One year bike touring alone from Oregon to Colombia

October 30, 2023

One year bike touring alone from Oregon to Colombia

Camped in an abandoned schoolbuilding.

The schoolroom had an echo which made it really fun to play the recorder:

I have the luxury of cycling at high elevation, away from the heat!

12 October 2023

Hello little dog. Must I provide a secret password to enter?

Santander and Boyacá. The elevation gain is tremendous and the scenery is fantastic.

Since I crossed into Mexico nine months ago, the layout of every town has been centered around a church.

I met this Canadian motorbike traveler on some small dirt road. He recognized me from a social media post after hearing I kayaked to Colombia.

Big fancy meal, ~6USD.

I found a place to wild camp for the first time since Guatemala.

15 October 2023 Day 338

More nice riding today.

In the park in Socotá I chatted with a couple.

The man works in the mines and it's harder work than the fields but he earns more. 3-4 million COP (750-1000USD) monthly. He works 5am to 3pm. He hopes to save up so he can travel to Chile for better work.

On their way to fumigate.

Later I encountered a political rally supporting a municipal politician. Local elections throughout the contry will be held in two weeks.

There were many young people, and they gave me meat and potatoes (thank you) and the wanted to give me political hats and stickers (no thank you).

I got permission from an older man to camp in a field.

He brought me bread and agua de panela in my tent. Thank you!

In the evening he came knocking on my tent and offered/requested oral sex. No thank you!

16 October 2023 Day 339

Another great day of biking.

Restaurant meal.

A couple offered to share their weed with me. I declined, and 500 meters later someone offered me a beer. I didn't really want to drink right then, but he had already opened the bottle and held it out to me, so I accepted.

Thank you for the beer! A few km later, the same guy (on the right) invited me into his house for a meal. Thank you!

Then I climbed up to 3600 meters (12,000 feet) and found a fantastic campsite.

I really love a good wild campsite.

The next day I rested at my nice campsite and read my book. Unplanned, remote rest days are an advantage of carrying extra food and water.

18 October 2023 Day 341

More great bike touring today.

Excuse me ass ass.

I stopped outside a school building to use the WiFi, and the teacher invited me in to talk to the students. He wanted his teenage students to hear native English, and also wanted them to hear about my trip. At one point he asked me to give life advice to the students. I felt unqualified and told them so. In remote Colombian mountains, they are growing up in such different circumstances than I did. And I've made mistakes in my life which I really regret.

I said it's important to try and be kind to people and understand how others live.

Then I descended 1000 meters (3300 feet) and immediately climbed up 1600 meters (5300 feet).

The tree-less, cow-less landscape at 3800 meters (12600 feet) above sea level:

19 October 2023 Day 342

Back in El Salvador my rack broke on the left side and I had it welded.

Today my rack broke in the same place on the opposite side.

In the next small town, the welder couldn't weld aluminum, but he fixed it with pop rivets and a scrap of steel.

Angle-grinding without eye protection.

The cost was 20,000 COP (5 USD).

21 October 2023

Colombian street food.

These glass cases usually contain at least two foods:

Empanadas🥟: Filled with rice and some meat and yummy seasonings.

Papas rellenas (aka pasteles): Mashed potatoes packed in a ball with a hard boiled egg and meat, then fried. About the size of a tennis ball. Sometimes rice is used instead of the mashed potatoes.

Various sauces are available to add on top. An empanada or pastel costs 0.4 - 0.8 USD

In a hostel I met some German exchange students and a French backpacker.

We hiked to some human made ponds in a pine forest. The hike was nice but the pools were pretty boring.

Alex from France and I cooked some delicious food. I tried making patacones (twice-fried green plantain).

24 October 2023

Connecting small farm roads to avoid the highway.

I asked like 6 people in the evening but couldn't find camping, so I looked for a hotel. But eventually someone let me set up my tent in front of their auto parts store on the main road. I peed in a plastic bottle at night and wore earplugs to escape the nearby sounds of compression braking. Is all this worth saving 12USD on a hotel? I can afford a 12USD hotel, but being stingy enables me to bike tour for years, and I think it makes for better stories.

26 October 2023 Day 349

This is Mary. She invited me to stay with her and her husband in Manta and I said yes.

Mary's adult children live in Bogotá. Three out of four of them are optometrists, and they all love cycling.

She fed me delicious food. Thank you Mary.

