Colombia bike touring

Dear friends and family, I’m back in the USA. After enjoying the privilege of living out my boyhood dreams of adventuring and writing for a full three months, it’s now over.  Some, or maybe most, people never get that chance. I got a big taste of it, enjoyed it fully, and long for more. Trip summary: […]

Dear friends and family, My first morning in Medellin was a Sunday. I came across the Medellin marathon so thought I would join. All the main streets downtown were blocked off from traffic, so many lanes were open to runners, walkers and bicyclists. Some of you can remember from a post last year about competing

Dear friends and family, Be careful what you wish for. Turned out that those dancing horses were quite entertaining, but lost their allure about midnight when the cowboys had them dance in the dark and show the sparks they created from their steel horseshoes on the concrete road.  Yes, it was a wonderful old hotel,

Dear friends and family, After Salento I rode first up and then down to the next little tourist town: Filandia. It was lovely as it had the same feel as Salento but with only a portion of the tourists and almost none from out of country. I enjoyed a couple of days wondering around town

Dear friends and family, I am now in the coffee country of Colombia, presently in Filandia, a cute tourist town or almost all Colombian weekend tourists. Today is Monday and half the business are closed after a festival this weekend. I flew from Bogota to Armenia, an easy hour flight, and my bike in bag

To save myself riding for a few days in heavy traffic, I packed up my bike in Villa de Leyva and jumped on a bus for the four hour ride to Bogota. The bus terminal was on the opposite side of town from Candelaria, where I had a reservation at my hostel, so no problem

Dear friends and family, This morning my task was to re-assemble my bike after having packed it in the bag I carry for the bus trip and flight inside the country. I am now in Armenia, in the middle of the coffee country. Armenia is a working class city of about a half a million

Dear friends and family, I’ve been in rest and recovery mode after a long and grueling series of climbs on the bike in the heat. Turns out that it takes a few days to recover, not the one or two that I was hoping. I am in a tourist town of 16,000 people called Villa

Dear friends and family, I thought I’d share some details of  this temporary life I’ve chosen. 0430 alarm goes off Stretching and breathing exercises and bathroom Then time to journal and finish setting up the plan for the day. I do not automatically jump out of bed and be ready for the challenge of the day.

Dear friends and family, I thought I would get back to riding and give up the thoughts about staying put and just writing- for now. Once again I was sharing the road  with trucks, busses and motorcycles. Most of the time there was a shoulder to stay over on. I wasn’t expecting much after the