Recovering some old stories: Climbing to the Paramo in Colombia

Posted by Javier on 12 October 2009

We are still in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon. Before leaving for several days without internet I am trying to grasp the last chance: I shall update the blog or abandon it. Somehow I did not manage to do anything else than pedalling, filming, and doing the everyday tasks of a cycling trip. I have almost completely abandonned photography - I have become a photographer of nights and stars, when there is nothing else to do and one can steal some time to the sleep-, I don´t manage to finish some few tasks remaining from my previous job that were due to be sent 2 months ago, and I have not produced any text with reflections, annotations, or plain information about this trip.

This is not me, I really managed in other trips, and I really enjoy keeping blogs for myself and my closests. However I try to redeem today, feeling that the conditions may be better in the future. I was mentally very tired after finishing the PhD, and I have lost a great deal of time solving a technical problem that was hampering the proper saving of the footage. With both things almost solved now and the next 4 days in a slow boat with nothing else to do, I think I can update old stuff and resume blogging normally, this is live.

Since there will be very few photos in the future I have decided to blog only in this address, and leave the blogging at www.notjustcycling.com for when we come back home (wherever that is). I will send my posts by email and the guys of deepeei will be able to overcome the problem of administrating the blog, something really difficult with such slow connections as we encounter here. For now just some photos and brief comments. All the best.

Javier

Photo 1: We spent a great day hosted by the Forest Engineer Sergio Ivan Niño, a colombian activist strugling to protect the Paramos (Highlands), in order to grant water provision to his country. He is enthusiastic about agroecology and the need for sustainability, a great company together with his charming couple Ekaterina.

Photo 2: White Cecropias dot the cloud forest in the beginning of the steep grades towards El Picacho (3400 m)

Photos 3 & 4: Clouds in the cloud forest

Photo 5: Detail of the road up to El Picacho. It crosses a great deal of wonderful forest through about 55 enjoyable kilometers. A must in a cycling tour to Colombia, and quite out of the beaten track.

Photo 6: Almost in the top the low light made a great show. The Colombian Andes have an infinite array of lush greens, a paradise for cyclists.

Photo 7: In the top at 3400 m the clouds took everything, and we were welcomed by the very helpful Colombian Army.

Photo 8: Up there the hilly paramos start: it is cold and windy there, but the views are great. Few people live there because of the extreme conditions. The economy is of subsistence, since farmers can grow a handful of crops: potatoes and onions.

Photo 9: A tragic accident, several died. It made to national news, a weird thing to see since we were there observing the havoc also.

Photos 10,11 &12: some photos from a series of portraits of a sheep keeper and his son, high up in the paramo.

13 comments. Tags: Javier, Picacho, Colombia, Venezuela, frontier, mountains. Location: Manaus, Brazil