In Antioquia, Colombia, we took a 7-day hike on back trails through farm valleys, thick jungle, and high elevation paramo. Here is that journey through photos of some of the little creatures we met along the way, including the under-documented basura bug, a scary encounter on our tent, and a very very friendly mariposa. If you like bugs, take a scroll through the slideshow below!
Well it's been a while since my last post, and I have skipped all of Central America, but the show must go on! Now that Lewis and I are fairly settled for a while in the lovely city of Medellín, Colombia, I have the time and space for blogging, and with our last 12-day journey through Western Antioquia so fresh in mind, I am most excited to share that! Perhaps I will get around to some CA highlights soon... ;) Day 1: San Antonio De Prado to Armenia (Almost)We spent a few weeks at the Casa del Ciclista of Medellín, which is actually located south of the city near the town of San Antonio de Prado. If you are not familiar, Casas de las Ciclistas are safe havens for touring cyclists to rest, tune their bikes, and mine the hosts for information about route planning in the area. It is free to stay at the Casas, as long as you arrived by bicycle, but some donation of work or money or both is appreciated. There are several Casas in South America and this one was our first. Manuel and Marta, who run a bike shop in town called Ciclo Campeon, had a second house built on their property for cyclists which has since been added to and improved upon by their many guests. They have hosted over 800 cyclists since opening their doors just a few years ago. The primary reason for spending so much time at the Casa was that I wanted to change my bicycle. Lewis and I decided we wanted to spend more time on the back roads, which are often rough and sometimes steep. Some of our best experiences have been on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. The Famous Mockingbird, my Montague Navigator, had done an amazing job getting me from the USA to Panama, but with 700c wheels, fairly narrow tires, and a frame designed for city riding, I knew I would be more comfortable and capable if I changed to a bike built for the mountain. After much searching, stressing, and second-guessing, and with the help of Manuel, we found Tela, a 90's Giant Boulder 520 with a classic steel frame and 36 spoke 26" wheels that could fit a nice fat tire for maneuvering the dirt. With a little extra work and some swapping of parts, we were ready to go! Little did I know that Lewis and Manuel had planned a route that would really put Tela to the test. So we loaded up Tela and Colonel Forbin for a 10 day adventure through eastern Antioquía. We left The Famous Mockingbird and a few other things with Manuel and Marta for safe keeping so we could be a little lighter, but not too light, as I wanted to test Tela officially "loaded". We got a late start as usual, leaving the Casa around mid-morning.
Telling the story, with PhotosBlogging is hard, ya'll. Especially from the road. Lewis and I want to keep everyone updated but it is difficult to write the story when we are always moving. So Lewis's blog Rudiments of Gruel is usually several months behind, and mine… well it's all over the place! I started Instagramming, and this is fun for me and helps me be a little more timely in my updates. But sometimes I have so many pictures and a story to go with it! Now that we are on Leg 3 of our great bike adventure (Leg 1 = Las Vegas to Guanajuato, Leg 2 = Guanajuato to Oaxaca, each leg has significant time off in between), I want to make an effort to document things more quickly. Posting photos with captions might be the fastest way for me to do this. So here is journal entry one! Great Bike Adventure Leg 3, Journal Entry 1After an adventurous couple of weeks touring the Sierra Gorda, Lewis and I jumped on a bus in Jalpan and were Mexico City bound. There are many reasons we decided to take a bus rather than cycle to the City, but it still hurt a little to finally break our continuous line, one we have kept in tact since Las Vegas (well, except for a 50 mile bus break due to bike mal-function, but that was just a minor blip. Details, details). We arrived in DF (a common short for Mexico, District Federal... kinda like saying "DC" for Washington, District of Columbia) on Satuday afternoon at the central bus terminal, which looks a lot like small but modern airport. Our host Ismael picked us up, thankfully, so we did not have to ride the 8 miles through unknown DF streets to his place in the center. Being one of the largest cities in the world (Wiki ranks it 7th largest in metro area, placing Tokyo 1st and New York 12th, for reference), we had heard some parts could be a nightmare to ride. Ismael is somewhat of an old friend to Lewis, and was actually his first Couchsurfing host when Lewis visited Mexico back in 2006. Lewis jokes about how bad his Spanish was back then, and how bad was Ismael's English. Things have certainly improved on both sides, but just for fun Ismael has complicated matters by living in a home full of French transplants, including his girlfriend, so French is the dominant language of the house. With all of the languages flying around, I feel like I am back in NY!
After a month in Cuba, we have returned to Mexico with new perspective (I will write more on this later) and a wealth of photos, even though I could not get my upgraded camera in time for the trip. Luckily the sights of Cuba lend themselves to beautiful photography, no matter the equipment! I returned to Mexico earlier this week eager to get to work on the images, especially the hundreds of images of antique automobiles. 60+ photos made the cut… here I present my favorites! Most of the cars were in poor condition from years of use. New cars were unavailable to Cubans for decades, forcing them to continuously repair what they had. We were told there were very few original parts left in these old relics, and many Cubans had to be creative to keep them running. For instance, we heard of pieces of old shoes being used as belts! If you know the make and model of any of these, let me know in the comments below!
See more of my favorite photos in the Cars Trucks Buses photography page, or see the whole collection of Cuba Motos on Flickr. |
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Read more about our travels over at Rudiments of Gruel.
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