Normally if a stranger asks you to get in their car you say no... but if a Colombian writes to you and asks you to join him on a bike trip for 10 days in the complete opposite direction you are heading... well, why not!
After a two hour drive we finally packed up the bikes, despite the grumpy dog. The plan is to ride and paddle to the eastern most city in Colombia - Puerto Carreno.
We made our way up from Sogamoso past coal mines, making me wonder about how safe it is to work in one of those.
Fathorse was floating well over bumps and I took every chance I had to take photos of the bike while its clean.
I was definitely taking the lead on hills which required pushing
Luis also had similar colors as me so you couldnt tell who is who from a distance
He said that this is common occurance in Colombia, while I watched that truck squeeze into the town park.
It was interesting to see him talk spanish with the locals, as I was awaiting the highlights after.
"The kid said the road is to the left."
It felt great to see how people dress here, something the new generation does not follow. Also interesting was asking to take a photo, many people here were curious to look at their photo before I take off as well.
In the evening we set up on a finca (ranch) and got ready for the rain. It should be federal offence not to eat potatoes while camping next to a field of potatoes.
Later a local, Jorge joined us. I offered to walk him to his house in the dark as he had no lights and a little bit too much to drink. He said its right there. Fifteen minutes of hiking uphill, over one fence and another electric one, past the cornfield and along the side of the hill we made it. The way back was easy to find.
The morning took us all the way to the Paramo, lots of walking for me but Luis seemed to have some super granny gear and was able to pedal all the way.
They had asked a retired gurella leader in a tv interview what was it that he missed about the old days and he said:
"There is nothing more beautiful than the Paramo in summer."
We went down from the cold to the hot, admiring the change in vegetation and stopping to let the brakes cool off. After many hours we reached Labraza grande, the next big town.
arriving at the thriving metropolis of Labrazagrande
Luis got a flat and I got to watch, videotape and brag about my tubeless tires. Flats are a lot more fun when you arent the one having them.
This end of the valley had some oil boom, the locals have gotten some gifts, pavement, lots of signs and annoyingly closely spaced speedbumps on straight sections of road. Word has it that if somebody runs over a chicken, the oil companies pay for it. In the town of Yopal, I parked with the rest of the motos.
And now I dont need to be in a rush to get to Argentina, because we just got there!
Luis negotiating road space with some trucks on the highway
After Argentina we got to another finca and set up camp under the inquisitive looks of the cows. One stood out as the leader of the pack and we had a little staring contest.
this is how they make the panela sugar, I have learned a lot from Luis, especially packing healthier snacks. The bocadillos come wrapped in a corn leaf! a corn leaf!
this is now not to stealth camp
one last look at the Andes before the plains
Second to cows was the bird life, all sorts of sounds, patterns and colors. (all photos will go full screen if you click on em)
Even Luis wanted to give up biking and be a bird
Which would have been handy since the road kind of ended.
As usual, it was far easier to ask to camp than to sneak in pastures. Luis was holding the frontline by negotiating. We landed on a nice spot and a donkey woke us up as 2am
Nighttime was also surprising amount of big trucks hauling big rocks... for the road... as if it wasnt bad enough.
Luis said if he wanted to move to Trinidad, he would open a suspension repair business outside of town.
When not rocky there was a fresh layer, 5-10cm of fine powder making the bumpy bottom difficult to predict.
Luckily I found a solution.
and then we found the culprits, sitting redhanded blocking the road next to a pile of rocks.
A dog and a bird greeted us on the arrival at the Meta River and a man took us across to Rosalia.
Well fed and dranked we negociated camping space with a pack of cows.
Luis went on to do the negotiations while I remained at a safe distance away
Next day was all about not getting dusted.
a man rode past us going to work at one of the fincas, a 10-15km daily commute right when the colors change!
