The Ups and Downs of Colombia

Santa Rosa de Osos – Medellin, Colombia

When we left off we were in the charming town of Santa Rosa de Osos. Osos means bears; I guess it’s kind of supposed to be the city of bears because when some conquistador happened upon the place he saw some of the Jukumari (Colombian spectacled bears) hanging around. I don’t think they have any osos around Santa Rosa anymore because there is not a lot of actual wildness left – mostly dairy farms – but the town is beautiful nonetheless.

Santa Rosa sits at about 8,300 feet above sea level. Medellin is at about 5,000, and it’s about 45 miles from Santa Rosa to Medellin. So as of Tuesday night we were thinking that we would get a good night’s sleep and then coast into the City of Eternal Spring. 

It didn’t quite work out that way. 

First, sleeping at 8,300 feet is not so easy. Especially when you are not acclimated. So the good night’s sleep didn’t happen. 

And then there is the coasting part. That didn’t happen either. I mean, it was beautiful. But it was anything but easy. We really didn’t change elevation much for the first 35 miles or so of the ride – hovering around that 8,000 feet mark. But it wasn’t flat. Huge ups and downs. I think we ended up with 3,800 feet of climbing on the day – all squished into that first 35 miles.  

I think our combined climbing over our past three days of cycling was like 17,000 feet – or about three miles. Ouch. So by the time we reached the point where you could see Medellin we were toast.

Even the ride into Medellin – while all downhill – was not a walk in the park. Pretty sure we packed all 3,000 feet of descent into about 5 miles. For all those Birkie skiers out there, it was like doing the Elevator Shaft for miles on end – only with occasional big potholes, cars, pedestrians, and motorcycles zooming all around – and no soft snow to fall in if you did happen to crash. I spent the whole time hoping our brakes wouldn’t spontaneously combust. 

It didn’t get much better once we reached the valley floor. Traffic going every which way, with motorcycles winding aggressively through traffic – and, many times, through traffic lights. On this front, we did have two sobering encounters.

First, we came across a bunch of police blocking the road and when we came to the area there were two motorcycles down in the street. Not good.

And then, right at the end, as we approached our Airbnb, we came across another downed motorcycle, this time with a helmeted individual lying prone on the ground about 20’ from what I presume was his bike. He was talking I think so hopefully he was okay – but scenes like these make you realize you need to always be careful in the big cities.

But . . . But it was, and is, incredibly beautiful. 

Medellin is spectacular. Like Denver, it’s about a mile high. Makes for a wonderful climate. But Denver has the plains on one side and the mountains on the other – and there’s like one road heading up into them. Medellin is surrounded by mountains – like really surrounded. At night you can see all the lights extending up on all sides. For those who know the drive into Duluth at night, it’s like that, only about 100 times bigger and more dramatic. And instead of looking down on the lights they surround you. 

This is an “off” day so I’m not going to go into too much detail on Medellin itself – but let me give you a few highlights . . .

Diana signed us up for a free walking tour from Real City Tours. https://realcitytours.com/. Our tour guide, Hernan, was amazing. Hernan is from Medellin, but has an International education, including studying for his masters degree in creative writing in New York. He seems to have a great perspective on his home country – that he obviously loves – and he gave us his frank assessment of the culture and history of Medellin and Colombia. 

He told us about Pablo Escobar and the violence and unrest that characterized the latter half of the 20th Century. It was ugly. And it sounds like there were good reasons that Colombia developed a reputation as a dangerous place to visit. But thanks to some strong and innovative leadership, Colombia, and Medellin, in particular, are on a better path. 

It’s not like there are no problems though. I guess Colombia produces something like ten times as much cocaine now as it did in the eighties. But, as Hernan points out, the demand is elsewhere; the drug trade is an international problem. 

Hernan also talked about how happy Colombians are despite all the problems and all the violence and unrest that the country has been through. He basically said that Colombians have had to learn to compartmentalize, and that they are really good at living in the moment and finding all the little things that make life wonderful every day. 

This really squares with what Diana and I have observed. Maybe in Latin America generally – but in Colombia for sure. People seem to be laughing and enjoying each other more than we do in the U.S. Maybe it has to do with all of our material possessions. So much to worry about. Colombians don’t seem to have much except for each other. 

This assessment probably makes sense given that it’s my understanding that study after study seems to show that happiness comes from human relationships – not things.

We met some nice folks on the tour . . .

And yesterday morning we met Bas. Bas is from the Netherlands originally, but moved to Medellin about twelve years ago. He works for an NGO type organization that helps people afford houses and stuff like that – good work, as I understand it. 

Bas was just heading out on his own three-day bicycle tour on the backroads around Medellin when we ran into him. Super generous with his time and his knowledge of the area. We’re looking forward to staying in touch with Bas in the future.

After a good home cooked meal tonight – complete with some vegetable shopping in a market near the walking tour (we always love local markets) – we are re-charged and ready for the next leg of our journey. Tomorrow we area heading toward Cali – another big city that comes highly recommended. 

We’ll be in Colombia for another few weeks. (Who knew that Colombia was twice the size of France and almost twice as large as Texas?) In total we’ll be biking about a thousand miles through Colombia until we reach Ecuador – and with much of it in the Andes it’s not like we’ll be going real fast . . .