My plan was to enter Bogotá on a Sunday when they close main roads to cars. Mary explained that unfortunately the upcoming Sunday was elections, and so they wouldn't close them at all. Plans foiled.

28 October 2023

Here is the first cycle tourist I've met since Oaxaca, Mexico.

His family owns a bike shop in Bogotá where they have brake pads I want to buy. He was just traveling for a couple days this time. He bought me coffee and we left town riding in opposite directions. Later in Bogotá he took me out to lunch and I bought some brake pads.

29 October 2023

I entered Bogotá on election day. Although the roads were still open to cars, there were a ton of cyclists, and luckily no protests. I saw no mobs of armed citizens breaking into government buildings.

Stormclouds over Bogotá.

In Bogotá I stayed with two brothers I met a few weeks ago and their parents.

Juan and Luis.

Juan and Luis's mother cooking something delicious.

The cyclist culture in Bogotá is thriving.

I believe that using a bicycle for utility in daily life is a critical and sometimes overlooked use in the USA. In Bogotá, people of all ages/styles/incomes use bicycles to get themselves and their stuff from place to place. I love to see it.

Luis and Juan and I went on a mission to find a front rack that would be compatible with my fork. Eventually we found a local frame builder who modified a front rack to accommodate the unusual mounting points on my fork.

The framebuilder, left, and his son. He didn't talk much and he smoked cigarettes while welding a mount for my front light. I think the rack will work.

From Bogotá towards Ecuador, I had to decide to go on the east or west side of a big mountain range, because no roads crossed between them:

West of mountains:

-More reports of touring cyclists getting robbed (not considering relative popularity of this route).

-More popular route for cycle touring.

-Higher elevation (nice temperature).

-Slightly longer.

-US travel advisory - Do Not Travel in some regions.

East of mountains:

-Low elevation (too hot).

-Desert of Tatacoa tourist destination.

I decided to ride east of the mountains.

Leaving Bogotá.

The Bogotá River. Smells like sewage and looks like laundry water, complete with frothy soap bubbles.

3 November 2023 Day 357

In the afternoon I couldn't find a campsite. Eventually I arrived in a bustling highway town with some sort of concert/musical festival going on. This would be a very difficult place to find camping. Eventually someone told me I could set up my tent on his brother's property. When I went to set up my tent the owner said I had to pay 40,000 COP (10USD). That is the price of a cheap hotel, but it was already dark out and the hotels were likely full because of the concert, so I just paid him. He really hustled me, but it was still my best option. I could have tried to talk him down, but he wasn't very friendly and I didn't want him to change his mind and kick me out.

4 November 2023

Nice bike path in the rain.

Riding along an irrigation canal.

Small dirt roads to avoid the highway.

Camped in a farmer's field.

The field had a biting bug infestation.

In the next small town, this family invited me in for a meal.

They asked me what Colombian dish I like. I told them I like patacones with onion/tomato scrambled eggs, and they made it for me.

Went to a motorbike race.

At the motorbike race I met Yilber and his wife (forgot her name).

I stayed with Yilber and his wife for a few days and they fed me delicious food.

Their sweet dog Martín and a moth.

Martín with his doppelganger (they are apparently not related).

Yilber wants to go travelling on his motorcycle but his wife does not want to go with him.

They live in a different town but own this property here.

Yilber wanted to take lots of vlog-style vídeos of me for his Instagram. He follows lots of cycle tourists and motorcycle tourists. Yilber tried to convince me to make videos for YouTube or Instagram or TikTok of my travels. It would be nice to have an income source, but truthfully I have enough savings to at least reach Argentina, and I don't want my job to be filming and editing videos. Also, I don't really want to contribute to YouTube or Instagram or TikTok, because I think these platforms are ultimately detrimental to my quality of life.

However, if I could make content creation a source of income with minimal time investment, I should start sooner rather than later. So maybe I should just try it a little bit.

9 November 2023

In the evening I got invited in yet again. People feed me and take care of me without me asking for anything, even though I am the American who can easily work in the US and earn several times what people make here. I think treating travelers like this is a cultural norm, and people want to be extra hospitibal when they hear how long I've been travelling. But I don't want to abuse people's hospitality if they are really in difficult economic circumstances. Some people want to have me as a contact for getting a US visa. In this case, I sometimes feel uncomfortable accepting their hospitality, because I can make no promises about being a contact for a US Visa application.

10 November 2023