Cycling trip started!

Posted by Åsa on 29 July 2009

Dear family, friends, known and unknown,

After ten hours in the air, with feet like elephants due to the lack of circulation finally we viewed the Promised Land, descending among the mountains and pastures to our hot desired El Dorado, the airport of Bogotá, the starting point of this long bike travel.

With its 2600m height Bogotá is the third highest capital in South America after La Paz and Quito and I was very curious about how my body would react to the scarcity of oxygen and the thin air. As soon as we passed the customs and arrived outdoors, I sniffed carefully in the air, took a breath and two and three and nothing happened. Absolutely nothing, I felt just great.

We were guests at the house of Claudio, Angelica and their big Labrador Bumer two of Bogotá's 7, 2 million inhabitants. We found this warm and hospitable couple through the bikers' organization "Warm Showers".

After one day of acclimatization, a lot of bikers' stories and some quick look at the main sights in the city we were finally on our bikes. The feeling when starting out with nine months of pure adventure ahead of you is indescribable.

On Sundays 122 km of roads are closed to cars in Bogotá, they call the weekly event Ciclovia and more than a million locals grab the bike and use the opportunity to rule the streets for a day where indeed the rest of the week the motorized traffic is devastating.

Unfortunately our exit of the city was on a Saturday... Claudio guided us through the inferno of cars, trucks and carriages though. Without the guidance of our friend and the 300km network of bike paths (Ciclo Ruta) the complicated exit of the city would have cost us half the day. Just a simple left turn included a lot of passing over bridges and under viaducts.

It was surprisingly flat and easy the two first days pedaling. The sky generally grey, raining occasionally for a little while, just light showers that didn't really make us wet. Sometimes the sun shining through the fine spray of water drops.

The people are smiley and nice with honey colored eyes. Thinking in the violent past (and in some areas present) of the country we feel safe traveling Colombia by bicycle. There is an impressive presence of police and military in streets and towns. Every thirty kilometers there is a checkpoint in the road between Bogotá and Cucutá. Although we have swifted off now taking some secondary roads and even some tracks for the abundant coal carrying trucks in the area, the checkpoints are still present.

Most people we meet tell us the area we are traveling in is completely safe regarding guerilla activities. Although we met a young veterinarian that was kidnapped by FARC in 2004 and held prisoner for two years until he managed to escape... He told us of course not to trust anyone in Colombia and better not travel here at all. We felt a bit shaky after his stories of the guerilla and their child complies, his three days lost in the Amazon forest during the escape and all the drama I filled in with my imagination where my language skills were not enough.

Anyway, up to now we have encounter nothing but friendly curiousity and the vast majority of people we meet are more worried of us suffering cold and hard mountain passes then other thing.

So far all very well, we are enjoying a lot this beautiful country. Here we are in Villa De Leyva a gorgeous colonial village with the biggest placa in Colombia (120*120m) in a cosy guesthouse with a big and comfortable bed with our stomach filled with good Colombian comida corrida, enjoying the life like it comes to us.

From now on the life of honey and milk will be over though and we are facing some tuff biking in hard terrain, we are eager to advance now also. Spirits are high, this is how we like the travel by bike. The more it cost you the bigger the reward.

All the best

23 comments. Tags: asa. Location: Villa De Leyva, Colombia