Day 664
The road to Medellin
We were up! In the Andes, except we still had many thousands of feet of climbing before we reached the city. The views were stunning, so we dug deep and got on with it. The temperature was definitely cooler which made riding so much easier, and neither of us had any issues with the altitude which was a great relief. This also meant we could keep on riding and not take time to acclimatise.
Being in the hills meant that’s where the towns and cities were built. We rode through one spot that rivalled Spain for unbelievably steep roads. Fortunately, we were heading across it rather than up and down but it was crazy, hard to believe a place could function with that sort of terrain. We had yet to see Medellin!
As we had got on so well, we decided to treat ourselves to two nights in Santa Rosa del Osos. ‘Osos’ meaning bears. For us they could have renamed Santa Rosa del Cake. For probably the first time since France we found fabulous cakes to eat. Though we were only there one full day we almost got a loyalty card from our favourite bakery, god they were good!
This part of Colombia was deeply wooded but now it has been cleared to create land for beef farming. It looked enchanting, rolling hills, verdant valleys with covered walkways for the cattle, creating a weird lined pattern on the landscape. Environmentally not so good, but it looked wonderful. The road we took was a much smaller road and this meant it weaved its way along, up and over every hill, constantly climbing and descending. Hard work but so rewarding. All the vegetation was thick and lush, plants we pay good money for in the UK grew like weeds lining the road sides. Our senses were overloaded, the views, the scent of the flowers, the small villages threatened to overwhelm us. We need a break and when in Colombia the only sensible thing to do was stop for coffee!
Finally we arrived in the hills above Medellin, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. A flat valley surrounded by steep hillsides, it was simply mindboggling. Trying to comprehend what we were seeing. Could all those orange shapes covering the hillsides actually be buildings? The latest population figures say that 4,102,000 live cheek-by-jowl in an area covering 147 square miles. The figures only hint at the reality. Now we had to ride down into it. If I tell you, it was 26 degrees steep you may be able to understand what it was like. It went on for what felt like miles, but was probably less than a mile. The road was concrete with ridges in it to improve the traction. We had to stop repeatedly to let the brakes cool off and our hands recover. Oh the relief when we lost the concrete and hit normal steep roads was overwhelming. Then as reached the valley floor and rush hour traffic, remember that 4 million+ live here so it was crazy, but I was still so numb from the descent the traffic didn’t really faze me, at least we’d stopped going downhill!
