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Published: August 11th 2011
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Allright, seriously, picture this; it's about 10am in the morning and you've been driving your little motorbike for about an hour and half trough, what seems, an endless stretch of clouds.
Yes, not mist, but clouds. Since you're at over 3000m altitude up in the Andes they're called clouds.
It's not raining(it can't rain inside of clouds I guess) but you're getting wet all the same, the temperature is... well, less than loveable.
While you haven't seen a single ray of sunshine on this cursed day, the bike is struggling to keep pace, it seems not to like high altitude combined with going uphill.
Your hands are enduring it all, the cold, the wind, the water.. the wind on the water on your hands oh god you would kill for a nice little restaurant with warm drinks or something, just something, anything but this!
You reach the top of yet another wretched mountain, at least now you can increase the pace a bit for like ten minutes until the road will start to ascend again.
You obviously follow the road, around the top of the mountain while the bike speeds up a bit.
It seems eager to get some ground covered...
Colombian road
They are in general far better than their Belgian cousins as you can see... that's pretty much the only nice feeling you've had the entire ride so far.
And then, what's that? HAH!! You hardly believe your own eyes.
Behind this glorious mountain, a valley, as big as can be, drenched in sunshine.
Clear blue sky’s above it and the heat radiating all the way up here.
Lord the view is beyond phenomenal, but however beautiful, it doesn't hold your attention for long, as there is a sheer joy overcoming you.
Knowing you'll be riding down there in a few moments, the first bits of warmth reaching you, motivation and an urge to move forward returning after being absent the entire morning...
You hit the throttle while thinking to yourself “Oh God, life is good”
This bike thing was without a doubt one of the best ideas you ever came up with.
Because after all, this is why you left on this trip, right?
To feel joy as pure as it comes and nothing more...
…
Anyway, enough of this lyrical bogus, any more and we might get carried away 😉
So I left Medellin for Bogotá with the intent of making a little side-trip to Guatape, a little fairy-tail
Panorama
This is really just one of the hundreds I pass by every day.
I rarely stop to take pictures though like village which the girl with whom I went to parque Tayrona told me about and showed me some pictures of.
When I arrived at the (only) road heading towards the little town I was quick to notice there was a line of cars waiting at the intersection with a police-guy guarding that same intersection.
One of the benefits of a bike is that when there is a traffic jam, you can just skip past and thus so I did and asked the police-guy what was up.
Apparently there was a cycling contest being held * sigh * and that right on the day that I needed to pass, didn't know better??
Since I didn't feel like waiting four hours (that's how long he said it would take) I, slightly disappointed, decided to move on and found myself in Bogotá two days later.
Bogotá, much like Medellin, being a nice city but, in my humble opinion, not having whatever it needs to make it a must on any travellers to-do-list.
So I only stayed for one full day and left on the third day there for … Cali, the capital of Salsa 😉
In Cali, I had a little
North Quito
And some clouds drifting in from the west. 'problem' which meant I had to stay there for a couple of days longer than I had intended to.
But that was just a minor hurdle, so I was ready to start heading for Ecuador soon enough..
Ecuador, where I arrived today.
I am currently residing in its capital, Quito, and think I will stay for a couple of days because... I seriously need to do some washing.
I think that at the moment between all of my clothing there is one pair of socks which doesn't need a good wash, which makes me think... what am I going to wear tomorrow? :/
So beside the clothing issue I don't really have a whole lot of serious stuff on my mind that actually need to be dealt with.
After Quito I will head for a little place called Banos for some RnR and after a day or so there I will set sail towards Peru where I will hopefully arrive within a week from now.
Cheers,
Peter.
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Annelies
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Tears!
Damn you Pe! That first part actually brought tears to my eyes! It makes me happy that you get to see this, makes me happy to see you this happy! But then i saw "problems" what problems????