This is my bike touring blog from the day's cycling from Yarumal to Santa Rosa de Osos in Colombia – Part of my bike tour from Alaska to Argentina.
Leaving Yarumal
Blog post written May 16th 2010
Descending through the steep streets of Yarumal back to the main road involved a lot of brake work. I was glad I had taken an alternative route into the centre!
There was more uphill cycling today, but I was feeling strong, and the much cooler climate due to being over 2500 metres high suits me better than the hot, sweaty lowlands.
I had in mind to cycle to Medellin, but knew that a 115 km distance was a big ask, especially given the nature of the terrain. When I got a puncture in a small town some 35 kms into my journey, I knew I had lost my chance.
Normally, it takes me 15 minutes to repair a puncture and get the bike loaded back up again, but I had drawn a bit of an audience who were asking a lot of questions, so I lost three quarters of an hour there. With a little over 50 kms done I called it a day in Santa Rosa de Osos.
Santa Rosa de Osos
By Estebansro – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Many towns in Colombia seem to specialise in things. Some may specialise in producing and selling hammocks, some may sell mango’s, and some may sell hats.
Santa Rosa's speciality seemed to be in having dozens of overweight prostitutes with bad make up and dresses three sizes too small. Still, each to their own I guess.
I ended up in another hotel attached to a service station, which was a bit maze like, but whose room was great value at 15,000 pesos.
Overlooking the bike in the evening, I noticed that the side play on the rear wheel has noticeably worsened. (ie – there shouldn’t be any). To put it into technical terms, the hub is fucked.
Probably best that I get it sorted out before it becomes, in technical terms once more, completely and utterly fucked.
Read more about cycling from Alaska to Argentina