Day 849
Highway to Hell
Finally we were off, leaving Ibague. We were being sensible, or so we thought and had planned to take two nights to get to the Tatacoa Desert. At about 100 miles, actually nearly 108, flat, well just 2,500 feet of climbing, we thought two days was plenty of time. It wasn’t. The killer was the heat. I am not sure how hot is too hot to cycle on a heavily loaded touring bike but over 46 degrees must be pretty close. Tom was fine, he loves the heat, we made sure we drank lots too, but I was finding it tough going. I survived day 1, but was sure not looking forward to day 2. Suffice to say for me it was awful. At one point I got off the bike, rolled under the safety barrier and sobbed. Seriously what was I doing here? I knew hills and heat are a struggle for me but I’d never felt as bad as this. To make matters worse I had 4 nights to look forward to in the Tatacoa Desert, without air-conditioning. I was not a happy bunny.
The end of day 2 finally arrived. We had ridden on really good, mainly tarmac, quiet roads and had just one more challenge before we reached our hotel. To cross the Magdelena River. Our friend Matt P had done this same crossing a few months back, so we knew what to expect. A mile or so on a narrow track over several fields to a small flat decked boat. It was about to depart as we arrived so we rode straight aboard and five minutes later rode off towards our hotel for the next two nights. At least it had a pool to keep us cool!
Rested and refreshed after our break we headed into the Tatacoa proper. Immediately we started cycling my mood lifted. Yes, we were straight into a climb, but we were on tarmac not the expected gravel and it was definitely slightly cooler, there was a bit of a breeze and I guess knowing we had only 5 miles to ride to our hotel was a major help!
Our hotel was basically a restaurant surrounded by cabins, made up of recycled materials, set in a shady garden. The shower head was a dinosaur. The owners were people we would like we thought. We weren’t wrong. They were just so friendly and welcoming. The garden was a haven for some wonderful birds, and a pair of parrots who chatted away to us, before cuddling up to each other for the night, beyond cute. There were the usual cats and dogs wandering about but though they clearly expected lots of cuddles from us they were really well behaved. The food was simply the best we have had in Colombia. Finally we ‘got’ why the Colombians eat these dishes, cooked well they are awesome. I cannot lie it was still hot but not as bad as I’d feared.
We were in the Tatacoa and we were ready to explore! Day one we explored the grey rocks, day two, the red. I will explain in the next post all about this what and how this wonderful place came to be.
