Day 827
Hot and Happy
We arrived in style for our flight - my sister Carly and her husband Terry drove us there. It was all very relaxed until we went to check in and were told we needed an onward flight out of Colombia to be let in. Fortunately, Carla had put a link on our Riding the Americas WhatsApp group of a company, @onwardticket.com. Within seconds I had reserved tickets and we were checked in, phew! Thanks Carla!
The extra leg room seats we had paid for were underwhelming but other than that our journey went well. Despite being reassured by several dozen airport staff I pestered that our luggage really would be there for us in Medellin we didn’t believe it, so we were thrilled to see our wheel box being loaded onto our plane in Bogota! The views from the plane were awesome, giving us a good preview of our journey to come.
Then we were there. In Medellin. Back at Paul’s. As usual he fed us endless fantastic meals whilst we took over his home, draping kit over every surface, bikes and bike parts everywhere, whilst we wandered around in a daze, thinking just what the hell are we doing?!
Sunday arrived, this meant many roads closed to cars through the centre, and with Paul leading we were off. Despite our worries we were soon in the swing of it, as my sister Liz said, “it’s just like riding a bike.”
It was hard though, hot and hilly. We stopped for a drink and were soon mobbed by the kind people of Colombia. Carlos bought us drinks, Rodrigo offered us his house to stay in, we answered endless questions of who we were and what we were doing. We rode for a while with Rodrigo, then John Henry, waved at the endless stream of friendly cyclists and dug deep. We could do this. I swapped bikes with Paul, so he could have the treat of riding a fully loaded tourer whilst I enjoyed his un-laden bike!
Paul had suggested a spot we could camp at, but being a weekend it was party-central, so we backtracked to one of our favourite spots to stay in, a truckers’ hotel. Cold shower, double bed and room for the bikes, all for less than a tenner, with a restaurant and shop on site, perfect! We said our goodbyes to Paul and hit the sack, Tom slept for 12 hours solid! I think he’s still recovering from his goodbye drinks with Terry!
On Monday, refreshed, we hit the hill. Most of our fellow guests were heading downhill into Medellin thankfully. The views were to die for, and at times I felt close to dying! So we took it slow, frequent stops. Even when super fit, heat and hills are a struggle for me, today carrying extra weight on my bum and in my panniers it was super hard. With frequent stops for ‘jugo del dia’, melon being our favourite we finally made it to the top of Las Minas. Then it was a fantastic descent to La Pintada. Tom appears to have booked out a 100-room hotel, complete with pools, waterfall, bars, restaurants a dozen pool tables, eat your heart out @Mattpepp9, just for us! A day off the bikes on Tuesday to help us acclimatise, we are in the Andes after all, and hey, maybe a swim in the pool.
