Day 99

I packed up the tripod and headed down into the red desert. I easily got lost a few times but thanks to maps.me I got back on track quickly. It’s easy to get lost down there in the maze. The sun was beating down on me by 8am and I was sweating bullets. I couldn’t imagine doing this in the afternoon down here. I also couldn’t wait to get home and edit these photos for everyone to see. It might be some of the best photos I’ve ever taken in my life.

I got out of the hike an hour after I started and walked back to my hostel. I was thinking about packing up and getting out of here on the walk back to the hostel. It was starting to get hot and I heard there’s a 2 hour dirt road north of here to get back to the main highway. I didn’t want to gear up and sweat in all my gear for the two hour ride. I was hoping to leave tomorrow early morning so it wouldn’t be too hot. I don’t know if I can just lay out here by the pool for another day again. I need some stimulation. I’ll think about it while I eat breakfast.

I got back and slipped right in the pool. I ordered some breakfast and I already made up my mind to leave. I was getting a bit bored here. I’m loving the freedom once again to stay or leave whenever I choose. I packed up in a rush as breakfast was getting made for me and I threw the gear on the bike. I paid for my nights stay and breakfast and there my gear on. Fuck this is going to be a hot ride!

I headed into town to fill up with about 2 gallons of fuel. I didn’t want to top the bike off because I didn’t know how rough this road was going to be and I wanted it to be as light as possible. Next thing I know I’m riding on the dirt roads in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the Tatacoa Desert. This was beautiful! I was dying for scenery like this 6 months ago. Just me and my bike in another country in the middle of nowhere with no schedule. I miss this part so much. I feel like I haven’t had it in a while. I stopped a few times to take pictures and a video of me and the bike surrounded by nothing for miles. I passed maybe 2 guys on bikes in the next hour. I had a few small river crossings.

I stopped at a sign that showed a 5 minute ride to the main road heading towards Bogota. I read a bit more in Spanish and I noticed there was a ferry you could take to cross the river. Hmmm that’s a tough decision. Should I keep riding straight on the dirt road for at least another 30-45 minutes and have a blast there or should I take a small boat across the river. River boats since they are always fun! The road to the river was terrible, wet and muddy but I made it. They were just about to cross but saw me pull up. I loaded my bike on it and had to turn it around on the narrow boat. I almost snapped my kickstand off trying to spin it on it.

We took the boat across the fast flowing river. Of course the locals started asking me how much the bike cost. Yak was right. That’s a big question I’ll get asked everywhere I go. I don’t want to seem like a rich shithead on this bike so instead of telling people I paid $16k for it I tell them what it’s worth which is $8k. They seem dissatisfied when I tell them Ocho Mil most of the time.

We got to the other side and I paid my 10,000 pesos to use the boat services. I unloaded my bike and rode out to the main road. I rode north for about an hour until I got some service on my cell and found the town of Salento to go to. It was about 5 hours north of me and it was still early so i’ll get there much sooner than that since i’m using google.

I finally started to head up into the mountains which I was thrilled about because it was brutally hot the whole ride since I left the desert. I stopped for fuel at one point and when I unzipped my jacket I noticed I was completely soaked underneath my gear.

Once I was heading up into the mountains it cooled off very quickly. I went from 1,000′ elevation to 11,000′ elevation on this climb for about 15 miles. It got down to 50 degrees up there and I almost had to put gloves on.  On the way up i saw a guy riding a bicycle holding onto the back of a Semi truck getting a tow up the whole mountain! Once at the summit and I started to descend I looked out in the distance and we were above the cloud layer. So cool! I stopped for some food at the side of the road. Some meat, arepas and two small cokes. I deserved it for some reason was my excuse for the coke.

My buddy Duncan texted me and we were chatting a bit on my descent. I was just thinking of him before he texted me while crossing the Andes and how he would love this place. I slowly made my way to Salento which was down in a small valley near the mountains. I had a good feeling about this place when I pulled in. I found my hostel and immediately booked two more nights here. I was told of a cool hike to do in the area along with some coffee tours. I needed to catch up on my blog along with photos I had to edit. I haven’t really posted in three days since before the desert. The weather here was also perfect and it was sunny which I was in need of while not sweating to death.

I parked my bike and went out for some waffles and hot chocolate, followed by a few orders of mangos in a cup in the center. I went up a few hundred stairs at the end of town where I got a lively view of the whole town. I think I’ll go back up there at sunset tomorrow. I sat there for a while enjoying the view and my life before I had to go back home. I went back down to the city, had a nice dinner and then met up at a bar with people from the hostel I met. There’s a local game here called Tejo I think it was. You pour gunpowder in a piece of paper and fold it up to a triangle shape. You then lay it on a piece of round metal in the middle of a 3’x3′ layer of mud. You have two teams where you throw a heavy piece of lead at the paper from 10-15′ away and whoever hits the paper and makes it explode gets points. Well our teacher crushed everyone in there last night.

I met a girl named Ash from New York. She left a few months ago since her job went remote and I mentioned I was doing the Cocora valley hike in the morning. She mentioned she wanted to do it but didn’t want to wake up at 7 to catch the ride from town so I offered her a ride on my bike. We’ll see if she wakes up at 7:45 to meet me to head up there for the hike. I said goodbye to everyone and went home to pass out.