We all met for breakfast after each of us getting the bikes and bags and most everything ready. Alpha's bike was supposed to be on an 8 am flight but at breakfast we watch the Airtag on his bike not move. Copa had no flight this day from Toronto. Alpha's bike would not arrive until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.
It did not seem unreasonable to get a driver to take him to Ibague missing two days of riding so that became the plan.
We then lugged our bike containers the 500 meters to the Deprisa shipping depot. Next stop for them: Medellin.
Having Alpha around sure makes a lot of things easier. He speaks Spanish.
We said goodbye for now to Alpha who was going to go off and explore Bogota. We started riding at 11:30 ... a very late start.
Bike paths from the hotel and a shouldered multi-lane road out of the city. All flat and urban until Mosquera. A few kilometers after that we had our first climb.
This was supposed to be an easy day riding down a mountain. This, however, being Colombia they slipped in 800 meters of climbing. It was a hard easy day. At first the elevation profile looks all downhill but the scale is deceiving.
As we descended it got hot and at first there were many cyclists grinding up the hill. Quite a few passed us as well. Long fast descents with heavy braking followed by 1 to 5km, 100 to 200 meter climbs. The scenery was beautiful but it was hard to take photos as you were either flying or grinding. Also the traffic was heavy enough and the curves were tight enough you had to really focus.
We stopped for lunch about 2:30 and it was getting pretty warm and we were only two thirds of the way down. I had the ajiaco soup and it was definitely a full meal. It's basically chicken soup with potatoes and a piece of corn on the cob with giant kernels. On the side, which you dump in, was avocado, rice and sour cream.
More of the same riding. We got into Tocaima after 5pm. A beer, cleanup and off to dinner at 7.
Because we carry so few clothes we have to do laundry every night. Laundry strips are great for this as they take up no space, weigh nothing and do a pretty good job taking the funk out of your stuff. I use a hearty plastic bag as a washing machine. I used to use the sink but many sinks don't hold water and wherever I am this works better.
Mike declared this the worst hotel we stayed at in Colombia. I don't know that I can think of a worse one.
Dinner after checking all the places in the main square was the place closest to the hotel. We all had hamburgers and they were pretty good.
We went back to the square and went to the supermarket to buy water. Mike and I are both being far more cautious after last year's GI problems.
Bedtime and an early start tomorrow. Hopefully, we see Alpha!
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