We departed Bogota at 6am, hoping to beat the
worst of the traffic. In truth, although the road was busy, we managed to get
out without ever seriously feeling unsafe, which is about as much as
you can hope for when cycling out of a city of 8 million people.
Despite it being a weekday, there were plenty of other cyclists out
for their morning training before work, so we were in high spirits by
the time we got out of the pull of Bogota's traffic and briefly onto
some dirt roads.
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| Masses of racing cyclists at 7 am near Bogotá |
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| Hard to believe you can find these amazing dirt roads only 22 km out of the big city! |
In the interests of quiet roads we had exited the
city from the Northwest, although we actually planned to head
Southwest from Bogota. We worked our way through the dirt roads
around the western side of the Colombian Altiplano and then enjoyed a
long descent off of it on yet more dirt to La Gran Via and then onto
pavement. We stopped for the night in Apulo, and got a cheap
hospedaje, knowing that now that we were at low altitudes, we would
need to leave every morning before sunrise in order to make the most
of the coolest part of the day.
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| Leaving at dark brings you amazing sunrises |
We knew we were headed for hotter temperatures,
but nothing could have prepared us for the oppressive heat that would
hit once we got down to 300m above sea level. Well, there were
warning signs, like the fact that one of the places we were looking
forward to seeing was a (semi) DESERT and that there is apparently a saying
in Colombia that goes "es más caliente que en Tocaima" and translates as “It's hotter than Tocaima”, the
name of a town we would pass through.
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Second breakfast of the day: huevos perico, patacón, and Pony Malta in Girardot
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But we carried on, making a routine of waking up
at 4am to be on the road by 5:30am, getting most of our kilometers done
before noon and then spending the afternoon cycling in short bursts
followed by long rests with cold drinks. The heat also influenced us
to stay on the main highway, Route 45, as much as possible, something
that is normally not our style at all – but it was important to
travel at a speed that would create a bit of a breeze as we moved
through the air, and also to minimise the number of days spent in
such extreme conditions. It was here were delirium set in and we started making up rhymes about the heat (eagled-eyed readers may spot that these are to the tune of 'What's Beef?' by Mos Def and Talib Kweli):
- Heat is not when your speed takes a knock, heat is when you can´t cycle past twelve o´clock!
- Heat is not when you think you won´t make it, heat is when you don´t care who sees you naked!
- Heat is not when you clothes are soaked in sweat, heat is when that happens when you're not riding yet!
- Heat is not when you drink cause you should, heat is when boiling Coke starts to taste good!
Our second day of riding in the inferno we
stayed the night in Natagaima, a pleasant town where there was a
fiesta on and we were treated to a concert from the local children's
choir.
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| Boring, yet fast and mostly safe road 45 towards Neiva |
Another early start, and by 7am we were at the
first of many possible turnoffs to reach the Desierto de Tatacoa, a
small stretch of desert created by the surrounding mountains catching
all of the rainwater that comes into the area. The locals couldn't
agree which route was best, but after a passing motorcyclist warned
us that the ferry crossing from Aipe to Villavieja was not operating
due to the river being too low, we ended up turning around to cycle
7km back to the turnoff for Pueblo Nuevo. The dirt road was a
fantastic change from the highway riding we'd been doing over the
last few days, but with tons of steep little ups and downs it was a
challenge in the early morning heat. Finally, we reached Villavieja,
access town for the desert, just in time for lunch, followed by cold
drinks, followed by ice cream.
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| Another early start and a beautiful sunrise over the mountains East of the road 45 |
We waited around in town until after 4pm, when the
sun was less strong, and then cycled the 7km to the entrance to the
desert. The posada nearest the astronomical observatory was full of
buses of trainee petroleum engineers on a field trip, so we camped nearby and use another restaurant facilities.
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| Very little traffic on the dirt roads to Villavieja |
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| The mighty Magdalena river |
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| Scorching heat hit us on the way to Villavieja, but the landscapes were worth it |
As we set up camp, the previously quiet desert
started to fill with buses, cars, taxis and motorbikes. It was the
first weekend of Semana Santa, Holy Week, and the biggest week of the
year for domestic tourism in Colombia. Instead of the solitude of the
desert we would try to fall asleep to the background of teenagers
partying until dawn. Even worse, it was cloudy, which meant we
couldn't go to the observatory for the famous astronomy talk that is
given each night. Despite these setbacks, the desert was beautiful
and we enjoyed our evening and morning amongst the red and gray
rocks.
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| Happy to be reaching our destination for the day in Tatacoa |
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| Camping could not get any better, if it wasn´t for the 32 degrees C at night, and the partying teenagers |
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| Enjoying a quiet breakfast in the morning, with a view of the red rocks |
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| Oil engineering students on a team building thing...we guessed... |
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| We rode 10 km into the desert to see the grey landscapes. Alberto demonstrating the Colombian cooling off technique. |
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| Somewhat "natural" pool set up in the desert |
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| Lucy´s tattoo shines in the desert. Before the heat set in, we went for a walk. |
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| Indeed, very dry |
By 11am we were on our bikes ready to ride back to
Villavieja, to be back in civilisation before the worst of heat
struck. In Villavieja, our energy sapped from the morning in the
desert, we decided to stay a night, and if it was clear, cycle back
to the observatory. No such luck, but the town of Villavieja grew on
us, and we enjoyed our afternoon of people watching in the town
square.
