We watch the fantastic creations in a million colours aboard the enormous parade floats.
Everybody waves for candy and shouts ‘Viva Pasto carajo!!!’ to the people dancing above the expressive and exaggerated faces and figures carved on every surface.
It felt like Colombia didn’t want to let go of us and we certainly didn’t want to let go of it.
We arrived in Pasto on New Year’s Day, only 100km from the border with Ecuador. We thought we would maybe rest a couple of days and go on our merry way but Colombia had more kindness and adventure in store for us yet.
We ended up staying a week in Pasto (a long time off the bike for us) to immerse ourselves in their Carnaval de los Blancos y Negros. The carnival of the whites and the blacks sounds a bit racist and it’s heritage is on the back of slavery but in modern times it has evolved into a colourful and musical display of Patuso pride in its traditions and indigeneity. It was an honour to witness.
In another effort to delay the awakening from our Colombian dream, we decided to take the long way to Ecuador by cycling into the Putumayo province and riding El Trampolin de la Muerte, The Road of Death. Although we didn’t tell our Mums it was called that until we reached the other side.
Carnaval de los Blancos y Negros in Pasto
Riding El Trampolin de la Muerte – The Road of Death
Now you can ride The Road of Death
Welcome to our special edition #Festive500 podcast.
The Festive500 is the brainchild of the cycle clothing designer Rapha and is designed to get people riding their bikes between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve at a time when most of us are keen to get on the turps and stuff ourselves full of mince pies.
The challenge is to ride 500 kilometres in eight days and we thought we might as well take up the task here in Colombia since we were planning on riding south anyway, although perhaps not this quickly.
This podcast is a summary of our week on the bike with stories from the road between Sevilla and Pasto in Southern Colombia, an area of stunning scenery in the Northern Andes mountain range.
Clockwise from top left: A wonderful Christmas with Mauro and his family in Sevilla; we set off as a trio from Sevilla on day 1; sugar cane fields in the Cauca Valley; Shelley gets some friendly advice from a local; Buñuelo is a crucial ingredient in a Colombian breakfast.
Clockwise from top left: Buga’s Basilica; Baden with the friendly nightwatchman at Buga’s sports complex; we meet some kind bikers in Piendamo; Shelley riding to Popayan; Shelley with our host Lilia in Santander de Quilichao
Clockwise from bottom left: The white city of Popayan, festive for the Festive500 in Popayan; around Blanca’s breakfast table in Popayan; New Year’s Eve dummy; Baden riding with fellow cycle tourist Gunnar.
Clockwise from top left: Shelley shares a Lulo juice with new friend Ever in El Bordo; “The most beautiful pool in the world” in El Tablon; the odometer passes 10,000km for our journey since London; time for a celebratory boiled egg on the road in the Patía Valley; hot but rewarding riding in the Patía Valley.
Clockwise from top left: the parade ends in Chachagüi’s plaza; the park where we slept through New Year’s Eve celebrations; Chachagüi’s mayor immortalised in paper mache; Venezuelan President Maduro is vilified; woman power in Chachagüi’s parade.
It’s all about Climbing, Coffee and Christmas in the latest Colombian instalment of the How Are You? Where Are You? podcast.
We’ve scaled some pretty tough hills during our time here but they were all made to look like midgets next to the giant Alto de Letras. We bring you the story of how we inched up the world’s longest road climb.
Alto de Letras sits at the northern end of Colombia’s coffee axis. They’re the third biggest producer of the stuff in the world so we’ve seen acres and acres of trees and cute little farms dotting the countryside in this region. Normally, we don’t drink a lot of coffee but for some reason during our time here we’ve been guzzling it down. We also really enjoy the unpretentiousness of Colombian coffee culture. To find out more, we went to an organic farm for a tour with a passionate guy called Mateo.
Tis’ the season and Colombians fall for Christmas big time. We’ve noticed lots of differences in how they celebrate the festive season and as a result we are probably going to have to create some sort of nativity scene on our bikes.
Clockwise from top left: pausing alongside some banana trees; all in a day’s work for Shelley; enveloped by cloud above 3000m; bleak and miserable at the summit; resting and catching breath.
Clockwise from top left: Colombian coffee beans; Mateo shells the beans; old school coffee roasting; roasted beans; Mateo shows us his grandfather Don Elias’s plants.
Clockwise from left: Leaving Bogota on its excellent cycle network; Armero abandoned; the town’s missing children; buildings buried.
