to Santander de Quilichao: another 1000 meter plus climbing day

April 17, 2017

"Have you figured out what those eyeball signs mean?" Rachel asks. We've only started seeing these signs today and they seem to come just before a big downhill in the road and then a steep uphill, like a dip. Today is a lot of losing meters, then regaining the same meters yet slowly losing elevation.

We wait until 7:30 when breakfast is served at the Hostel. Good food and excellent value at only $2 each. We are happy to move on though, the incessant traffic noise is getting on our nerves due to the location of the hostel on a busy corner. Yet, it is a good location close to the plaza and restaurants. The WiFi was disappointing and Rachel lost one of her riding shorts when not returned in the laundry done by the hostel. Worse they didn't seem to care.

The profile for today looks benign, and we are going for longer mileage than what we have done for quite a while, but if you add it all up it is again a 1000 meter plus climbing day. Periodically, the road is lined with military police with guns. They give us a thumbs up and we think this is really nice until we realized they give a thumbs up to everyone whether on motorbike, bike, car, or truck.

We start gradually climbing out of the city, then join the bypass road and finally get a nice wide shoulder again. The traffic is heavy though, so again we get to listen to traffic noise, with the added benefit of dark clouds of diesel soot. Who needs emission standards? We wonder how a kid with asthma could survive here.

We take a couple of lunch breaks, once at a shop that sells all kinds of sweets, later at a small restaurant where we order a nice bowl of vegetable soup with our ham and cheese sandwiches. It has stayed cloudy today, keeping the temperature down. Just before we reach Santander a threatening thunderstorm comes over the mountains, but we reach our intended hotel just before the first drops fall. The town is one of the dirtier and poorer cities we have been in. There is a lot of traffic, mostly motorcycles and many people around. It does not feel all that safe though. We walk to the supermarket just down the street and have dinner early so we don't have to be out after dark.

Many small communities have built impressive handicap accessible pedestrian overpasses across the Pan American. Few people seem to use them though, it is much easier to risk your life and dash across.

Mystery sign, does anybody know what the "eyeball" sign means?

Woman in traditional clothes walking down the road while doing some needlework.

More inspiration for Patrick's next remodel.

Rachel is from the Midwest and likes yard decorations. Especially, pink flamingos! Our first wedding anniversary, 1996, Patrick gave Rachel two plastic pink flamingos from Franz Witte Nursery....and they are still in our front yard.

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 30,541 km (18,966 miles)

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