Robin arrived in Bogota at the start of July to ride the final 1000km with us to the Caribbean, and then to enjoy the two weeks of celebrations after. It was pretty strange seeing someone from "the real world" after so long but also really good to see Rob. It also felt pretty weird getting ready to head out on the bikes again after four weeks holidaying, but was quite exciting once we got going.
Still being in the Andes the first two days out of Bogota were quite testing. I'm not sure quite what Rob was expecting, but neither I nor Blenk expected what we actually found. The first day found us dropping around 1800m in one incredible downhill, the top of which was pretty chilly, by the time we got to the bottom there were palm trees beside the road! The second day however saw us start climbing right from the off. It was one of those hills where we say to ourselves "it can’t go up much more, surely", but boy did it go up! A massive 1250m climb for the day before dropping right down to 850m again. I was totally amazed that Rob not only kept up but was in front for most of this. Myself and Blenk didn’t come across anything like that until well into our trip, so massive respect to Rob for nailing it.
Unfortunately Robs knee was having some issues after all that so we decided to ditch our plans of heading back up into the hills to Medellin and stick to the flat road that follows the Magdalena River. I think we were all quite happy with this idea.
A rest day was in order to help aching limps and knees recover so we took the opportunity to float up the river by boat for the day, a trip that ended up having much more in store for us than we expected.
About 10 minutes from our destination a woman on the boat turned to us and invited us to stay in her farm in Yondo, a small town nearby in the heart of the petrol region. On our tour of the town it turned out that Gloria, our host, was the wife of the local governor and was well known in town. We parked up and walked off leaving our bikes and all our possessions in the back of the open pickup - they seemed confident that no one would dare steal from them.
We were then taken back to the ranch and given the tour there. The place was incredible with a huge open lounge kitchen area filled with far more servants (and little yappy dogs) than there seemed to be family. We were briefly shown to our own air conditioned room but not for long because they had a "meeting" to go to that they wanted us to attend.
Off we went in the pickup once again this time way off the main roads down little country tracks. We wondered what this was all about, they assured us it was just a community meeting promoting democracy, that it would be very quiet, no trouble, and that the area was one of the most secure in Colombia because of all the petrol companies in the area. "Hmmm" we thought, still having no idea where we were going.
The meeting turned out to be in a little shelter seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a single light bult hanging from the ceiling and music blaring out with local youths dancing and drinking beer. Then the meeting started and we were ushered onto the stage. Blenk, being the only of the three that spoke Spanish was then asked to tell the crowd about how the world views Colombia compared to what it is really like, and then to explain how British government works! Whatever he said he got a big clap from the crowd and we were allowed back into the spectators side. A very bizarre moment! A few more people got up to speak and then the whole thing turned into a bit of a party with myself and Robin as part of the entertainment (come see gringos try to dance
. We also learnt a Colombian game called Dejo which involves throwing a metal disk at a firecracker type thing which was quite exciting.
It was a very very odd end to a very surreal day, but there was more to come. In the morning Gloria left for Medellin saying we could stay for as long as we liked while her son Holmer then invited us out horse riding around the grounds. We saw massive iguanas (ok Robin saw a massive iguana, or so he says), and ate tropical fruits picked straight off the tree. A very nice and unexpected morning. We finally got away at about 5pm (after being persuaded to join them for a dip in the local laguna, we had to go in the back of a cattle truck, obviously) and made it to the next town, Berrancabermeja, about 15km away.
Yet another surreal morning was had the day after when a local bike shop owner approached us as we were about to leave. At first it seemed like he just wanted us to buy his cycle jerseys, but after saying no a few times he just gave them to us! Three long sleeve jerseys showing Yondo, the Magdalena river and Barranca! He then gave us each a Colombia flag to fly from the backs of our bikes and popped to the shop to buy us all some snacks for the road! So off we set back on the road with our new team jerseys. We couldn’t believe the friendliness and generosity of the people we had met over the past few days.
Colombia still had a few surprises in store for us yet. A couple of days later as we pulled up outside a hostel at the end of the day a guy passing on his moped stopped to see what three guys with matching tops and a load of luggage were doing on bicycles. It just so happened that he was a journalist - "do you mind if I go home and get my camera and then interview you?" - he said. We were thinking local newspaper, but no, he came back with a camera man and a video camera. "What’s this for then?" we asked, "a national and international news program" he replied! We all looked at each other wondering if our week could get any stranger.
The rest of the week was insanely hot so we resorted to getting up at 5am to try and get some riding in before the heat of the day. Our week in fact was nearly over, and so was the entire trip, a very strange feeling that was after being on the road for around 8 months. On the last night we ended up a mere 15km from the finish line because we couldn’t find a hostel before then so had to keep going. We pushed it pretty hard to make it to Santa Marta for when we wanted doing around 115km, 120km and 124km on the last three days. So last night on the road we went out for a few beers. There was just enough time for a little more strangeness though. On telling a Colombian couple what we had done they thought we were some sort of famous cycling superstars and asked for all our autographs! They then proceeded to buy us beers all night, despite our efforts to try and pay ourselves (we tried really hard I promise), and this was before we told them we were going to be on Colombian national TV.
