We had a quick turnaround in Neiva. In an afternoon, managing to machine wash our clothes, resupply on food and antihistamines. Liam went in search of spherical washers to combat a rear brake mount that wasn’t square to the rotor and therefore causing much brake rub. In the morning, the guy who had greeted us behind reception was busy painting a mural in the gym room. It turns out he’s also an artist, which explained why the Backpackers hostel was full of colourful murals!
This next section of our trip from Neiva to San Agustin marked a solid change in direction for us. We’d previously been wiggling our way around Colombia looking for mountains, nature and cool places with less of an emphasis on the destination. However, there was a slight nagging feeling that we did need to stay with the seasonal windows (primarily to hit Peru in prime season), so we had better get a move on! As we left Neiva on the road we knew that this next section was a bit more A to B with a lot more paved road. Partly a result of where we are and the routing options available and partly out of the need to make more progress in a southerly direction towards the border with Ecuador. We’d agreed to have a short day today, as we’d not taken a rest day in over a week and we still needed to give our bodies some chance to recover. Looking at our route, we could see that we’d be riding along a lake with lots of beaches and restaurants indicated on google maps. We pictured a nice lunch by the water followed by finding a nice grassy patch to camp. Alas, it is the low season for tourism here, which meant that most places were closed and we rode to the end of the water without finding much at all. We detoured into Yaguara, a town at the end of the lake, for lunch. The folks serving us lunch seemed a bit pissed that we’d turned up late and extended their shift but once we’d finished eating were all over us, where were we from, could they take some photos, they seemed very enamoured with Liam (I mean who wouldn’t be)!
We managed to gather that there was a swimming spot in the river a little further along, so we decided to aim for this. The balneario, like everything else today, was pretty dead. The guy who was looking after the place was happy to let us camp so we went for a dip in the river and then pitched the tent, with difficulty, on the parched ground. During the night, we were aware that some mineros has pitched up on the opposite bank of the river and were up all night panning for gold. It’s pretty common in these parts, the gold in the rivers that is, the mining is often illegal. I don’t think legal gold miners operate at night. We were a little worried about the bikes with Liam waking up often in the night to keep an eye on them.
The following day was another tarmac heavy ride, although it was nice to make relatively easy progress. While the scenery was still good, it wasn’t quite as stunning as it had been. Perhaps I was getting a little bored. Somehow my bum seems to suffer more on smooth tarmac rather than rough track – I think it’s because my position on the bike is a lot more static. So I called an empanada stop as we rode through a small town. It had a beautiful square with a very impressive tree. I’ve also noticed my skin suffers more in the heat with all the sweat, so after a hearty lunch insisted that we head back along the way we came to a spot in the river to cool off and relax a little. Probably offsetting any improved progress with all the stops, but hey! Isn’t that what bike touring is all about?! We’d clearly been climbing gradually all morning because early into the afternoon we were treated to a fun little descent with switchbacks and a breeze! We were also passed by a bikepacker! Only the second bike tourist we’ve met along the route.
That night we camped under a bridge. I think that makes us proper bike hobos. The advantage was easy river access for another swim and cool down at the end of the day! In the morning we were going about our usual breakfast routine when a gold miner came down the path. Luckily our presence didn’t piss him off. We made a small detour into La Plata for breakfast and a free cash machine. Our next target was La Argentina which was back up in the hills. After quite a lot of riding on tarmac and quite dusty gravel roads it was a relief to return to ‘proper’ Colombia with quiet tracks surrounded by steep hills. We enjoyed another post lunch river dunk although it was slightly unnecessary as it started raining shortly after. The first rain since Sevilla over a week ago – I’d forgotten the sensation of cold wet clothes hanging off me! After two nights wild camping we looked for a hotel for a good rest (Hotel Guadeloupe – highly recommended). Liam finished off the previous blog while I whipped up some guacamole for our evening meal.
The disadvantage of a hotel is that you have to really force yourself to leave in the morning! We often end up leaving later than if we’d camped, despite the reduced packing required. We had two lovely surprises on the climb out of La Argentina. The first was an interested local who got chatting to Liam as he waited for me. He asked where we were from. I said that I was Welsh, ‘ahh Diana’ he replied. Interesting what news gets out to the other side of the world.! He was lovely and gave us both a glass of homemade lemonade. The second surprise was a teeny tiny puppy right next to the road. His mum looked like a street dog who was a little worse for wear and I was a little sad that we couldn’t just adopt him as our sidekick.
