Colombia is country number 24 on our world cycling tour and also our last country on the South American continent before we move on to Central America, to Panama.
So far, our journey through South America has confirmed our expectations and disproved a lot of preconceptions. And now we’re in Colombia and we’ve already learnt a lot in the first few days.
No dar papaya
For example: something we always try to avoid, which is of course almost impossible, as we are travelling by bicycle: No dar papaya. This is a saying especially for tourists and literally means “don’t give papaya”. Of course, it doesn’t mean the fruit itself. Rather, it is a piece of advice, especially for tourists, not to display their valuables or, to put it another way, not to give anyone the opportunity to be robbed or stolen. The papaya seems to be a highly prized fruit in Colombia.
Okay, so far the Colombians have confirmed our prejudices. And the constant warnings from so many sides don’t make life any easier.
All the advices we get what not to do
Don’t ride your bicycle at night and don’t go out on foot. Don’t put things in the shelves on the bus and don’t use your mobile phone for navigation on the open road. Instead, go into a shop entrance or plan your route in advance and have it in your head.
But let’s start from the beginning
Our first surprise at the border crossing from Ecuador to Colombia. Just like in Europe, you could simply travel through. And both Ecuadorians and Colombians do the same. Only of course we want the exit stamp and also need one to enter the country. It was all incredibly straightforward and friendly. And here we are now.
Based on many sources of information, we have decided to take the bus from here. Where to? We have wishes. And yes, we are allowed to have them, but often it comes different. First we look for an ATM and with the new notes in our luggage we make our way to the bus station. We were given a SIM card for the first few days by other travellers. They had just left Colombia.
At the bus station, we try to explain that we are looking for a bus where we don’t have to dismantle the bicycles. After about an hour, a few people come up to us and say: no problem. There’s the bus. To Popayan. Great, that’s the right direction. Even though we have no idea what kind of place it is.
We push everything in and 12 hours (8 hours was announced :-)) later we get out again. A bit shaken but glad that it worked out. It’s 10 o’clock in the evening and of course we now have to cycle through the city to our hostel. At the very first junction, a young man on a scooter stops and tells us not to go that way. It’s too dangerous. But now we don’t know which streets are not dangerous either. Because we see police on the road, we decide to go through. Just cycle through. Heart pounding. And then we’re there, at the hostel. We made it and we just hurry to get inside, off the streets.
The next few days
We still think that we might be able to cycle from here. But forget it. Everyone, really everyone advises against it. Friends in Germany who have friends in Colombia advise against it. IOverlander shows more and more robberies in the app, the bicycle groups are sure that it’s impossible. Or better yet, we will definitely be robbed. Possibly road blocks or barely passable roads await us. Okay, we probably won’t be travelling by bicycle after all, but will need another bus to take us. But there isn’t one. At least not in the area where we want to go. With all the information we had, we chose Neiva as our starting point and then more or less take the 45 route. This seems to be safe. Above all, however, with villages at short intervals. So the social control should be good.
We could go to places like Cali, Medellin or Bogota, but everyone advises against going out afterwards because the outskirts would be dangerous. Oh boy. There are also buses to the other towns, but they don’t take our bicycles. And these wonderful colourful Chiva buses, converted trucks, painted by hand, each one unique, they could transport us and all our luggage, but they don’t take any of our routes. They are the important links to the remote villages.
We need to find a way to get out of Popayan without cycling
We are now thinking about carpooling, talking to anyone who might be able to help, and just as we are sitting around really at a loss, another opportunity arises. Two guys from America were teachers here almost 10 years ago and they have friends and they have found someone to drive us.
Once again, we “sat it out” or rather, as my friend Zoey Zoley once said: your journey is like an adventure game.
You have to find the right move. And we found it. Albert made the roof of his car into a kind of luggage rack with boards, loaded the bicycles onto it, lashed everything down and off we went. What a ride. I can see why there are no buses. Roads covered in mud, sometimes only half there, broken edges and falling rocks, one hairpin bend after the next,
The landscape is incredibly beautiful, untouched, but also scary with lots of military. We only stop once and need a whole 7 hours for 270km.
No matter, we are in Neiva, our starting point for the next 1,300 km through Colombia.
At an average temperature of 35 degrees, often along a river, sometimes into a desert, or to a town submerged in mud. We will report back. Not very good, but there are a few photos takin from the inside out of the car.
Wonderful people 🙂
And here we are in Neiva
Prejudice confirmed: Colombia is dangerous. That remains to be seen. But from here on, no one has any doubts. So it seems as if this kind of danger refers to certain parts of the country. The Colombians themselves speak of a war zone.
Will we enjoy the rest of the journey and will we be spared any more accidents? We will see. Of course we will continue to be very careful and perhaps crossing ourselves before every journey will help. I’m not surprised that many Colombians cross themselves before starting their journey – whether in their own car or when getting on the buses and before every bend when the abyss comes close.
Above all, if we know about the dangers and already realize that Colombians are wonderful, then I am sure that we will have a wonderful time. And let’s be honest, after more than two years on the road we have already survived so many dangers, why shouldn’t we survive Colombia? We are now giving ourselves 2 more days to cope with the heat before starting the next adventure.
Dangerous possible situations we survived
So far we have managed not to get malaria, dengue fever or skin diseases, we haven’t been robbed, wild animals haven’t harmed us and no dogs have bitten us. We have mastered the sun and heat, rain and cold. We have survived extreme climbs and altitude sickness. No rockfall has hit our tent or us, and no car (apart from the fortunately minor pile-up in the Emirates) or drunk drivers or lorries overtaking us far too quickly have been able to defeat us. We were spared tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and falling branches. We also overcame serious problems with food and water and even survived Iran. We’ve never needed our whistle, but it’s always to hand, and we always cycle with a high-visibility safety jacket and helmet. I’m sure this has prevented some otherwise dangerous situations.
Despite all the problems in the country, Colombians seem to be full of joie de vivre.
They are open-minded and sociable. And they radiate an incredible zest for life. This applies not only to the younger generation, but also to those who grew up in the dark times of the country, in an environment of violence and fear. The drug and civil war made Colombia the country with the highest number of internally displaced persons, at almost 8 million, which corresponds to around one sixth of the total population.
In everyday life, they seem to block out everything negative and instead enjoy the positive things in life. As a kind of self-protection, so as not to sink into a collective depression. And this joie de vivre is particularly noticeable when dancing! Latinos seem to be natural talents in this respect, blessed with a sense of rhythm and body that I can only dream of. It almost seems as if people just suddenly start bobbing along to the music in a pub and suddenly everyone is on their feet and dancing. When the song ends, it’s over and you go back to the conversation you’ve just interrupted or to your seat.
I think Colombia is almost the first country where I really regret that we don’t speak Spanish. Fortunately, a lot of it is similar to Italian and with our knowledge of Latin we do understand a bit, but it’s not enough for a conversation.
It’s nice to at least be able to respond to the “question”: “Qué más?
Literally translated, “qué más?” means “what else?”. However, you often hear it as a greeting. So it means much more “how are you?” and is therefore synonymous with the more common “cómo estás?”. Should you really answer this or is it more of an empty phrase? Either way, it feels good to be greeted like this.
Popayan
In my next article, I will report on how we feasted in Popayan, how we enjoyed a lot of coffee and even “Cafe con Queso”, found all the vegetarian options of food and what the city is like.
In the meantime, we make our way through Colombia towards Panama.
