{"id":285,"date":"2017-02-10T19:28:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T19:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/?p=285"},"modified":"2017-04-06T05:50:20","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T04:50:20","slug":"friends-frailejones-and-a-trampoline-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/?p=285","title":{"rendered":"Friends, Frailejones, and a beautiful trampoline of death."},"content":{"rendered":"

Hola! Back again.<\/p>\n

So, we survived the the Trampoline of Death but more on that later!
\nAfter Salento, (hummingbirds, wax palms and more chilling) we cycled to Armenia to stay with Karen and Jorge. Karen is an old friend of Michelle’s who she last saw\u00a034 years ago when they were exchange students together in Mexico! Karen now lives in Atlanta with her husband\u00a0Jorge a Colombian but they also have a house in Armenia that they frequently visit and invited us to stay. It was great to be looked after and shown around.<\/p>\n

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Karen, Jorge and us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Drying coffee beans by the side of the road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Coffee beans on the bush.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They took us to see more\u00a0great coffee towns in the mountains and their cowboy culture; we felt very spoilt to be chauffeured around without having to toil up hills on our bikes. They also took us their friend Alexander’s house, where he was having a birthday party for his 5 year old girl – we felt somewhat underdressed for this lavish event at his amazing house with it’s stunning views and infinity pool!<\/p>\n

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Birthday cake and edible extras!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Michelle and Karen at the party.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We decided to take the bus from Armenia to Popayan, known as the “White City”, to cover some ground and avoid cycling on truck and bus infested\u00a0roads through a hot valley; Jorge and Karen were amazing again and took us and our bikes to the bus station where we said our goodbyes.<\/p>\n

We didn’t really give Popayan much of a chance but decided to go on a city tour. Terrible! Not the city, the tour. We abandoned it early on the pretext of having to catch a bus. Felt a bit sorry for the guide for dropping out of the group but listening to someone read Google’s privacy statement would have been more interesting…..<\/p>\n

Popayan main square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bohemian bar and huge record collection in Popayan. It’s not all cycling!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our route from Popayan took us over the mountains on more quiet, rough dirt roads to San Agustin and it’s archaeological park. It contains the\u00a0largest collection of religious monuments and\u00a0megalithic sculptures\u00a0in Latin America[1]<\/a><\/sup>and is considered the world’s largest\u00a0necropolis. We did think about paying for a guide but the little museum tells you all there is to know which isn’t much as no-one really knows who these people were or what it was really all about and apparently the guides just repeat the same stuff and have no answers, just speculative waffle!<\/p>\n

It was very quiet and peaceful with few visitors, probably because it’s quite away off the normal backpacker\/tourist trail; the park is beautifully laid out and a pleasure to walk around although we were reminded that we weren’t in Hyde park when Michelle saw a snake ( I didn’t but wished I had! ) and had a bit of a drama queen moment.<\/p>\n

San Agustin sculpture – love the teeth!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The road to San Agustin took us up over 3000m and into the P\u00e1ramo ( P\u00e1ramo generally describes an area\u00a0above the continuous forest line (3000m), yet below the permanent snowline ) typified by Frailejones, a weird\u00a0looking plant that only grows in this environment. Related to sunflowers they capture water vapour from passing clouds in their spongy trunks and release it through their roots into the soil.<\/p>\n

Frailejones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Had to wild camp on the way to San Agustin and ended up camping on a school football pitch! Once again we were amazed at the helpfulness of the Colombians – a teacher from the school and her friend came back after dark with coffee and arepas for us as they were worried about us being cold and hungry!<\/p>\n

Camped on the school football pitch! Perfect. Proper loos and running water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From San Agustin we continued heading south towards Ecuador. We had to again climb up over 3000m and drop down into the Amazon basin where it became very\u00a0hot, very sticky and very jungly. The dramatic change in vegetation \u00a0and the stunning variety of birds, butterflies, insects and their crazy cacophony of noises made up for the super sweaty cycling! Awesome downhills on sealed roads also meant awesome velocities! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/bird.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Amazonian bird and its odd call.<\/p>\n

Makes all the effort going up worthwhile! \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Some kind of weaver bird nests.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Cycling in the jungle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Early banana stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Strange cross-valley transportation….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Machine to crush sugar cane and turn it into juice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Something to consider in the jungle!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Waterfall walk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Free-range chickens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Trampoline of Death!<\/h4>\n

The road from Mocoa to Pasto takes you up out of the Amazon basin (450m up to 3200m) via El Trampolin del el Muerte, Colombias’ answer to Bolivia’s Yungas death road. This precipitous, narrow, unstable gravel road has several rivers literally flowing over it and is notorious\u00a0for lots vehicles plunging off it either whilst trying to squeeze past each other or simply when the road edge gives way and they plummet screaming over the edge. It also has a reputation with cycle-tourists for its tough, steep climbs over 4 high passes, stunning scenery, lack of places to stay and torrential rain.<\/p>\n

Looking back down at our winding road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Heading up through the clouds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were somewhat nervous when we set out but decided to simply try and enjoy the experience and not worry about the potential pitfalls….\u00a0Not long after we set out, we were caught up by James, the first other cycle-tourist we’d seen.\u00a0James talked about having averaged 160km a day so far and said he’d thought he might get\u00a0to Pasto in one day. Bloody hell!\u00a0We were planning 3 days.\u00a0Given how tough it was, we suspect even James had to scale down to doing it in two. We’d like to think so anyway!<\/p>\n

The tarmac ended after 15km and the steep, rough, river-fording 1750m dirt road climb\u00a0to the first pass pretty much did us in however, the scenery on the way up was amazing with views of the winding road far, far below, appearing and disappearing through the clouds as we climbed through them. Descending after the pass, we considered cycling on but decided to \u00a0camp on a patch of grass by a restaurant just as heavy rain started.\u00a0Good thing we did. The following morning we cycled for two hours without seeing anything remotely suitable for a camp spot.\u00a0This is really wild and remote country. The next day was equally tough, equally remote and just as rewarding but this time had an hotel and a hot shower\u00a0waiting at the end of it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Beautiful scenery on The Trampoline of Death.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Intrepid river fording on The Trampoline…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A bit of the road that actually had crash barriers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Winding, treacherous and beautiful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Butterfly and boot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day three took us on a sealed but tough road over another 3200m pass and more Frailejones, to\u00a0Laguna de la Cocha\u00a0where we camped for free at the idyllic\u00a0Hotel Jardin Del Lago sitting just above the lake.<\/p>\n

Idyllic free camping at Jardin del Lago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Dusk over Laguna de la Cocha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A another couple of cyclists and their dog in a basket on the back!! heading the other way to the Trampoline and Mocoa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tomorrow we leave Pasto and head for Ecuador!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hola! Back again. So, we survived the the Trampoline of Death but more on that later! After Salento, (hummingbirds, wax palms and more chilling) we cycled to Armenia to stay with Karen and Jorge. Karen is an old friend of Michelle’s who she last saw\u00a034 years ago when they were exchange students together in Mexico! Karen now lives in Atlanta with her husband\u00a0Jorge a Colombian but they also have a house in Armenia that they frequently visit and invited us…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5,7,8,10,6,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thealexandertechnique.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}