We were both relieved to be back on the minor roads where the days are full of unexpected highlights. The climb took us up into a beautiful green valley with a nice looking river meandering along underneath us. Fortunately, it was cloudy so I wasn’t craving a dip at this point. We both rolled up the sleeves of our long sun shirts and settled into the climb. Stopping regularly for photos, water and guava jelly. We passed through an abandoned village and with no lunch options cracked into our emergency rations of bread and tinned sardines. Eventually over the top of the long climb and descending the other side, I was intercepted mid flight and stung by a wasp. That necessitated an emergency ice cream, *cough* 2 emergency ice creams (they’re a well known pain killer) in San Roque. Then, on the final run into Oporapa I was on the receiving end of some verbal sexual harassment from two guys on the back of a moto. Feeling pretty vulnerable and low on resilience, I was feeling quite aware of how exposed I am on my bike.
Oporapa is a cute little town on a steep hill, facing another steep hill on the other side of the valley. Steep hills aren’t traditionally great for camping on so we opted for another hotel. Getting undressed for our showers, we realised that Liam has badly burned his forearms (after the aforementioned rolling up of the shirt sleeves). We slapped on some moisturiser (a travel mini of L’Occitane shea butter hand cream) before heading out; after our emergency lunch, we were both ravenous and found a nice bar overlooking the square to unwind over a sharing platter of meats and fried carbs (a Colombian speciality).
The final two days into San Augustin were better. We ate some excellent empanadas in Saldoblanco, a bustling market town that was full of farmers from the surrounding hamlets who had clearly all come into town for a chat. I couldn’t help thinking about how my home village of Llangadog and home town of Llandovery would have been like that in times gone by. It’s interesting to reflect on how these Welsh places have gone from similar levels of vibrancy to closed schools and empty high streets. Sometimes development and progress is good but the unintended consequences can’t be denied. We got rained on again on our climb up to lunch which was poor timing because we just sat there all soggy! It warmed up significantly in the afternoon. Before Isnos, we diverted to go and see Colombia’s tallest waterfall (and one of the highest in South America at 400m) Salto de Bordones. We had hoped to camp that night outside the entrance of the Alto de los Piedras archaeological park, as there was a camp spot indicated on the iOverlander app. Unfortunately, it was exposed and close to the road so we descended back down the steep hill we’d just climbed to a spot I’d spied tucked into a field. It was a good camp but a wet morning, although that did mean breakfast in bed. Well, eating our porridge in the tent!
Here endeth the ride commentary and beginneth the archaeology chat and photos of little stone men holding things.
San Agustin and the area surrounding is known as the archaeological capital of Colombia. The largest necropolis in the Americas and one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, the area was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1995. We learned that the location is particularly unique. High up in the mountains, near the source of many rivers, including the Magdalena, which is the country’s largest and most important river, with access to the Caribbean (along the Magdalena), overland across to the Pacific, and access (albeit a low, low way away) to the Atlantic via the Amazon.
Our first park was Alto de los Piedras which is just before the town of Isnos. The smaller of 3 parks, we had it all to ourselves! We had been told that the park in Isnos was better than the main park in San Agustin, but this one was tiny. As we paid for our tickets we discovered there were two parks in Isnos – the other one was ‘the one’. I’m still glad we visited Piedras as it had some of the best preserved paintings and stone carvings in the tombs. After a Hawaiian experience in a panaderia (cheese, ham and pineapple in a croissant, a bit like a tropical pain au chocolate) and with some tamales stashed for lunch later, we headed to the second park of Alto de los Idolos. We also had this park to ourselves which felt like a real treat as we wandered around the incredible tombs and stone figures, thinking it was incredible to imagine the labour that went in to creating these monuments. From digging the deep pits to cutting and carrying the stone sarcophagi. Liam joked that these things always signal the end for a civilisation, because they funnel too much energy into non productive activities. Wonder where Queen Liz’ funeral ranks on that scale!
The following day we went to visit the final park in San Agustin on our rest day. This is an earlier site and it was fascinating to see the simpler, older tombs and how they had evolved to the extravagant burial monuments which followed. The Lavaplatas ceremonial fountain was particularly impressive. As we’ve done a fair bit of cold, freshwater worshipping recently, it was good to see the Agustinians had taken this up a level by creating a network of pools and carvings in the bedrock of the stream.
It was bizarre to finally be in San Agustin, because it had been a point that we’d spoken about reaching for so long. The town was less gringo than we’d expected and after the archaeological park we headed to the market for a cultural experience accompanied by food, food and more food.