After San Agustín I went back to the Finca in Pitalito, where I left my bike. It wanted to take a ride to Pasto, but it was to late in that day and hardly any car was on the road. I camped again in a garden of a family, right next to the road down south. In the morning I had more luck. A Pickup stopped and offered me a ride to Mocoa, where I was invented for lunch. The way from Mocoa to Pasto didn’t seem to be that far with 130km and so I started to find another possibility of transport, but not without a reason the street to Pasto is called „trampolín de la muerte“. I jumped on a flat bed truck at around 3 in the afternoon at the bottom of the hill and joined a little adventure. I would have loved to ride that path on my bicycle, cause it also offered amazing views into the valley. The path itself is really hard to describe without having experienced it on its own. Over a narrow dirt road, crossing little rivers, next to us a steep precipice we went up and down. The rainy season leads to many landslides and along the way you could see that it happens from time to time.
In the valley you can see Mocoa in the left.
Some points were controlled and guarded by the military
The ride in the car took much more time than expected, about 5 hours. I decided to leave the car near the Lagune de la Cocha. It was already dark and so I was happy to get offered a room, although there was nothing inside.
The next morning I went down early to the Lagune and found a beautiful village, the houses all made out of wood, colourful and a river which completed the peaceful atmosphere in the morning.
I started to ride my bike again and it felt great to pedal again and regain the liberty of cycling. I had to climb a small mountain to Pasto and I was delighted by the shadow of the clouds on the streets while I jetting down to the town.
In the hostel in Pasto I met David and Joanne again, who took the road on the other side of the mountain range. Tobi arrived one day later, a bit exhausted by jumping on he trampolín de la muerte and climbing 5000m in three days.
Just two days from the border, we were getting close to leave Colombia. But the last kilometers had some more delicious views for our sense of seeing. Another slope inside great scenery and in Las Lajas, just some kilometers from the border, an amazing church, which was built into the rock, rounded the 5 1/2 weeks of Colombia!
The time in Colombia was very nice. Their are some prejudices around the world who connect Colombia with Cocaine, Marihuana or Guerilla. I experienced that it’s not fair to reduce this country to this drugs and rioting. First of all the people are super friendly. Furthermore the variety of different landscapes is a feast for one’s eyes and includes the coast, the jungle, the mountains, different areas of agriculture, breathtaking lakes, beautiful small villages or historical excavation sides. They have good coffee, a big range of fruits and most of the main roads are in very good conditions. It’s the country of bicycles as well, from road bikes to mountain bikes, especially in Medellín and Manizales I saw a lot of them. The economy is growing, although there are some parts where poverty is still a big issue.
Comparable to Panama and Costa Rica there is a lack of consciousness of healthy food and environment.
radrauschen 