[27/03/2024 – 03/04/2024[

Intro

This week the intro got written by Ann-Kathrin.

After quiet – with the exception of animals calling and sound of heavy rain on our cabana tin roof – days, we venture on to city life. In Pereira, where lonelyplanet.com promises that we have successfully left the Gringo path, we ´play house´ to quote Dominik and set up camp for day trips into the coffee region. Pereira which does not even find mention in the physical Lonely Planet the 3 girlz brought with is an eclectic mix of traditional culture that we observe during Easter processions, more street art and loud party life that – so we assume – does not look much different from that on Mallorca island at Ballermann. We find lunch at a typical almuerzo spot just around the corner from our Airbnb, befriend the clerk at the local pharmacy over the search for a lighter to run our gas oven. But mostly we embark on day trips into the zona cafetera – Unesco world heritage – becoming touristy coffee bean pickers in the lovely coffee farm “Finca del Cafe” in Santa Rosa, learning that traffic to and from Salento is hell on earth on Easter weekend, but that once you leave behind the touristic zone in the valley, the “Valle de Cocora” is just absolutely stunning and observing that German cars are rare, but when an Uber driver comes around in one, you best be very careful with closing the doors as softly a humanly possible. Where is the trust in German engineering? 🙂 The girlz are left alone for a day on Easter Sunday, so that the boyz on las motos can make some headway as wee meet again up North in Santa Veronica. Here we set up camp for 4 relaxing days at the beach. While the hotel area is pure paradise, the town is just ever so weird: a mountain of unfinished construction at its south end and a ton of stranded international kite surfers in its North. But it is now officially Off-Season: Except for the hotel and a French man that makes decent drinks nothing seems to be open … Chilled days at the resort it is therefore.

Manizales – Pereira

~60 km of riding, light rain, and beautiful country side, as mentioned above zona cafetera, coffee plantations as far as one can see, and lovely bendy roads.

Pereira – Porto Boyaca

From Pereira back to Manizales and then the further on the Ruta 50 crossing over an elevation of ~3600m. At Honda we join the Ruta 45 which will lead us with a quick interlude all the way up North. The mountain pass was rainy and at 10°C rather cool, but as soon as we came down the mountain towards Honda temperatures started and kept rising again.
Initially we wanted to get about 380km done on day 1 of our journey up North, but due to a late start and heavy traffic over the mountian at 5:30 Stefan decided to move to the closest town and find accomodation there. Turned out to be a lovely town, and if Pereira was off the Gringo path Porto Boyaca was off any tourist path. At least it seemed like that to us.

Porto Boyaca – El Blanco

Due to the “short” day before, we had to get in about 480km for this leg of the journey. And Ruta 45 was really helpful. Mostly a 2 lane highway throughout the day. We chose El Banco as the destination. Located at Rio Magdalena, during rain season it would be embedded at the edge of a huge body of water, which in dry season is being used as farmland. Sunset at the river was beautiful.

El Blanco – Santa Veronica

Further up North the Ruta 45 is still under construction to become a 2 lane highway. But for that day that did not give us much pause, as the leg was relatively short with 390km compared to the day before, and as we again started riding at 09:30, there was plenty of time. At Cienaga we moved to Ruta 90 which leads directly along the Atlantic coast. The last time we have been at the Atlantic was in Rio Grande down in Tierra del Fuego, so quite a distance away. After traversing Baranquilla, the last 40 km where quickly disbanded with and we were reunited with the girlz.

This concludes week 18
Till next time,
Happy Hacking everyone