One Bear Travels: Cycling from San Agustin to Pasto

One thing has definitely occured to me the past week of cycling. The main issue hasn't really been meeting up with the couple from Switzerland. It has been actually keeping up with them! From San Agustin down to Pitalito and later San Juan de Villalobos it wasn't too bad as there weren't many continuous climbs. It was pretty flat all the way and any ascents were generally just for 10-15mins. In fact, we covered about 65km on both days. When you consider that our bikes weigh around 50 kilograms, and we're on 26"wheels, it really isn't too bad! I also got some pointers on how the Ibera rack could be fixed in a more optimum position, where the load was mounted directly above the rear axle, which really made a difference in the stability of the bike! While in Pitalito, we stayed in a farm which belonged to a friend of the policeman, Miller, who worked in Villavieja. Turns out Miller also lived in Pitalito and was off work and so we met up for lunch at his house before going to the farm.

All 3 bikes!

Re-attaching the Ibera Rack

Even from Pitalito to San Juan del Villalobos, before the last 30km, I was almost left behind by the Swiss coupe as there was just nonstop climbing and I tried initially to grab a lift from a camioneta to meet them at San Juan de Villalobos. Unfortunately, none of the drivers seem willing to stop and pick up anyone. I ended up walking the bike about 4km to the top of the mountain. Fortunately the rest of the way was downhill and I made pretty good time, one of the benefits of having a bike that's pretty much the same weight as myself, reaching San Juan de Villalobos at 615pm. While buying groceries at small shop, we were also invited to have tinto (coffee) the following morning before we set off.

Really friendly people in the town of San Juan de Villalobos

Looks like the oil industry is still going in Colombia!

Trout farm on the way to Mocoa

At the end of every descent there is always a climb. Always nice to take a break midway!

Sometimes you got to get out of the way of bulls unless you want to get gored!

We were really lucky after reaching Mocoa too! Originally, on the map application MapsMe, we saw that there were 4 possible camping sites. But after going to the first one, we realised that it wasn't actually possible to camp there. Maybe many years ago someone had been able to but the security guards at the first site, ITP, were not going to let us camp. We were going to look for a hospedaje however, MAtin asked a local cyclist if he knew any location where we could camp and he brought us to William, a Couchsurfing host and english teacher, who gladly let us stay the night and use the shower too!

Beer is like liquid energy!

Pasta tonight.

When balance is crap, you always end up with chain grease. not just on the right leg but also on the left!

After Mocoa was were it really got tough. We were on the road know as Trampolin de la Muerte (One of the most dangerous roads in the world). Our host in Mocoa said it was probably suicidal too. This was a 3 day journey and on the 2nd day, I only covered 18km over the 8 hours of cycling. Crazy right... I have clocked over 50km/hr on downhills and even on earlier days, I generally averaged above 15km/h so I was really surprised when I checked my bike computer and found out my mileage for the day. I think if the Swiss couple were not with me, they might have been able to cover it in a day instead of the two we took. I had been told previously that it was more tiring to push the bike than to cycle on it, and this was really apparent on the Trampolin de la Muerte. An all gravel road and only ascending, with my street tires, sometimes I couldn't even push the bike along! Even peddling on the smallest inclines was a chore for me and I was on the lowest possible gear the entire time. We ended up staying the night at El Mirador. The police officer in charge of the station there was really friendly and arranged for us to sleep in an abandoned building which was a boon. None of us really wanted to set up a tent in the rain!

Run in with a chicken. Many feathers not pictured -.-"

Asked a store keeper what the rest of the road was like and he said it was good. Right.........

Spent the night in the school compound in the town of La Tebaida.

Used my filter as what came out of the tap was still yellowish even after a few minutes of flow.

Foggy on almost all of the past cycling days. At least no rain yet.

Gravel roads, rain and climbing mountains! Life doesn't get better!

Small break in the rain and an opportunity to see a smudge of blue sky.

Home for the night in El Mirador.

One of many water crossings.

On the third day, we made a push for Sibundoy. This was also another 2 climbs with a large descent in between before reaching San Francisco and then a short leg to Sibundoy. I cheated though, after the first climb and a hellish descent in the rain, I checked the map and realised that the 2nd climb was was almost 15km long and also a large climb and so I made the decision to take a camioneta from the restaurant "Los Cristales" where we had taken shelter from the rain when it got heavier straight to Sibundoy. Coincidentally there was a Colombian cyclist in the same camioneta which I managed to board. Even in a camioneta, it was still a 1.5hr ride before Sibundoy. I ended up spending most of the afternoon trying to locate the warm shower host we were planning to stay with though. And I think it was the right decision as Martin and Sabine only reached Sibundoy at 8pm. I reckon if I had tried to carry on, I would have only made it after 11pm if I was lucky.

Fellow cyclist from Colombia

5 day old brakes. Done in by the wet weather.

Anyway we ended up staying two nights at the house of our WarmShowers host, using the time to recuperate for the road to Pasto, which also entailed more climbing. I guess when you're already in the Andes, it's to be expected! Sibundoy was a really tranquil town though. It's also here that we did what most bicycle tourist do on rest days. Absolutely nothing aside from eating and sleeping! I had 5 meals on the full day we had! 2 breakfasts which ended up being 5 arepas, popcorn, 2 agua panelas and a tinto, tea of cakes and strawberries and cream, a set lunch of trout, rice and salad and a light dinner of rice and potatoes in peanut sauce.

Fooling around in the cultural park

They do have some cool carvings

Tranquil beauty

It was a bit sad to leave Sibundoy and the amazing Aguillon Chindoy family we stayed in but we had to make our way onwards. Before Pasto, we'd planned to make a stop at Laguna de la Cocha. Even though it was only about 30km and on paved roads, I guess my legs were still not used to the cycling lifestye and after about 5km of climbing, I lagged behind.. At least I wasn't too far behind. I reached the agreed meeting site about 25mins later. But i'm pretty sure that they had a lot of stops for photos and snacks whereas I stopped often as my legs just could not keep peddling. The place really was amazing, just that for some reason weather was not with us and shortly after we had set up our tents, it started raining and continued to do so until Pasto. We scrapped our original plan to visit the island in the lake as well as with the rain it probably would not have been worth it.