We intended on waking up whenever we woke up on the last day, giving ourselves a nice sleep-in, but the hostel owner was having none of that and threw us out at about 10am. A rare leisurely breakfast was had and then we were off on the final straight. We hit Santa Marta around lunchtime and followed the road straight to the beach. As hit the beach on the bikes and were about to dive into the Caribbean I noticed someone waving from a little way down the beach. It was Laura Jones joined by fellow Laura Power! They had arrived from Cartagena that morning in time to greet us - and they had a finish line for us! So through we went, triumphantly through the makeshift finish line ribbon and dived straight into the beautiful sea. 8 months we had been working our way towards this moment, and it was amazing!
It's impossible to describe the feeling of finishing such an epic journey. So many feelings and thoughts going through our brains, but probably quite high up in the list of things on our minds were beer and cocktails
We celebrated well as I'm sure you can imagine!
Rich
And a few last words from Blenk...
After finishing in Santa Marta, we had 2 weeks more before our flight left from Venezuela, so we travelled around the Caribbean coast a bit, took some tours, sat about on some stunning, white-sanded beaches, and generally had a nice little holiday... complete with lots of good food and a fair few cold beers. We had some huge smug grins on us for quite a long time as well! It was a great way to wind down after the exertions of the last 9 months.
We're home again now, and I just wanted to add a few lines after Rich's last blog to say a big thank you to everybody who's supported us throughout our trip.
A huge thank you has to go to BeatTheBrochure.com for their financial support which really made this trip possible.
I'd also like to say a massive thank you to everyone who's sponsored us and given generously to the MS Society. It made such a difference to us right the way through the trip knowing that we were helping raise cash for a good cause. So, to everyone who's donated, all of our friends, family and people who've never met us before; THANK YOU!!
And also, thanks to everyone who's read our blogs, looked at our photos, left comments and generally supported us. It was always nice knowing someone at home remembered us!
And finally, to all the nice people we've met along the way: the friendly locals who made us feel welcome, all the fellow Gringos we bumped into time and time again, and all the other cyclists who showed us up with their lack of whingeing. We were lucky to meet so many great people over the last 9 months and you made our trip very special.
Blenka
Still being in the Andes the first two days out of Bogota were quite testing. I'm not sure quite what Rob was expecting, but neither I nor Blenk expected what we actually found. The first day found us dropping around 1800m in one incredible downhill, the top of which was pretty chilly, by the time we got to the bottom there were palm trees beside the road! The second day however saw us start climbing right from the off. It was one of those hills where we say to ourselves "it can’t go up much more, surely", but boy did it go up! A massive 1250m climb for the day before dropping right down to 850m again. I was totally amazed that Rob not only kept up but was in front for most of this. Myself and Blenk didn’t come across anything like that until well into our trip, so massive respect to Rob for nailing it.
Unfortunately Robs knee was having some issues after all that so we decided to ditch our plans of heading back up into the hills to Medellin and stick to the flat road that follows the Magdalena River. I think we were all quite happy with this idea.
A rest day was in order to help aching limps and knees recover so we took the opportunity to float up the river by boat for the day, a trip that ended up having much more in store for us than we expected.
About 10 minutes from our destination a woman on the boat turned to us and invited us to stay in her farm in Yondo, a small town nearby in the heart of the petrol region. On our tour of the town it turned out that Gloria, our host, was the wife of the local governor and was well known in town. We parked up and walked off leaving our bikes and all our possessions in the back of the open pickup - they seemed confident that no one would dare steal from them.
We were then taken back to the ranch and given the tour there. The place was incredible with a huge open lounge kitchen area filled with far more servants (and little yappy dogs) than there seemed to be family. We were briefly shown to our own air conditioned room but not for long because they had a "meeting" to go to that they wanted us to attend.
Off we went in the pickup once again this time way off the main roads down little country tracks. We wondered what this was all about, they assured us it was just a community meeting promoting democracy, that it would be very quiet, no trouble, and that the area was one of the most secure in Colombia because of all the petrol companies in the area. "Hmmm" we thought, still having no idea where we were going.
