July 7, 2022
Waking up to chants of Rome
This morning started with soft sounds of "latin" prayers coming from the Iglesia we stayed across from in Rio Sucio. Another beautiful Iglesia with unique architecture of open brick and mortar. Not a lot of stained glasses inside but was huge and looked very Romanesque with a golden dome. After ordering some breakfast, Brian and I went to grab some fresh fruits and came across a guy selling some interesting looking frutas. He happened to be selling Chontaduro fruit, a kind of palm fruit. They were very starchy and mildly sweet. He peeled the skin, split the tiny fruits into 2 pieces, added some miele y sal and handed them to us with a toothpick. After trying a couple, I ordered another bag full of the same.
After finishing up the fruits and breakfast we hit the road. Like the previous days, we had a great start with a huge mountain to climb. It appears that a lot of Colombian towns/cities are settled in the Valles. So every evening we ride down huge valles and morning it's the reverse..
After resting a mirador, more caliente chocolate and a snap with the biggest big daddy biclicleta we got to enjoy wonderful downhill ride that was lined with fincas de aguacates, tomates de arbol, lulo, coffee, plantain, cano de azucar and eventually pina. This ride was one of best downhills with almost 4000 ft drop but very gradual and stretched out.
Then we rode along a flat part that followed a rio and tonnes of cano de azucar fincas. Then we stopped at Dulce Naranja for some jugos, plantain chips. The ride to Pereira was a bit stressful but also showed me how much respect carros, autobuses and volquetas show towards biclistas. For some part we were on a steep road that unfortunately didn't have shoulder and was uphill. The volqueta drivers gave us enough space, distance and time without honking once. Truly truly a different cultura.
By this time it was around 4 or so. We hit a lot of evening traffic and decided to push through to Pereira. Finding a hotel there turned out to be the challenge but in the end what we found was again a proof that, "It will all end well".
The hotel was "women'd" by Karolina y Patricia. They cooked the best dinner, Arroz, huveos, frioles, fried plantain y lots of Agua de panela con limon. I had 2 Plato's of comida.
Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 187 miles (301 km)
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