to Yali: last pass of the Cordillera

May 2, 2017

"Bienvenidos a Colombia" the man shouts out the truck window as Rachel is climbing the first hill of the day. Later Patrick says "we won the lottery. We are at 1389 meters and we've gone 13.89 kms.

The rain and thunder continues all night. When the alarm goes off we still hear the rain and decide to not bother with an early start. Our cycling distances are not long enough to necessitate early start to get there before dark or hot temperatures. We do enjoy getting to our destination early so we can relax in the afternoons. An hour later we are ready to go though, we put on our rain jackets and roll-out of our room. The road follows the Medellin River for about another 10 kilometers, but we lose most of the traffic about a kilometer past our motel where the main road heads east. The Medellin River looks like yesterday; huge globs of white foam cover the river bank to bank. We don’t know what it is, but it smells like soap.

Where the road finally leaves the river we start a 10 kilometer climb to gain about 500 meters. This is the last major climb to get over, one last ridge of the South American Andes. After we reach the summit there are several more ups and downs, but we will start a gradual downhill to the coastal plain. At our high point we take a lunch break. The road follows several ridges after that and we have very nice views over green hillsides. There are many estancias and large pig farms. At Yolombo the road skirts the town that is built on a ridge above. There is a nice looking hotel along the main road. Then a downhill to get us down to about 1000 meters, after that there are two more 200 meter climbs today to our destination.

Even though the rain has let off it stayed cloudy and very humid. We climb the first hill and find a roadside restaurant and hotel at a gas station called Colinas de Yali. We decide we have gone far enough; even though we did not get to our planned destination we can make up the difference tomorrow and stay on schedule. The room is similar to what we had last night: small but on ground level so our bikes roll right it. There is a fan, a TV with many channels and a cold shower only. Again there is no internet so our journal will get behind a bit. But who can complain for $7?

This guy is unloading milk cans from his mule. Who knows from how far away he had to haul his milk to have it collected here.

Break on top of the last pass. Now that does not mean it is all downhill from here!

Here is the other sign, much less common than the single set of eyeballs.

Soccer field. Not sure how many games are played here.

Green hills and a town across the valley.

Guy working in a sugarcane field. He is taking a break and sharpening his machete.

We are getting close to Vegachi, our original destination for today. Just past this photo though we find a decent place to stay. We'll make it to Remedios tomorrow.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 31,209 km (19,381 miles)

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