Popayan to Medellin

Well, after a rest day in Popayan it was back on the bikes with a long ride ahead of us to the next city on the map, Cali which is famous for it's love of Salsa music and dancing plus for it's beautiful women, claimed to be the most beautiful in all of Colombia! The riding ended up being a bit easier than the previous days but close to the city it started raining and I managed to catch my front tire on a ridge in the road and crashed hard with my bike and panniers being scattered all over the road. Luckily I got myself up and out of the way of the oncoming traffic where I regathered my gear, thankfully all in one piece! Back on the bike after a bit of a rest but by now the light rain had turned into a full storm making visibility extremely poor. To add to the confusion, as the three of us had separated on the road and were cycling alone we all managed to get terribly lost in the city where it took us another two hours each to find the hostel we were searching for!! After another rest day we decided to get back on the road and head towards the next big city of Medellin, which we estimated to be about 3-4 days riding away. Things got off to a good start but as we had a head wind we decided to draft and were going along great......until Iwan decided to clip my back tire and he and his bike go flying through the air and take an extremely hard landing in the middle of the road. Not good as we were in the middle of nowhere and he had knocked himself out and was in bad shape. After some rest and first aid administered by myself and Alex we were back on the road cycling for the next town where more repairs could be made to both Iwan (now nicknamed the 'Flying Welshman') and his bike! Another rest day and then we really put the foot down and tried to reach Medellin within two days. The first day we managed about 140km through the rolling Colombian Andes but the second was much harder and we all stopped approx. 50km short of our intended destination. Totally knackered after climbing from 600m in the steaming hot Colombian jungle to over 2000m back in the Andes we had a quiet night in a quaint little village where we were the star attractions once again. The Colombians are extremely friendly people and curious but in a lot of the smaller villages they don't really see too many gringos and when we roll into town on the bikes we are viewed as if some aliens have just landed in their backyards, so it's a pretty cool reaction and one which we play up to! With only a short ride into Medellin the next day but with more hills and then torrential rains plus the fact that on a huge downhill section my brakes decide to stop working the short day ended up being more interesting than first intended. All this plus coming into the the large city of Medellin (2.5 million people) with it's dangerous reputation all added up to another exciting day. Checked into a Kiwi owned and run hostel (The Black Sheep) and after some food we relaxed with a few beers....magic! A couple of days of relaxing are planned prior to heading north this time to my final destination of Cartagena and the Caribbean coast. Should be a good 10 days riding and as per usual, never with a dull moment!!!

Riding Stats
> 17th May - 154km
> 19th May - 100km
> 21st May - 140km
> 22nd May - 138km
> 23rd May - 53km
Total - 7974km

Quito, Ecuador to Popayan, Colmbia

Back in Quito after my trip to the Galapagos Island where I was preparing to leave the next day on my bike when my Austrian cycling mate, Alex rolls back into the hostel after 7 days of hard riding in the jungle!! That night after a few beers and comparing our stories we delayed our departure for another day and made trip plans and preparations for cycling together into Colombia. Cycling out of Quito was easier than most large cities but the diesel fumes from all the trucks and buses made it a little uncomfortable but once out of the city it was good riding passed highland lakes and volcanoes where I crossed the equator finally leaving the southern hemisphere and into the north after 4 months of cycling. We managed to get up north to the highland market town of Otavalo where we stayed for the night ready for the famous Saturday morning market the next day which was excellent and worth the effort. After the market we decided to continue riding but only about 25km to the next town but once there we decided to go to the next town. This continued for a while until we were in the middle of nowhere with the night fast approaching and a huge mountain to climb in front of us. We manged to roll into a small highland town well after dark after completing 90km not the leisurely 25km we had planned and luckily found a locals place to stay at! The next day was hard riding again to the Ecuador/Colombia border where, as we were being stamped out of Ecuador a cyclist I'd met in La Paz, Bolivia (Ewan, a Welsh guy) turns up so we join forces and head into big bad Colombia. We survived the first night with no problems so it was up early the next day and straight into some hard riding to our first city (Pasto) where we checked into a hostel for the night. The following day we completed some amazing cycling through a spectacular gorge and some highland valleys. The only problem was on one of the extreme downhill sections my front tire had hit one too many potholes and blew out with a huge bang which scared the hell out of me and I nearly crashed over the side of the gorge!! Half an hour later I was all fixed and back riding but trying to take it a bit easier on my now damaged tire. That night the three of us stopped in a little rural town in southern Colombia's lowlands where we had descended from nearly 3000m to only 700m. As it was extremely hot the only remedy to cool down was to drink a few beers at a local street stall which ended up being a good night as pretty much the whole town came out to check us out and have a chat. The Colombians seem genuinely friendly people but the military presence is strong everywhere and they are definitely not hear for show so we are picking our route carefully and only riding in the daylight hours to hopefully avoid any major problems. The riding from Quito has been hard as the region is very mountainous and there have been numerous steep uphill sections followed by steep downhill ones which has continued for the last 7 days so I'm currently relaxing in an old Spanish colonial city called Popayan which is full of beautiful whitewashed churches and cobbled stone bridges before again heading off north through central Colombia.

