Cycling from Pasto to El Pedregal in Colombia
During my Alaska to Argentina bike tour, I spent a month cycling in Colombia. This blog post is from the day's ride between Pasto and El Pedregal.
Up and over the Colombian mountains
Blog post entry from May 30th, 2010
Although I gained 600 metres in height over 15 km to reach the high point of the day at 3160 metres, I managed to do it quickly within two hours.
Being a Sunday, there were plenty of other cyclists out, and some struggled more than I did even though they didn't have all the gear I carry !
At the top of the mountain, I stopped for a coffee and a fried, flat donut thing.
It was quite chilly up there, and as I sat, clouds and mist drew in, so I thought it a good time to try out my new wet weather gear for the descent.
My teeth were chattering with the cold as I hurtled downhill for 20 km, but the gear worked well in the drizzle at any rate!
At 11.00, I cycled into the town of El Pedregal and decided to call it a day before I got caught in the rain. A wise decision, as it rained heavily an hour later. Amazing to think that I now class cycling 45 km with 700 metres in height gain a half day!
Note - It looks like Santos has won the election. Not sure about the figures though... out of a population of 44 million it looks like nearly 14 million voted, which is a HUGE turn out. Unless voting is mandatory.
Read more about cycling from Alaska to Argentina
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.
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