Clockwise from top left: Chinchina’s church lit up; Miss Universe shocker; a family’s nativity scene in Sevilla; Manizales Christmas bling; nativity scene in Mariquita
We come to you this week from Boggers, a.k.a Bogota, the capital of Colombia and the third-highest capital city on this green earth. (If you don’t count Bhutan’s capital Thimphu, which we deliberately chose to ignore in this podcast)
It was a long but beautiful slog to haul ourselves up here and what a huge and disorganised city we found at the top of the climb. However, the people have been fantastically friendly and this place has a rich history to explore.
On the way here, we stayed in some strange and wonderful places and stopped off at Guatepe, a picture postcard town with an unusual style ethic.
What’s in the pot is back again and we continue to lift the lid on our breaking story regarding feijoas.
Hey, and thanks for listening to the How Are You? Where Are You? podcast.
Visiting Guatape
Clockwise from top left: The oldest street in Guatepe; Baden’s bike in front of a Zocalo; an example of a Zocalo; Enrique Garcia, owner of the oldest house in Guatape; a fountain in the village
Unexpected sleeping quarters
Clockwise from top left: the bomberos in El Peñol; school playground in Monteloro; the train station in Alban; Andres’s finca in Corona; our spot behind the fire engines in Puerto Salgar
Pictures From The Road
Left to right from top: off-roading between Guatepe and Granada; public transport in Cocorna; a block of panela; dishing out the morning’s panela; Baden and Shaggy posing in front of tanks showing the military presence on the route from Medellin to Bogota; Shelley in Guatepe; lunch spot under a bridge alongside the Magdalena River; the dog who followed us up the road out of Cocorna; Hacienda Nopales; Pablo Escobar’s farm; La Piedra del Peñol
Fun Times in Bogota
Left to right from top: the view over Bogota; Shaggy, Shelley and Baden outside the presidential palace; old men play chess in downtown Bogota; the church in Plaza de Bolivar; hanging in Plaza de Bolivar; a Fernando Botero piece at the Botero Museum; the offering bowl at the Gold Museum; more gold on display at the Museo del Oro; an intricate offering raft at the gold museum.
Seriously, if you are planning to come to Colombia with the sole aim of snorting cheap crap up your nose, you are massively missing out. It’s a cycle touring paradise and in this week’s How Are You? Where Are You? podcast we team up with our new buddies Shaggy and Lenin to discover all the joys of the beautiful Antioquian countryside.
After eight months on the road, a new style of touring has dawned on us and we’re bloody excited. We share all about that. We discover a perhaps little known link between Colombia and New Zealand and go cattle shopping in downtown Medellin.
Viva Colombia!
Clockwise from top left: Lenin and Shaggy in front; road near Uramita; cycling buddies, notice how Lenin’s bike doesn’t have panniers! View on the road to Santa Fe.
Clockwise from top left: feijoas; Baden ready to brand his new cattle at the market; Lenin’s aunt and the coconut rice cooking over a fire; coco rice covered with banana leaves.
Ok, we are not experts at this by any means but we have found our rhythm and I thought it might be interesting to explain our methods and equipment. Some episodes are easier than others and it can depend on the amount of audio you have recorded, facilities (camping is not the best place for editing a podcast) and of course how tired we are and whether we can play nicely!
We’ve just gone and cycled across Central America! How about that? We look back on the best of times in this week’s How Are You? Where Are You? podcast.
We talk about how to cross the Darien Gap between Central and South America (costs below) and why we opted to sail in a yacht through the San Blas Islands captained by a maniacal Italian instead of transforming our steeds into pedalos in an attempt to cross these supposedly smuggler-infested waters.
Colombia is freaking awesome by the way but hang on for episode 27 for more on that.
Listen to Callum Campbell’s EP called Pb here: Pb by Run Time
Clockwise from top left: crossing the Bridge of the Americas; view towards the ritzy part of Panama City; view toward Panama Canal and the Bridge of the Americas crossing it; Panama City at night; ciclovia in Panama City.
Clockwise from top left: Sarah, Landis, Maika and Shelley; Simon, Captain Rudy, Paddy and Baden; moody looking Rolf; Captain Rudy at the helm; view from the boat.
Clockwise from top left: African Queen 2; Sara, a fellow kiwi; bikes about to board the boat; Sarah, Landis and Sayaka play Settler’s of Catan; Chris and 1st mate Yamila.