PowerCycle

10/27 Met a couple other touring riders from Spain on the road. Oddly enough the didn’t even know each other and happened to meet up in Bogotá where they started their trip. Not too much else happened. Getting ready for a huge climb in 2 days. I heard it was 7500 feet from Barbosa to Tunja. Not sure if I’ll be doing that all in one day since there’s a place I want to see before Tunja.

My hotel picking skills need some work. For the 3rd night in a row I’ve picked a place that has construction going on. Not sure why they keep sticking me right under where they are working either. I could ask for another room but they don’t start making noise until I have everything unpacked.

It got cold last night. Glad they had blankets instead of a sheet. I’m down at 4000 feet tonight so it should be warmer.

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10/26 Yesterday sucked. Rode for all of 13 miles before a spoke broke. The wheel wasn’t too wobbly and after waiting for a taxi for an hour I decided to just ride the couple miles back to a small town I’d passed. It wasn’t too long before I found a bike shop and had the broken spoke replaced. The mechanic also went out and found me 10 spare spokes just in case. I’m no expert on spoke replacements having never done it but it looked easy enough provided none break on the side with the chain rings. Not sure why it broke. I slammed into 2 decent speedbumps going down a hill which probably didn’t help. All day I was paranoid they’d keep breaking.

Big climb today after the longest downhill. The views going up the mountain were pretty amazing thanks to mostly sunny skies. The temperature is much cooler but the sun is incredibly strong. Road conditions were OK. No shoulder but the lanes are wide. Truck traffic was non-stop. The worst is when they get in a convoy so five or six pass you all at once. The noise is incredible when that happens. I should try to take a video of it.

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10/24 4 more big climbs today. The last one was an unpleasant surprise because it was right before the city and I was already pretty tired. The hard part about the hills is that once you get to the top you immediately start to descend again. Those downhills only last a couple minutes and then it’s right back up again. I’m pretty funny for thinking I could have ridden here from Aguachica in one day. Traffic was kind of brutal too. Normally the best day to arrive in a big city is Sunday but if it was light today I’d hate to see it on a weekday. Tomorrow morning should be exciting.

A guy selling freshly squeezed orange juice from a cart was my new best friend. 6 glasses only cost 50 cents. The charm wore off quickly though. Bucaramanga is one of the dirtiest cities I’ve been in. Garbage is all over the place. I keep seeing people just casually toss crap into the street so no wonder it looks like a dump.

The little cell I slept in last night worked out OK. When I was packing to leave a spider about the size of my hand crawled out from under one of my bags. Not sure what kind it was but I didn’t mess with it. Some guy told me they jump at you. That would have been special.

Scenery has been lackluster. At the top of all the climbs I keep hoping to see an unblemished valley floor ahead but people are all over the place so there’s usually giant patches of trees missing. The rivers are all brown thanks to run-off. Hopefully things get better as the elevation increases.

Saw a whole bunch of spandex guys riding road bikes today. They rode in a pack and zipped right by me as I cranked up the hills in the highest gear. They seem a little friendlier here than the primadonnas in the States. Quite a few waved and gave little cheers when they rode past.

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10/23 A decent in-room internet connection convinced me to stay in Aguachica for an extra day but wow does that place ever grate on your nerves. Hordes of motorcycles roam the streets and honk non-stop looking to attract people for rides. I was wandering around trying to find a stove and finally just gave up from all the noise.

Stayed in a quaint little town last night called San Alberto. A quick loop only revealed one motel and it looked kind of expensive but a couple transit cops guided me over to decent place for 20 mil ($11). It was a busy little place–I counted 5 different bike shops. They even had a store called Miami, which got a chuckle from some bike shop guys when I pointed to it and said that’s where I’m from. I didn’t tell them that’s also what drug dealers refer to me as in Panama.

Today started off slow thanks to some early morning rain. It tapered off by 8am but before I could get going I noticed that the front tire was almost flat. A bit of air got me to the bike shop down the street where I had them stick in a new tube. I also bought a new pump for a spare. The last spare pump broke in half just sitting in the bottom of my trunk bag.

Traffic wasn’t horrible but my ear plugs went in thanks to the incredibly loud truck engines that stayed next to me for the longest time because they weren’t going up hill much faster than I was. The plugs didn’t last long because I hate wearing them and it didn’t help much. No shoulder which I kind of expected, but it was safe enough. People weren’t shy about showing their support when they saw me chugging up the hills. Giving the thumbs up sign is something I’ve only seen Colombians do and I got lots of them. Plenty of supportive honks too.

My spider senses kicked in a little this afternoon while I was on a roadside break. A teenager on a BMX was tearing down the hill when he saw me and came over. He asked where I was heading and then got pretty interested in my GPS. When he motioned that he wanted to hold it a vision of him tearing down the mountain with it flashed before my eyes. When he got the hint that he wasn’t touching it he left.

The three big hills to get up here went OK but my climbing muscles are out of shape. 35 miles with 3300 feet of elevation gain with some hot temperatures did me in and I grabbed an el cheapo motel room for $4.42 (maybe the lowest rate ever). The room only has a bed and a little plastic fan and no cover over the window on the door. My towel went up to keep the mosquitoes out. They were slaughtering a pig out back when I got here. That sucker made a hell of a racket and I had to fight the urge to go save it. Not sure what I’d do with an adopted pig but it would have made a great story. It was kind of interesting how they cleaned it. All they do is pour boiling water over it and scrape off the hair with a brush. That’s as far as I got before hunger kicked in.

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