(April 30 – written by Dave) We woke to blue skies and sunshine today, and no alarm clock – the simple pleasures of life in the Colombian Andes.  Life is good. The big activity of the day was a coffee plantation tour.  We are staying at a hostel that is an old plantation house and … Continue reading Salento – more than you wanted to know about coffee

(April 29 – written by Dave) We had more rain today but mostly at the very end of the ride so it was not too bad.  The hotel was kind of noisy overnight but I slept through it all.  Nancy gave me the blow by blow this morning about all the comings and goings during … Continue reading Rain again –Santa Rosa de Cabal to Salento (52k/14,501k/4,000 feet climbing)

(April 28 – written by Dave) It rained overnight but we only had grey skies in the morning.  We are riding here at the start of the rainy season and I guess we aren’t going to luck out in beating the seasonal rains.  We could have gotten here sooner had we not spent two months … Continue reading Chasing Coffee – 9k past Irra to Santa Rosa de Cabal (52k/14,450k/4,200 feet climbing)

(April 27 – written by Dave) Wow, what a day.  We didn’t cover that much ground but it was hard earned.  The easy part of the day started last night with a good meal in the restaurant and finished with the staff getting us sorted with some brekkie fixins this morning (we were too early … Continue reading Epic day –La Pintada 9k past Irra (79k/14,398k/2,800 feet climbing)

(April 26 – written by Dave) Just as we left the hotel this morning it started to rain.  Not exactly what we wanted given that we had a good 10k of big city motorway to ride before breaking free of Medellin.  It rained lightly most of these 10k and we got really dirty.  Good news … Continue reading Wet but fun – Medellin to La Pintada (76k/14,319k/4,200 feet climbing)

(April 25 – written by Dave) We are departing from Medellin tomorrow but we are happy to report that we found good coffee here.  Colombia is rumoured to export the good coffee and serve the average stuff to the locals.  Well, Medellin has enough coffee people living here, along with tourist visiting to siphon off … Continue reading Medellin –Coffee, Cable cars and Chaos

(April 24 – written by Dave) One of the things you are supposed to do in Medellin is to see all of the Botero statues.  Botero is arguably the most famous Colombian artist – an artist of true international standing.  Born in Medellín, his signature works are large bronze sculptures that depict people and figures … Continue reading Medellin –Botero, fruit and other random Medellin musings

(April 22 – written by Dave) Wow, what a day.  We thought that today would be easy but it was anything but.  We woke to grey skies that would be with us pretty much all day.  We were both a little groggy as our fancy hotel lacked one important feature – sound proofing in walls … Continue reading Medellin –Santa Rosa de Osos to Medellin (81k/14,244k,~4,100 feet)

(April 21 – written by Dave) Today was our best day climbing in the Andes so far.  We still climbed nearly 4,000 feet but it was spread out over a longer distance so the gradient was more gradual than the last couple of days.  Cutting the distance way back from normal meant that we didn’t … Continue reading Rolling in the Andes – Yarumal to Santa Rosa de Osos (50k/14,163k,~3,900 feet)

(April 20 – written by Dave) We’ve had a nice quiet day here in Yarumal.  Being stationary gave us a chance to check out a couple topics that we’d been pondering the first week travelling in Colombia. Our hotel is right on the main square and the brekkie room has a nice balcony where we … Continue reading Yarumal hats, fruits, buses, bakeries and a church