The verdict is in:

Colombia is amazing. The people here are so generous and friendly, and I am still constantly impressed by all the random acts of kindness that we encounter on a daily basis.

So, where did we leave off? Cali. We stayed at a Casa de Ciclistas run by Hernan and his family - Sixta, Arturo, Daniel and Paulo. The real head honchos, however, were the two canine companions, Tobi and Nacho. Yes, Nacho is a real name. Nacho is even nacho-colored. Nacho, Nacho man... Anywho, we had a wonderful time with the family sharing cups of hot chocolate and tea, munching arepas con queso (corn tortilla-type flat breads with cheese and butter. Go arteries go!), and baking oatmeal cookies. We were lucky to get out of Cali alive, however, because we were addicted to the local bakery. It´s goods weren´t even that good, but our stomachs always won out against our brains´ better judgement. At Hernan´s house we also encountered our 3rd cyclist of the trip! Carl, a Swede with the raddest touring bike we´ve ever seen, was just finishing up a 10 month tour of South America. Freaking amazing! Kudos to him - his stories are just making us all the more excited to keep going!

Y ahora un poquito en Espanol...A todos que hemos encontrado hasta ahora en Colombia - mil gracias! Se nota que a la gente de este increible pais que le importa que los demas tengan una verdadera imagen de lo que es Colombia. Es verdad que a todo el mundo llegan malas noticias del narcotrafico, de los guerrilleros y FARC y tambien de los paramilitares. Es verdad que pasan cosas horribles en este pais, pero ese no es lo que defina la cultura Colombiana. Seguimos en este viaje como embajadoritos llena de ganas de informarle a todos que Colombia es unos de los paises mas encantadores del mundo. Muchisisimas gracias por toda la hospitalidad y amistad que nos han brindado!!

After a tearful goodby at the Casa de Ciclistas de Cali we were back on the road with newly tuned and greased bikes and panniers full of clean clothes - I even washed my sleeping bag! Just outside of the city Eric got a flat tire, and as we were fixing it a car pulled over. The couple inside introduced themselves as Johnson and Nelly and asked if we´d like to stay with them at their home! We got their cell numbers to call them when we made it to Popayan, and they zoomed off toward Cali (meaning they had seen us and turned around to offer us the invitation :c)

That evening we arrived at a little town called Mondomo and began the search for a place to stay. We landed just on the outskirts at a cute brick home where we were invited to pitch the tent. Rosalba, Gerardo, Maria Socorro, Alejandra and Manuel received us with open arms, and we spent half of the evening talking about our stove - they had never seen such an odd contraption before in their lives! They graciously offered to lock our bikes up in their kitchen and let us each take showers. An unexpected addition to our campsite was a 5 week-old puppy. It took an immediate liking to us, even though we kept shooing it away, and it wound up sleeping UNDER the tent by my head. We hope we don´t have fleas. I´m serious. Eric, stop that itching!!

The next morning we set off into the ups and downs of the region and arrived in Popayan in the evening. That story we shall leave for the next blog - it´s that good!

Internet is also being picky, so we´ll try for photos next time...

After two nights in Medellin we left with our faces covered by bandannas to save our respiratory system from being engulfed in exhaust. The traffic of the city is terrible and the air pollution is trapped between the walls of the valley. We made it out of the city to find a cyclist paradise. Everywhere Colombian cyclists were riding to train, and to have fun. As we were working our way to our next climb and car drove by and everyone inside turned around and waved at us (not too uncommon). About 10 minutes later the car came back the other way and a woman leaned out the window and asked if we would like to have lunch at their finca. Merilee and I agreed so we followed them up a short steep climb to a beautiful little farm on the mountain hillside. There we met Laura, Piedad, and Mauricio. Three generous people who went way out of their way for us. They fed us lots of good food and asked us about our trip. When we informed them that the last time we had called our parents was the end of April they insisted we call them. We thank them very much for their hospitality and allowing us to make the phone call home! Laura was a nanny in Connecticut and spoke English very well. They told us about how Mauricio was kidnapped and they had to pay ransom for him! We left the next day after sleeping soundly in comfortable beds laden with fresh homemade cheese and again amazed at the generosity we receive.

