life @ 13
Friday, December 26, 2008
sensuatinal
since we left off....the three monos (monkey is a term of endearment around here) had a nice christmas dinner of minature turkeys with arepas and rice and beer. not much different than any other meal, but we ate with as much christmas gusto as we could find.
leaving Riosucio we had a fairly steep 400m climb to 2100m, but the rest of the day was fairly flat riding along the mountain ridge, finally descending to about 900m in Cartago. spectacular scenery all day, riding through the clouds and new and carless roads in the morning, then a gradual descent through the river valley where we pushed 30 km/hr for about 10k. we stopped by the river for a swim with the locals. at some fire-cooked carne de cerdo (pork) late in the afternoon, climbed back to 1200m, then had a spectacularly fast descent (max 71 kmh for me) into Cartago.
Cartago was about as uninteresting as a city of 150,000 could be, but we stayed in a very friendly..umm...hotel. there was a sign reminding everyone that anyone brought back to the hotel must be of age (which is about 14 here). met a nice couple on the street who invited us back to their place for wine, coffee, and pastries.
Last night i made sure to point out that after three good days cycling, we were due for a shitty one. and a shitty morning it was...drizzle and rain, crowded highway, and all three of us punctured before noon. brilliant. but the rest of the day was good....for a stretch we averaged about 24 km/hr. totally flat riding through the valley, 110 km. drafted a truck that was going about 22 km/hr for 15 minutes -- just like taking a break but we were covering ground.
I've been feeling much better the past couple days, and starting to feel really strong on the bike. tomorrow will be a short, flat 65 km day into Cali...a few days off there, then off to Ecuador. I'm realizing that i haven't had much to say about the country recently...most likely because everything is starting to feel very familiar. all the thumbs up on the road, the insanely aggressive city traffic, the somewhat skeptical but overwhelmingly friendly people, the strange stories and history, and the highly varied and beautiful scenery, have become more internal than external to me. in short, Colombia is a spectacular country, through and through. one could spend years here and never get bored. like most other countries i've been to in latin america, everyone tells you that there is danger around the next corner (partly out of habit, partly to feel better about their own turf), but to me it seems as safe as anywhere here.
Oh, and i bought a violin. i would like to say it was a spur of the moment thing, but it was in the early plans. a guy at the hostel in medellin knew of a luthier in the city. so on monday we paid him a visit....unfortunately he had no instruments of his own, but he sold me a very, very nice chinese-made kit that set me back very, very little as far as violins go. the police in particular seem to enjoy listening.
pictures, videos, seranades to come soon. i just spent an hour working on them here, but the computer is just not cooperating enough.
since we left off....the three monos (monkey is a term of endearment around here) had a nice christmas dinner of minature turkeys with arepas and rice and beer. not much different than any other meal, but we ate with as much christmas gusto as we could find.
leaving Riosucio we had a fairly steep 400m climb to 2100m, but the rest of the day was fairly flat riding along the mountain ridge, finally descending to about 900m in Cartago. spectacular scenery all day, riding through the clouds and new and carless roads in the morning, then a gradual descent through the river valley where we pushed 30 km/hr for about 10k. we stopped by the river for a swim with the locals. at some fire-cooked carne de cerdo (pork) late in the afternoon, climbed back to 1200m, then had a spectacularly fast descent (max 71 kmh for me) into Cartago.
Cartago was about as uninteresting as a city of 150,000 could be, but we stayed in a very friendly..umm...hotel. there was a sign reminding everyone that anyone brought back to the hotel must be of age (which is about 14 here). met a nice couple on the street who invited us back to their place for wine, coffee, and pastries.
Last night i made sure to point out that after three good days cycling, we were due for a shitty one. and a shitty morning it was...drizzle and rain, crowded highway, and all three of us punctured before noon. brilliant. but the rest of the day was good....for a stretch we averaged about 24 km/hr. totally flat riding through the valley, 110 km. drafted a truck that was going about 22 km/hr for 15 minutes -- just like taking a break but we were covering ground.
I've been feeling much better the past couple days, and starting to feel really strong on the bike. tomorrow will be a short, flat 65 km day into Cali...a few days off there, then off to Ecuador. I'm realizing that i haven't had much to say about the country recently...most likely because everything is starting to feel very familiar. all the thumbs up on the road, the insanely aggressive city traffic, the somewhat skeptical but overwhelmingly friendly people, the strange stories and history, and the highly varied and beautiful scenery, have become more internal than external to me. in short, Colombia is a spectacular country, through and through. one could spend years here and never get bored. like most other countries i've been to in latin america, everyone tells you that there is danger around the next corner (partly out of habit, partly to feel better about their own turf), but to me it seems as safe as anywhere here.
Oh, and i bought a violin. i would like to say it was a spur of the moment thing, but it was in the early plans. a guy at the hostel in medellin knew of a luthier in the city. so on monday we paid him a visit....unfortunately he had no instruments of his own, but he sold me a very, very nice chinese-made kit that set me back very, very little as far as violins go. the police in particular seem to enjoy listening.
pictures, videos, seranades to come soon. i just spent an hour working on them here, but the computer is just not cooperating enough.
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