I think I was doing better than Luis.
ops, i think some truck dropped something
although if it was not dry it could be another story...
luis in photo to give scale of these rutts
By now timing was perfect, make it in a town for lunch and wait out the mid-day heat
wait why does the little man have a hat?
oh, that's why!
the fatbike was always a big hit in towns, not the way to go by inconspicously
and this is what happens when you aren't keeping an eye on your bike
We met a deer and borrowed chairs from a house for camping.
cool night, wind, no mosquito
learning a lot especialy when it comes to preparing food. this dinner consisted of not a single plastic bag or piece of garbage
It was a windy, dusty and hot day. All I kept thinking about is how good it would be if I ride back the same way.
yup... it's that hot
Next day was an ant eater who curiously sniffed my hands but when I touched him he assumed this supervillian position so I left. But he does look badass... pixar? Marvel? Forget antman, ant-eaterman is better!
In Nueva Antoquia I ate the best breakfast hawaiian bread. Wow. Genius! It should be vaccum sealed and put into the hall of fame.
The plan was to get a car, pick up Luises boat and go to the Vita river for the final. We sat on the empty road waiting for a truck but no luck, only a bunch of motos.
Luis works as a lawyer mostly in negotiations and his funniest case was between two companies where one had to pay in kind and did it with 2000 frozen lasagnas. The problem was that they has no cheese and were frankly difficult to sell off. We were taken to a ranch of the ex-governor of the state and well fed, then wi-fi!!!
Jo no recollectar el nombre de este luego, perro hola amigos!!
"They are going to take us to somebody who has a car."
This pretty much sums up how remote it was, unlike my packraft which I left with a friend, Luises boat is much heavier and not possible to carry on a bike.
never abandon your friends in the back of one of these
By noon we had the boat and were learning how to control the beast.
Not properly loaded and overloaded with 2 people, gear and a bike. It was the Titanic. The boat would take in a lot of water making it heavier and more difficult to control.
some very large rodents
lots of iguanas would jump in the water when they see us, odd
We found a small beach to camp.
We also got down the paddling thing, which worked best at 30min turns. It was so good to be moving and not paddling!
A small miscalculation was that we had to be in Puerto Carreno tomorrow evening and there were still over 170km of river.
At a fish camp it turned out that there arent many ranches near the river and not a lot of boat traffic. Luis could go to town with them now or take a chance finding anybody tomorrow.
All of a sudden I was the captain of the Titanic and taking it to town over the next several days.
if you think walking back to get the camera is difficult, try paddling back upstream!
Apparently when Colombians see somebody paddling they offer them beer. There was no way I would let them get cold so I drank them. One... two... three...
The rest of the day was hot until I wasnt hot anymore. It started pouring and at 5 I set up camp. Very very glad to have a tarp.
I finally got to see the dolphins but not the pink ones. There were monkeys in the trees and bird watching the beaches. A woman looking for turtle eggs stopped to talk to me. She invited me to her ranch for lunch and said i can bike there but I was a little afraid she would offer me turtle eggs and i didn't want to eat turtle eggs.
I did good time until noon when few fishing boats stopped by to give me beers.
Two dolphins swam alongside for an hour, leading me to this nice beach. I decided to call it a day early, dry stuff, filter water and watch the dolphins play. Meanwhile my thermarest is growing its own pillow!
Next day I put in the headphones and turned up the volume to make some miles, I was almost out of food and it would not be fun to be hungry for a day.
The first thing you see in the morning really sets the mood for the day
I was around the final bend and I could see Venezuela. A man from a beach waved at me and said
"Lunch!"
Before I knew it I was hanging out with this awesome family from Puerto Carreno. They took turns riding the boat and riding the bike, I could just as well bike to town instead of spending another hour or two in the headwind on the Titanic.
eventually we packed everything up into the 4x4 and I got to ride Fathorse, unloaded back to town. Also, 4 by 4 means four persons on each side, pushing. I somehow think that this should be the cover page of Uber...
but we were not the only ones struggling
The best part was that that night the Canada-Colombia world games of ping-pong were held. Canada lost badly prosmising a rematch in few years
and in the morning, aaah! wi-fi and some journal writing!
and while going to Venezuela has always been up in the air, the great sabanah and angels falls may need to wait. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be to carry the money... a large stack of 100s is a little under $20....
but we will see about that tomorrow!!!