We have had our first item stolen on this trip. A water bottle. As we were in Chinchina, a town famous for the brand Colombian Coffee (you know the guy with the sombrero and donkey on the big metal tin can) someone stole Merilee's blue water bottle while we were in a bike shop. The only consolation to this story is the sad state of being Merilee's bottle was in. Sometimes things get into our bottles and cause mold to grow up the sides and the water to smell like toilet water (it is a technical term). The stolen water bottle was out of order at the time of theft due to this vile smell. I am sure the person is thoroughly amazed at how disgusting gringos and their water bottles are.

Chinchina proved to be a nice stop despite the bottle incident. Outside of town we met three cyclists. Because they were on the older side they did not just fly by us like most of the serious young cyclists do, but slowed their pace to chat. They ended up taking us into town to show us the famous coffee factory and the local bike shop. One man, Fernando, went so far as to buy us lunch of carne asada, rice and hot chocolate. We sat around and chatted about the town and his work. He told us about how he ran away from home at the age of 7 because his parents were abusive! I cannot even imagine having the reasoning mind at 7 to decide my parents suck to do that! Everyone has an interesting story. Fernando told us the way to ride out of town that would take of through all the coffee plantations and we soon we riding up and down hills laden with this precious crop for the world, and especially the northwest. FACT! Coffee originally comes from Eithiopia.

One night we came into a town late and could not find anywhere to stay. So at a gas station a dude on a motorcycle decided to show us to a hotel where we could camp. When we got there we could tell it was a "fancy" camping place as there was a swimming pool and breakfast included. We asked a couple of women on the street where we could find somewhere cheaper and they told us of a finca nearby. We went there and the caretaker agreed to let us camp. In the morning he gave us all we could eat guavas, a papaya and a couple of coconuts. Then as if that wasn't enough we went to the two women's house to thank them and they gave us some bananas. One of the ladies was named Esperanza. She was 72 years old and perhaps starting to suffer from dementia, but a very warm lady. She called us "my loves" or "good lookings" or "my children" probably more times than I have ever heard that in my life. A little too much for me, and especially trying to avoid telling her no we are not christian, but still a good heart. I now have my first rosary. At least I think that is what she gave us.

Now we are in the city of Cali and staying at a cyclist house. Hernan and his family have been hosting cyclists for over 3 years and we are about the 70th people he has taken care of! Talk about giving forward! He has a really cool journal with photos and stories of the people who have come through. Merilee and I are excited to host possible cyclists when we make it back to the USA.

Ok, the video of our arrival to Medellin!

Photos : Me and Merilee with Fernando, Basketball court filled with corn drying, Cauca Valley, colombian train tracks, Merilee and a horse

It is always hard to sum up over a weeks worth of travel, but I will give it a shot.

We left Cartagena amongst a spree of scooters and buses. We headed out onto a nice flat easy highway that left the city quickly and we made it 60 kilometers to a small rural gas station where some young kids running the place let us sleep under a small palm branch shelter. They shared with us coffee, yuca and some fried fish. It was a very nice introduction to Colombia. People say that Colombians are talkative and are chatty. It is very true. Wherever we go people stop and ask where we are from. In fact, we probably spend up to an hour a day speaking with random people at gas stations, market stores, and anywhere else we decide to take a break. It also makes Merilee a happy camper because she does not have to try and keep conversations going anymore. On the other hand we still meet odd folks. For example, we stopped for lunch one afternoon. While I was fixing a spoke (again) a dude came up and started to talk with us. Quickly though, he decided it would be better if he sat in the road and just looked at us. So, Merilee and I decided to move on as we did not want to eat lunch in front of the random guy not saying anything. Another guy stopped us when Merilee was taking a picture and told us to take his picture because he is a traveler too. And we should send it to some random town. Alright then.

