Crossing Páramos, Riding Safely, and Rerouting to Bogotá
After Popayan, I crossed one of the "tres cordilleras" that make up the Andes mountains in Colombia. I broke the climbing into two days, and stayed a night at a hot springs. The next day, I had cool temperatures to cross lush green fields and see the páramos. These wetlands have plants that trap cloud water and provide clean drinking water for the major cities.
This video captures parts of this crossing. It was a dirt road in the middle portion, and the rocky surface led to a long day for my hands, and a few loose screws on the bike. The video makes it look so smooth! You can also see a few of the large trucks that use this same road, moving very slowly.
I have felt safe riding on rural and urban roads in Colombia, and have had plenty of time to think about why. Last week's video was an example of the conditions.
Private car usage is much less common than in the US. This leaves the roads to trucks, buses, motorcycles, taxis, and bicycles. Either professional drivers, or small vehicles. In the US, it is the private car users that make aggressive passes, honk angrily, and abuse bicyclists.
The middle finger (US motorist behavior) is absent in Colombia, replaced with lots of thumbs ups, and cheerful honks.
The major roads often have a large shoulder. This is used by motorcycles, often with families on them (2-4 people). Understandably, many motorcycle users don't want to "share a lane" with a truck. They use the shoulder except to pass. In effect, every major rural road has a bike lane, because motorcycles also need bike lanes. (These shoulders are also used by larger vehicles when there is passing happening by oncoming vehicles.)
In general, everybody drives with their brain turned on. They are on the lookout for people walking, carts, bikes, motorcycles, and cars. My presence is never a surprise, and I'm treated as a normal occurrence.
After visiting a pre-Columbian site in San Agustín, I had a week of riding through a hot weather valley planned. Unfortunately, the riding part was cut short by a stomach bug. I still traveled the valley, but by bus for a few days. I was thankful that frequent, rural transit was available, and they were happy to take my bike.
I am in Bogotá now, when I was supposed to be heading south! I realized that it is already springtime in Patagonia, and I'm not there. I need to reverse my tour at this point, so I will fly to Chile and ride to Tierra del Fuego before returning back north. But, as a silver lining of this change of plans, I get to visit a city I felt I missed. Bogotá is my next blog post!
Link to my Route: https://maps.findmespot.com/s/TKDX
