November 2, 2015
Today started off like many others. That is, my GPS tried to lead me in the wrong direction.
It seemed no matter how many waypoints I typed in near Puerto Boyaca, the Garmin was determined to take me the way that it thought best. Which was basically the non-scenic, boring way. Much quicker, yes, but not the way I wanted to go.
I had seen a road on Google Maps between Villa de Leyva and Puerto Boyaca that was a bit more direct, but also a lot more jagged looking on the map. That’s the way I wanted to go. So before Garmin could lead me too far out of Villa de Leyva in the less scenic direction, I stopped and inserted some more waypoints closer to where I currently was sitting.
That worked.
I often use places I’ve been and am familiar with as reference points for comparison. Today started out as Colorado high mountain meadows and valleys. Then it began to look like the hills in middle and eastern Tennessee. Then it reminded me of the Lake District in England. Then I ran out of reference points. The only thing keeping my jaw from dropping any further was my helmet strap. I’ve never been anywhere before like this. Rolling hills. Deep deep green grasses. All of it looking manicured as if I was riding for fifty miles through an extreme Griffith Park. It almost seemed like the entire hills were manicured. I imagine it’s somewhat like I’ve seen in photos of New Zealand. But different of course. No matter how many photos I took, it would never come close to describing the beauty of this road and the countryside. And the crisp cool air, at times riding into the clouds, just added to the fantastic feeling of this road.
Dinosaur Crossing Sign just outside of Villa de Leyva. Feels a bit like leaving Taos, except dinosaurs instead of aliens.
A little bit of Central California wine country as well.
Up and over one mountain, down to the valley below and across then immediately up again.
Over the mountain in the distance, then down, across, and up this one. All very quickly, with little traffic and stunning scenery.
And about here is where two things happened. First, my camera died, then my phone. So the photos basically stopped. And here is also where the pavement ends. There are lots of new concrete bridges, none of them open. Much of the rest is slick, slimy black mud. And waterfalls. A hundred of them. Some small, some substantial.
Hey look, the top of that sign is faded. Doh! Nope, the road actually fades out just like that. And the next 70 miles is dirt, mud, and gravel. And absolutely gorgeous.
I pulled the GoPro out and shot about 45 minutes of some great one-lane dirt and gravel road along the edge of the mountain. I need to get in the habit of using the GoPro more, because these roads are indescribable. And there’s that old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words…
Tonight I find that my laptop doesn’t have enough space to edit the GoPro videos. So I’ll work on that over the next few days and see if I can figure out a way to do it. Meanwhile I guess a thousand words will have to suffice.
Just when I think you’ve run out of words and pictures you find a thousand more. Personally, I loved South America. I envy you. South America in one word, authentic.
Last yr when my buddy Marcos went down south, I personally thought he would be flying thru Columbia in 2-3 days, and then he spent a Whole week, and I’m like “what?”, and then another week and another and another, he never left, he spent a month, that was a total surprise, but I know now why and won’t be surprised if pat does the same.
Never occurred to me that Columbia looked like that. Amazing.