Colombians, we have also discovered, can have a very hard Spanish accent to understand. A couple of nights later we stayed in Sahagun where neither Merilee or I could hardly understand people. Later, we asked folks we met in other places about the town and everyone agreed that Sahagun has a strong coastal accent, which differs from the rest of the country. But, Sahagun was very kind to us, and the school of fine arts let us sleep on the floor of one of their classrooms surrounded by giant paintings. One of which was a man defecating on a stump from a tree he had cut down. It is famous in Spain I hear, but that is a lot of work just to poop.

Another odd fact about many countries we have gone through are what small town communities are built upon. Often times we will drive through a town and everyone will be selling the same one or two things. For example, in Oaxaca one town would sell nothing but Mezcal. Here in Colombia we have gone through two such towns; one was selling nothing but chairs, tables and beds. Every shop was exploding with furniture. The other town was a bit more creative, and most people had several hoses connecting water sources on the hillside and left running for passing trucks to clean their rigs. (this is pictured with the hoses shooting water into the air) What makes this even more puzzling is that after we went through this "water town" we made it to a small town, where we stayed, that hadn't had water for 15 days! Yes, development occurs very unevenly. This town without water though was the apex of our climb into the nothernmost section of the Andes. (I am not even sure to call the mountains the Andes here)

We stayed the night in a pueblititito called el Silencio. We were at the base of a three day climb up to over 3000 meters so we wanted to find a good place to rest before our grueling climb to come. We stopped in at a small school to ask for a spot on the floor to sleep. We ended up meeting a woman named Luz Marina who invited us to stay at here house with her mother. We agreed and her "companero" led us to their house. We found a frame of logs wrapped with blue tarp. The roof consisted of a thicker black plastic. We were met by her mother and many small children both of Luz Marina and her eldest daughter. They were very nice people, perhaps a little puzzling though as one question went "how did you two learn english?" But, both me and Merilee were blown away by the fact that these extremely poor folks were still willing to help us find a safe place to sleep. It caught both of us off guard I think when we first saw the house, but at the same time people are people.

Anyhow the next day we started to climb and climb! Wowza we just we up and up to the clouds, into the clouds and finally through the clouds. And we found ourselves far away from the humid heat that we have been so accustomed to. We needed to break out our jackets and long pants. Merilee went gaga over the small coffee and bread shops we started finding and we discovered another drink called agua panela. Agua panela is a block of cane sugar boiled into water making a lightly sweet wonderfully caney tasting warm treat on a cool evening. After several days of hard work to climb into the mountains, we made it to the top of a huge valley and looked down to see Medellin at the bottom! yikes! (The pictures again) And we began our arm workout as clenching brakes for 30 kilometers can make your forearm burn. We also got to play chicken with semi drivers who like to play how many people can you pass on a blind corner. Needless to say I feel much safer climbing than descending! But we rode into Medellin safely until we saw the weather approaching. It had been a beautiful sunny day until we arrived to the bottom of the valley. We could see rain clouds pouring on the east side of the valley and lightning striking the top. We rode as far and as fast as we could but we could not outrun the rain. We took shelter under a little gas station next to the police station, which did not keep us very dry so the police invited us to stay dry in a bus they had there. Kinda funny. But finally the rain subsided and we continued on...only to find the streets completely flooded! (I hope the video uploads!) We had to walk/wade/ride through rush hour traffic with the motorcycles and cars sloshing their way home. Anyhow, we made it safely again, a bit wetter than anticipated, but safe. We found another love hotel and decided to stay there because we are disgusting siblings. Actually it is cheap, has wifi, and near all the hustle and bustle.

More Colombian facts; Most people here think people in the USA are scared to death of Colombia. Beef is cheaper than chicken. It is much poorer than Costa Rica or Panama. Postobon is the name of a soda, and cola can be strawberry flavored.