For so long I have yearned to go to Colombia; it’s a country that has influenced and is so important to a great number of my friends. So I decided a good way to get there was by bicycle and if I was going to bike that far I might as well bike the whole Pan American Highway, because why not. After months and months of travel across ten countries I finally arrive on Colombian shores in Cartagena, I had finally made it. A minor nagging fear in the back of my mind this entire trip was had I built up this image in my mind of this wonderful country and could it live up to those expectations and the answer is yes, yes is does live up to them and it easily surpasses them.
Cartagena is a beautiful city along the Caribbean on Colombia’s northern coast, it’s a city of rich history and culture which, sadly to say I didn’t get to experience all that much since I had to rush to Medellín for a conference and also to finally get the hell away from the heat of the tropics at sea level. My arrival in to the valley where Medellín sits is where I consider my love of this country really started to take hold; for started I have a particular liking to Paisa
food more so than coastal plus the climate and the mountains were more to my liking and had my first Bandeja Paisa in country. While still there myself and a few of my 7in7 people went to experience another one of Colombia’s classics, Tejo. This is a game where players throw a metal puck like object, surprisingly called a tejo, towards an angled soft clay board that has a metal ring in the middle with four mechas on it which are small packets filled with gunpowder. If a player strikes one of the mechas it will then explode awarding the player and their team three points. Basically it’s like bean bag toss/cornhole except infinitely better, and like those games it is also often played with beer. I ended up scoring a few hits that night and kept one of my exploded mechas as a souvenir.
After leaving Medellín I wound my way through the mountains, stopping briefly in Manizales originally because one of my closest friends used to live there but upon finishing the climb up the mountain I found myself in the middle of a protest. After reading a few of the signs I concluded I agreed with what they stood for so I marched with them for a while before my hunger and desire for a shower won out. While that was my first experience with the student protests in Colombia it would not be my last. While there I got to meet up with a friend Jess’s Lily, we got to spend a lovely evening together getting to know each other during enjoying dinner and drinks. My route towards Bogotá took me over many very tall and steep mountains and I decided I would stay there a week because of all the effort I put into getting there I wasn’t just going to turn around a leave. Two and a half months later I finally officially left Bogotá.
I originally decided to go to Bogotá to see friends of my friend Alejandro whom I met riding in southern California, and what I got out of it was so much more. Not only did I meet Camilo and Giovanny and got to bike with them and share a birthday dinner, but through another friend Jessie I met Manuela who in turn introduced me to Laura and Alex with whom I would spend the majority of December and early January. I went up to Suesca for rock climbing and relaxation at a finca and spent four days total with a fireplace, books, Manu’s family’s coffee, and photos from climbing expeditions from all over the word. Also delicious arepas, eggs, and fruit for breakfast everyday. For my farewell to Bogotá and Cundinamarca in general Laura, Alex, and myself biked to Alex’s families house in Pandi wanting to spend two nights nights together there, we ended up spending seven. But with a view like this can you blame us?
After saying our farewells I slowly headed towards Ecuador, all along the way stopping the have the local cuisine like luladas in Cali. But one thing that remained constant my whole time here was my gluttony of empanadas. I find them to be the perfect mid-ride snack, not so heavy that it’s hard to bike after but just filling enough to give you that extra energy you need to bike over another mountain. I don’t think I have ever only eaten one, as far as I know it’s humanly impossible to do; the most I have consumed at one time was seven. The look on the woman’s face when she asked if that’s what I meant was priceless, I only wish I had look to see what her expression was after I devoured them in short order before continuing my ride. But that is the life of a bike tourer, eating a ridiculous amount of food quickly and still feeling hungry after.
Pasto and the surrounding area was my last real stop in Colombia before departing for Ecuador, much of time time there was spent between Laguna de la Cocha and the Casa Bici in Pasto itself. In both places I managed to make some amazing friends and participate in some lovely celebrations, one of them being the one year anniversary of the Casa Bici. While I was staying there I felt like a part of a family, be it with the owners Camila and John or with the other travelers who were making it their home at the same time.
Being welcomed as part of the family is something you experience all throughout the country of Colombia; I was invited into many different homes and given shelter for a night or three, warm meals, delicious coffee (yes I did just write that), and a place in their heart. There was a mutual feeling of love and respect between myself and my host families, from them the joy and pride in sharing their culture and country with me and from myself my sincere desire to experience and learn from it.