Day 4: Ibague

I have some bad news. For those of you hoping to see me sporting slashed mottled jeans and T-shirt’s with all sorts of crazy stuff on them, well, we live in a global capitalist world where brands rule. I was able to find 100% Chad type clothes: Levi’s stretchy denim knee length shorts and gray sports shirts. The price, going to a mall :(. Even the speedo swim trunks I got are knee length. +1 for me.

I am meeting the best people here. Case in point, the Venezuelan folks at the bike shop I went to this morning.

I couldn’t find the source of the leak in my tire. And I noticed I had pretty much already blown through a brand new set of brake pads. (I have spares, thanks to Martin at Hoopdriver who was thinking ahead for me, but still!). So off to a bike shop.

Carmen was the joyful and giggly woman at the counter and there were 2 young men working on bikes. The guys gave me coffee, Carmen put aloe all over my wrecked arm and somehow we chatted about my trip and particularly about the next 2 days of my ride. Sounds like I am doing the harder but cooler (temperature) of the two choices. More about that in a minute.

Then outside the mall I was approached by a couple. The guy had all sorts of questions about my trip, the woman had as much English as I have Spanish. He told me it’s his dream to do a cycling trip. He also showed me pictures of himself with his cycling club and at the top of Alto de Letras – an 80 km uphill ride in Colombia, one of the longest ascents in the world. They offered to watch my bike while I went inside. I declined, but how thoughtful.

My lodging for this evening is a by the hour sex motel. For real. There is something in the room that looks like some gym apparatus, but the poster on the wall showing options for its use tells a different story. I didn’t put the pieces together until the deal was done, and it’s clean and tidy so what the hell, right?!

The guys that work here are hilarious. As one was typing the WiFi password into my phone, the other kissed the back of his neck and they laughed uproariously. Then they too gave me some coffee. And some fist bumps for things I’m not clear on.

Not surprisingly, coffee is ubiquitous. It seems to come by default black with a healthy dose of sugar. You can ask for it tinto to skip the sugar part. I just drink whatever I’m given. Including a cold a brew instant coffee. You see, one of the things I lost was my fuel bottle, so I can’t boil water, but I wanted to see if I could make instant coffee with cold water. You can! Though it probably doesn’t matter. Camping is not likely in the cards for me unless I have to do it for some reason. And as I say coffee is everywhere.

Tomorrow I start a 2 day ride up to the highest altitude I will reach on this trip. It’s a volcano. Here’s the description from the route I’m following:

So I’m taking the 2 day advice! I have been pretty scared of this part. But mapping it out makes me feel like its doable. Two 50 km days, the first being harder.

Somewhere it says the expected average speed is 9 km/hr. So I expect to do more like 6. The good news is it looks like the steepest part is right up front. My mall friend said I should get up at 4:00 am and do the whole ride in one day. Fuck that!

Sounds like the one and only hotel will have WiFi. I probably won’t have connection otherwise. Wish me luck!