cartagena with my friends

Leaving Cartagena was a flat couple days of very lush green scenery and sounds of an odd Caribbean Latin type of music I'd never heard before.

Tolu and the San Barnardo islands
It took me 2 days to reach Tolu on the Caribbean coast, where I had heard about some nearby islands.
I went for a day trip out to the islands by boat. They are remaniscent of the San Blas Islands, one is said to be the most densely populated island in the world.

The water was like a bathtub, you could sit in it for hours and not get cold. I met a family here on vacation who invited me to their town south of Medellín, Fredonia. Sounded like a plan to me.

Leaving Tolu I took my last peak of the ocean before working my way towards the mountains .

Pulling off the highway for lunch in some random town I navigated the back streets

to find this lovely public market where I tried cherry juice for the first time.

Mostly flat terrain I could really lay into it and cover ground. Oh man, there is nothing like the energy release of a good bass drop to get the heart goin 160+ bpm at 35k/h, even after 4 hours on the pedals :)

Water Buffalo?

So many mango trees that the mangoes end up falling into the street as litter

An alley of mango trees

On the road I met a retired French couple who told me they have been traveling by bicycle for the last 12 years, 10 months of the year. Doing a comfortable 60-70k/day... Sounds pretty good to me...

I learned pretty early on that it is the rainy /winter season in Colombia, not pleasant to ycling

Cycling down a river valley to approach the Andes the predominant business is washing cars and trucks. They use all the water falling from the clouds down the mountains to create high pressure hoses to wash cars. You can see here how they market the business by letting the water spray in display of availability.

There's was so much water, in fact, the river was overflowing its banks and washing houses away.

2 years ago the 'Going to the sun road' in Glacier National Park, Montana was the biggest climb I had ever done. It took me about ~1:45 to climb, as I recall.

My first climb into the Andes was 3 times as long and 3 times as tall. About 9000' climbing in about 30 miles.

There is something about big climbs in the mountains that, despite the difficulty and pain, I get the chills of excitement and have a smile on my face most of the time. Unless it goes on for more than like 2 or 3 hours.... Then the difficulty and pain can begin to prevail...

Aaaaahhhhh!

Oh man what a climb!

I love climbing in the mountains.

It rained on and off as the clouds passed through.

Fortunately things cleared up enough for a lovely visit to Valdivia on the way up.

It is no fun cycling, especially descending, in heavy rain. So when you see a public shelter with the word cafeteria above, you don't hesitate to pull over for un café.

While I am normally a vegetarian, that is not possible on this trip. Yet it is still beyond my pallette to eat intestine in soup.

Cycling in Latin America as a white guy, especially up populated mountains, means you get a lot of looks. People stare, generally in surprise or disbelief, but often give back expressions of positivity- which are great to receive.
The feeling of a thousand positive eye contacts. Quite a way to lift your spirits.

Yarumal
I arrived here on mother's day, when the place had a nice positive energy.
I explored upwards looking for a nice view and what kind of conversations I could stir up.

Medellín

I had heard a lot about this city over the years so I planned to spend a week there, the longest of anywhere during this trip.
I met up with a woman I met in Cartagena. She had a battery pack I left by my bed and we hung out for a couple days. She was renting a place way up in hills with a view

Hard to appreciate how big the city is until you see that many of those buildings in the distance there are high-rises. And this is only one section of the city in view....... So many people in this planet..