(May 9 – written by Dave) Wow, what a day. It is sort of hard to know where to start.  We are very tired after only riding 61k.  The thing is, 13k were screaming down an Andean mountain, the other 48k were crawling up those very same roads at all of 6kph.  We climbed almost … Continue reading Day of Wow – El Remolino to Chachagui (61k/15,081k/6,750feet)

(May 8 – written by Dave) Luck smiled on us today.  We had a gorgeous ride through the foot hills of the Andes AND we managed to do the whole ride without getting wet.  That’s not to say it didn’t rain today, rather, our riding hours were done mostly with sunshine and distant clouds.  This … Continue reading No rain day! – El Bordo to El Remolino (81k/15,020k/2,800feet)

(May 7 – written by Dave) Today we spent most of the day looking out at the views of the Andes we’ve all seen in tourist brochures.  We had a lot of uphill and a lot more downhill.  The views were fantastic nearly all of the time.  We rode through the fog, above the cloud, … Continue reading Andes rolling –Popayan to El Bordo (84k/14,939k/4,600feet)

(May 5 – written by Nancy) We were out for the count early last night – well, I was anyway, falling asleep while Dave posted the blog out in the lobby area of the hotel.  All that climbing really wears me out – and I know we’ve got a lot more ahead of us so … Continue reading Cycling Sunday – Tunia to Popayan (42k/14,855k/2,200feet)

(May 5 – written by Dave) We had a quiet night in the Oasis (Drop Bear) Hostel.  Even though it was Friday night, the youngsters were well behaved.  The only issue was the rain starting up a little after midnight.  We of course were inside so the rain didn’t really bother us.  It was more … Continue reading Cane to coffee – Cali to Tunia (97k/14,814k, 4,500ft)

(May 4 – written by Dave) It’s Friday but it was our “weekend”.  You are supposed to relax, do chores and catch up on sleep on the weekend, so that’s what we did today.  For what it’s worth, “fin de semana” means the “finish of the week”.  We thought about running around and doing tourist … Continue reading Happy fin de semana in Cali

(May 3 – written by Nancy) Well, sleeping in a pub turned out to be quite all right last night!  There’s something to be said for having a couple of nice IPAs, some pizza and then strolling to your room at the end of the hallway.  Fortunately for us, on a Wednesday night the pub … Continue reading Tire day – Buga to Cali (72k/14,717k)

(May 2 – written by Dave) Making hay, as in “making hay while the sun shines” – that became our theme today as sunshine and blue skies returned in the afternoon.  We had two possible choices for stops and a third that seemed too far.  Well, we made it to the third option.  We had … Continue reading Making hay – Salento to Buga (143k/14,645k/3,000 feet climbing)

(May 1 – written by Nancy) We took another rest day here in Salento – it’s that kind of place.  The hostel we are staying at (Plantation House) is comfortable and on the edge of the village area so it is very quiet at night – something we haven’t had in what seems like ages.  … Continue reading Happy May Day from Salento Colombia

(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