The meeting turned out to be in a little shelter seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a single light bult hanging from the ceiling and music blaring out with local youths dancing and drinking beer. Then the meeting started and we were ushered onto the stage. Blenk, being the only of the three that spoke Spanish was then asked to tell the crowd about how the world views Colombia compared to what it is really like, and then to explain how British government works! Whatever he said he got a big clap from the crowd and we were allowed back into the spectators side. A very bizarre moment! A few more people got up to speak and then the whole thing turned into a bit of a party with myself and Robin as part of the entertainment (come see gringos try to dance
. We also learnt a Colombian game called Dejo which involves throwing a metal disk at a firecracker type thing which was quite exciting.It was a very very odd end to a very surreal day, but there was more to come. In the morning Gloria left for Medellin saying we could stay for as long as we liked while her son Holmer then invited us out horse riding around the grounds. We saw massive iguanas (ok Robin saw a massive iguana, or so he says), and ate tropical fruits picked straight off the tree. A very nice and unexpected morning. We finally got away at about 5pm (after being persuaded to join them for a dip in the local laguna, we had to go in the back of a cattle truck, obviously) and made it to the next town, Berrancabermeja, about 15km away.
Yet another surreal morning was had the day after when a local bike shop owner approached us as we were about to leave. At first it seemed like he just wanted us to buy his cycle jerseys, but after saying no a few times he just gave them to us! Three long sleeve jerseys showing Yondo, the Magdalena river and Barranca! He then gave us each a Colombia flag to fly from the backs of our bikes and popped to the shop to buy us all some snacks for the road! So off we set back on the road with our new team jerseys. We couldn’t believe the friendliness and generosity of the people we had met over the past few days.
Colombia still had a few surprises in store for us yet. A couple of days later as we pulled up outside a hostel at the end of the day a guy passing on his moped stopped to see what three guys with matching tops and a load of luggage were doing on bicycles. It just so happened that he was a journalist - "do you mind if I go home and get my camera and then interview you?" - he said. We were thinking local newspaper, but no, he came back with a camera man and a video camera. "What’s this for then?" we asked, "a national and international news program" he replied! We all looked at each other wondering if our week could get any stranger.
The rest of the week was insanely hot so we resorted to getting up at 5am to try and get some riding in before the heat of the day. Our week in fact was nearly over, and so was the entire trip, a very strange feeling that was after being on the road for around 8 months. On the last night we ended up a mere 15km from the finish line because we couldn’t find a hostel before then so had to keep going. We pushed it pretty hard to make it to Santa Marta for when we wanted doing around 115km, 120km and 124km on the last three days. So last night on the road we went out for a few beers. There was just enough time for a little more strangeness though. On telling a Colombian couple what we had done they thought we were some sort of famous cycling superstars and asked for all our autographs! They then proceeded to buy us beers all night, despite our efforts to try and pay ourselves (we tried really hard I promise), and this was before we told them we were going to be on Colombian national TV.
We intended on waking up whenever we woke up on the last day, giving ourselves a nice sleep-in, but the hostel owner was having none of that and threw us out at about 10am. A rare leisurely breakfast was had and then we were off on the final straight. We hit Santa Marta around lunchtime and followed the road straight to the beach. As hit the beach on the bikes and were about to dive into the Caribbean I noticed someone waving from a little way down the beach. It was Laura Jones joined by fellow Laura Power! They had arrived from Cartagena that morning in time to greet us - and they had a finish line for us! So through we went, triumphantly through the makeshift finish line ribbon and dived straight into the beautiful sea. 8 months we had been working our way towards this moment, and it was amazing!
It's impossible to describe the feeling of finishing such an epic journey. So many feelings and thoughts going through our brains, but probably quite high up in the list of things on our minds were beer and cocktails
We celebrated well as I'm sure you can imagine!Rich
And a few last words from Blenk...
After finishing in Santa Marta, we had 2 weeks more before our flight left from Venezuela, so we travelled around the Caribbean coast a bit, took some tours, sat about on some stunning, white-sanded beaches, and generally had a nice little holiday... complete with lots of good food and a fair few cold beers. We had some huge smug grins on us for quite a long time as well! It was a great way to wind down after the exertions of the last 9 months.
We're home again now, and I just wanted to add a few lines after Rich's last blog to say a big thank you to everybody who's supported us throughout our trip.
A huge thank you has to go to BeatTheBrochure.com for their financial support which really made this trip possible.
I'd also like to say a massive thank you to everyone who's sponsored us and given generously to the MS Society. It made such a difference to us right the way through the trip knowing that we were helping raise cash for a good cause. So, to everyone who's donated, all of our friends, family and people who've never met us before; THANK YOU!!
And also, thanks to everyone who's read our blogs, looked at our photos, left comments and generally supported us. It was always nice knowing someone at home remembered us!
And finally, to all the nice people we've met along the way: the friendly locals who made us feel welcome, all the fellow Gringos we bumped into time and time again, and all the other cyclists who showed us up with their lack of whingeing. We were lucky to meet so many great people over the last 9 months and you made our trip very special.
Blenka
on September 9, 2007, 9:55 pm
Marga
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