Riding Stats
> 9th May - 104km
> 10th May - 93km
> 11th May - 68km
> 12th May - 83km
> 13th May - 92km
> 14th May - 123km
> 15th May - 39km
Total - 7389km

The Galapagos Islands

I finally managed to book a trip to the Galapagos Islands the day before my tour was to start so I was up early and at the airport waiting for my flight to Baltra Island the next day. Leaving the cold and rain of Quito and landing on the Galapagos Islands in 35 degree heat was certainly a shock to the system and I was initially struggling with the humid conditions. After meeting half of my boat tour companions it was a bus-ferry-bus ride into the main town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island where we headed straight for Tortuga Bay which included our first interactions with the local wildlife and a much needed swim to cool off. Straight away we were in amongst the strange and interesting animals, many only found in the Galapagos Island chain as they are so isolated from any other piece of land, were the animals have evolved into their own unique forms to help them survive. Walking along the beach we came across marine iguanas, which swim in the ocean, pelicans and the gorgeous coloured sally lightfoot crabs but this was only the start and a little taster of bigger and better things to come.
The next day I met the rest of the people I would be spending the next 4 days with on our boat, the Guantanamera and we headed off to the famous Charles Darwin Research Centre for a up close and personal interaction with giant tortoises, huge land iguanas and baby sea turtles. We also got a great overview of the Island's history and amazing formation which helped to set the scene and try to help us understand the evolution process which has taken place out on these Islands. Later that day it was into the Islands highlands trying to spot giant tortoises in the wild, which we managed before descending into huge lava caves left behind by the volcanic eruptions which formed the Islands. Onto the boat that night for our first meal aboard before we set sail for the nearby Island of Rabida (the red Island). The next day we awoke right in front of the magnificent Island and once ashore we started to get amongst the wildlife and it was incredible. We also did some fantastic snorkeling where we swam with marine iguanas, white tipped reef sharks and a group of young sea lions which really blew my mind but was only a start of the amazing snorkeling we were going to complete over the coming days. Back to the boat and we sailed off to another Island, Isla Bartolome and the famous Pinnacle Rock. A quick tour over the volcanic and twin beach Island were we discovered sea turtle tracks and nests plus a host of marine iguanas, sea lions and the cool coloured crabs. Then, as it was heating up we donned the snorkeling gear again and got straight down to business where we swam with penguins, more reef sharks, sea lions and sting rays all in the one little bay. The marine life just wasn't scared of our human presence and in some cases was intrigued by us being in their environment. After recovering from the amazing snorkeling we got the walking shoes on and climbed up the small volcanic peak to get an incredible view of the surrounding Islands and the setting sun, what a perfect way to finish out the day. Another great meal aboard and a few laughs were had discussing the days activities before we again set sail for a long over night passage crossing the Equator to Genovesa Island. We awoke to another great day and after a dinghy ride to explore the volcanic cliffs and the resident bird life it was back into the water in the hope of swimming with huge hammerhead sharks!! The water was a bit rough but we dived from the dinghy straight into some deep water and within a couple of minutes were amongst some very frightening hammerhead sharks which were cruising the ocean below and around us. To make matters worse or better, I'm really not sure a school of approximately 70-80 huge sting and manta Rays joined in on the action and we were transfixed in the middle of all of this wondering what the hell we would do if it all went wrong!! After about an hour of this my nerves were a little frayed as the last hammerhead shark I saw was well over three metres long so it was time to head to shallower waters where we instantly swam into a sea lion who was very keen to play. We spent the next 40 minutes trying to catch the sea lion while he swam under, over and around us blowing bubbles and tauting us with his incredible underwater skills. He also would collect sticks in his teeth just like a dog and invited us to try and get it from his mouth. As we swam away he followed for awhile making barking sounds as he didn't want us to leave. We completed more amazing walks where we interacted closely with the bird life that seemed undisturbed by our presence and we managed to see and photograph birds with bright red feet, blue feet, and huge red puffed out chests just to name a few. That night we had another long sail in some choppy waters back across the Equator into the Southern Hempishere to the Island of North Seymour. Upon landing we had to walk over a sea lion and her pup but the sea lion had a huge wound on her side the shape and size of a large shark bite just reminding us of the potential dangers of swimming in these waters!!! More birds and wildlife were encountered and we even managed to see the famous Blue Footed Booby's love dance which had us all laughing as these birds look so cute but a little dopey!! After some breakfast it was back to the main Island where I said goodbye to a great bunch of people who were heading back to mainland South America as I was staying on for an extra couple of days relaxing on the Island of Santa Cruz with the local iguanas and pelicans!! What an incredible trip in such an unbelievable environment with the strangest animals and marine life I've ever encountered. It's definitely a must on any trip to South America and one I will never forget. Check out the amazing photos.......all are labelled so click on each or view in ´grid´format.