Ipiales to Barranquilla
15.3.10
Click here for link to photos from Ipiales to Salento
Click here for link to photos from Salento to Medellin to Barranquilla
We hoped straight off the bikes in Ipiales and straight onto a bus for Pasto. There is a famous church close to Ipiales. The Santuario de Las Lajas looks fantastic in the photos but no time! We had a carnival to attend.
It was just on sunset so we managed to take in some of the views between military check points and heaving bends in the road. Colombian bus drivers clearly have a schedule to keep. It doesn't seem to matter that they come close to never arriving at all! My heart ached as we descended through some spectacular looking scenery. My legs rejoiced as we felt the bus labour up the other side in the dark.
We arrived into Pasto after dark and did a dodgy bike ride through dodgy streets. Full marks to Anita for directing us to the hotel without looking at the map after departure from the bus terminal. It wasn't the sort of suburb you wanted to be stopped for long.
The next morning we had our first Colombian breakfast. Not particularly noteworthy except the waiter had a pistol on his hip! Hmmmm. We didn't have time to ask why he had a pistol, we had a carnival to go to!
We were back on the bus to Popayan. Sadly, more fantastic scenery with the commensurate twisty roads and no air conditioning made for a horrendous ride but we survived and arrived to a great little colonial town with a veritable forest in its plaza! It was the sort of town that would have held us for a few days of rest from cycling. We did see Marie-France and Brian. A Montreal couple their ages similar to ours, on their honeymoon, and on two wheels. The major difference was they had been gone for 2 years and their 2wheeler had a motor so they had covered a significantly bigger part of the world. We had a great dinner and visit with them before saying goodbye. They were heading home via Central America. http://www.2uprtw.com/.
From Popayan we rode yet another bus to Armenia via Cali and negotiated yet another fee reduction for the bikes. None of the bus companies officially charge a fee for bike transport but all the drivers attempt to charge you about half the bus fare. I got pretty good at negotiating it down to about 1/8 of one bus ticket. The bigger the bus, the better chance of a free ride for the bikes. And less dismantling!
Armenia was a stop over to get to Salento. Stayed the night, and left early the next morning to ride into Coffee Country. Stacks of Colombians were out for their Saturday morning ride. In Salento, we found a cute little town PACKED with Colombians. We stayed 2 nights and wished we could have stayed longer. Nice coffee, delicious food, a beautiful honeymoon calibre Bed and Breakfast, and some brilliant bushwalking all made for yet another destination deserving more then 2 nights. But we had a carnival to race away for!
We left on the Monday morning in miserable rain. We bailed on a coffee plantation tour and rode to Pereira and caught a bus from there to Medellin. We were glad to be dry and on the go. The approach to Medellin was amazing - a knife edged ridge road with twists and turns and overturned buses and 4WD's in the ditch. We had two nights in Medellin. The city wasn't so impressive to us except for the museum dedicated to Fernando Botero, one of Colombia's favourite artists. He seems to have dedicated himself to all things plump either in sketches, paintings, or sculpture. Very unique and highly amusing.
We met a couple of French fellows and two Bogotanos. Our rapport was largely built on the shared consternation of a crazy Kenyan that was either high on cocaine or attempting to come down off of the stuff in the hostal. Antics such as taking all his clothes off in the roof top pool, talking strangely, and then jumping off the main roof onto pergola roof and falling through it onto the concrete floor were clearly all calls for help. Fortunately for the Kenyan some other hostal travellers/friends came to his rescue. The six of us were all too disturbed by his erratic behaviour to get to close to him. With the Kenyan shifted back to another hostal we had a good night out. With the French speaking French and Spanish, the Bogotanos speaking Spanish and English and us speaking English but a little Spanish it was an amusing night of translations and jokes.
We are finding Colombians to be almost excessively friendly. They often smile and acknowledge us as visitors, making certain we feel welcome in their country. We are also finding that while the country seems to be generally more wealthy and organised there are many poor people. There are enormous gaps between the rich and the poor.
We rode from the hostal in El Poblado to the northern bus station, about 15km away. It was a quick and non-eventful ride except for a homeless fellow brushing his teeth and clearly living under some trees in one of the North American exit "clovers" of the freeway. Our eyes met as I rolled by, he smiled with his toothbrush filled mouth, and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled, waved back and rolled on. It was a beautiful moment in bicycle backpacking, but no time to stop and chat.
We had a carnival to attend!!
Stuart and Anita
Posted byStuart Kane at 9:43 AM
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