We had a great morning's ride the next day along
the quiet, but paved, road to Neiva. After Neiva, it was back on the
highway 45, only now the shoulder had all but disappeared and there
was about ten times more traffic on the road. There were a couple of
options for turning off on to quieter roads, but each time we
convinced ourselves that the traffic would get better, and that
turning off onto a hilly side road in the heat was not a good idea.
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| Ambulance with lights flashing arrives in a roadside restaurante. Apparently the emergency was that they all needed a relaxed almuerzo, before they continued, lights back on, towards Neiva. That´s what we call "laid back attitude" |
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| Such a common image for touring cyclists in Colombia. Car, moto or truck slow down, no matter how much traffic there is, to talk to us about the trip |
Riding along the thin shoulder in the
mid-afternoon, Lucy's front pannier hit the lip of the road surface
and she came off the bike. She got pretty scraped up from her knee to
her chin, but no serious damage was done. We decided to start riding
again soon after the crash before any serious pain had a chance to
set in (thankfully, it never did). We had been thinking of camping,
but now the plan was to get to the next town or hospedaje so that
Lucy could clean her wounds properly. The traffic got much worse as we
climbed up to 1300m in the late afternoon, thankfully in cooler
temperatures with the fading sun. We descended again to 800m to the
town of Gigante, when Alberto got a puncture just a few kilometers
before the town. We had to take our sunglasses off just as we entered
the edge of town, and by the time we found a hotel, it was fully
dark.
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| Climbing up to Gigante afforded nice views of yet more river valleys |
We had a functional day off in Gigante the next
day, fixing various minor issues with the bikes and recovering from
our 13-hour effort the previous day. We learned that the Route 45 has
gotten significantly busier in recent years thanks to the development
of oil fields near Gigante, as well as further south. The oil tankers
going in our direction were empty, making them go even faster on the
roads.
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| Semana Santa celebrations in full swing |
We made plans to leave very early the following
morning, as we had noticed the trucks didn't seem to get on the roads
before 8am. This plan was foiled when Alberto's watch, which he had
dropped off for repair the afternoon before, was still not ready. In
the end we left at about 8:30am. We passed the turnoff for the oil
wells soon after leaving town, and then by about 10am noticed that
the traffic had died down significantly. It seemed that the police
were stopping the trucks from transiting, perhaps for Semana Santa or
some other reason – either way, it was great for us. The roads were
still busy, but no longer felt dangerous.
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| The 45 was now quiet(er) and without heavy oil tankers |
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| Lots of vineyards around, meaning yummy jugo de uva. Unfortunately, we´ve been told, Colombian wine is not yet up to Western standards, but perhaps soon will be? |
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| Locals assured us that malaria was no longer a problem in the region, but dengue still was! |
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| Getting higher |
By 5pm we were pulling in to the town of Timana.
Although the heat was significantly better now that we were up around
1100m, we still felt a shower was called for, so we checked into, not
just any old place, but the Ritz!
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| We splurged and stayed at the Ritz |
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| Impressive to see the entire village flowing into the church for Semana Santa celebrations |
The next day we set off for the 50km to San
Agustin, mainly gentle climbing until the last tough climb to the
town in the heat of the day. Our timing couldn't have been worse,
arriving with thousands of Colombian tourists for the long Easter
weekend, but without too much trouble we found a nice place to camp
as we settled in for a few days off and our last real tourist stop in
Colombia.
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| There was essentially a roadside art gallery on the way to Pitalito, we particularly liked this one |
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| As we approached San Agustín, there was more military presence, yet this time it seemed friendlier than usual! |
Route notes:
- Leaving Bogota: there´s a few options to leave the big city. We heard the most obvious, via Soacha, would be very busy and take you through some less than ideal neighborhoods so we opted to head out via Calle 80, past the airport, and to . It was relatively painless.
- The dirt roads to connect us to the main highway were in good condition, although near La Gran Via none of the dirt roads were on Open Street Maps (neither were they on the IGAC maps) so there was a lot of asking locals before finally connecting to the paved road.
- El Espinal to Villavieja: The highway 45 has a generous shoulder here and was not too busy. We took the turnoff to Pueblo Nuevo (not marked on the IGAC maps) to get to Villavieja. There are plenty of short but steep climbs. There are two or three villages on the way for re-stocking on liquids etc.
-Desierto de Tatacoa: The road to the desert entrance is paved, then unpaved once inside the desert, but very rideable, and very convenient to have independent transportation.
- Villavieja to San Agustin: The road from Villavieja to Neiva is paved (IGAC maps have it as unpaved). After Neiva, there is high traffic and very little shoulder. We don't recommend any cyclists to take this route, if it can be avoided. The section between Hobo and Gigante is by far the worst. Traffic gets a bit better after Gigante.
