Hello friends, family and those we've met on the road! Welcome to the seventeenth edition of our newsletter, this time penned from Tulcan, Ecuador.
After nearly two full months in Colombia, yesterday we crossed the border into the tenth country of our trip, and we are currently watching the Tour de France in bed while we mentally prepare for the delights of the Trans Ecuador Mountain Biking Route, aka the Tembr, which will shortly have us bumbling over epic páramos and bone-shaking cobbles.
As for the past few weeks, we resumed our southward journey from Bogotá via Cudinamarca, Tolima, Huila, Cauca, Putamayo and Nariño. Looking back on my paltry range of photographs from this three-week stint, it’s clear we’ve been in a little bit of a funk. Don’t worry - we are nowhere near packing it all in. But after the psychological and altitudinal highs of Boyacá, it’s been an adjustment to return to travelling by ourselves, and to roads that aren’t seemingly designed by a cycle-touring angel. In Colombia it’s difficult to find bad routes, and if we were to compare the past weeks’ riding with any other portion of the trip, it would still receive a very high score. But the near omnipresence of wet weather (we’re here in the rainy season) and mechanical problems, coupled with a feeling that we’d like to get a bit of a wriggle on, has made some days feel more dutiful than delightful.
We realised we were feeling a little underpar around a fortnight in, and we’ve since taken a few decisions to try and alleviate both the emotional and very real clouds hanging over us; we’ve been balancing our increased appetite for rest days with our burning desire to reach Ecuador, where the weather should be better. Life on bike tour often boils down to maintaining a sense of momentum - feeling like you’re achieving something each day - while also enjoying your down time and opportunities for tourism. Thankfully the south of Colombia has a number of photo-friendly points of interest, providing welcome spots to rest and explore.
First came a beautiful section of riding through the Tatacoa desert. After the long descent from Bogotá it felt strange to once again be in hot weather, although we were fortunate to experience plenty of cooling cloud cover. We pedalled alongside the roaring Magdalena river, watching the landscape transform into an almost Baja-esque scene. A clamour of cacti reappeared and the sky opened out for the first time in Colombia, with the country’s famous cordilleras relegated to our peripheries.
After a brief stop in the city of Nieva, we pedalled south towards a lovely section of dirt roads in the hills towards the town of San Agustín, the archeological heart of Colombia. We explored three parks, all of which feature carved stone heads that were placed around burial sites by indigenous cultures that lived in the area around 5,000 years ago. Many of them are anthropomorphic figures, and they are in breathtakingly good condition - sometimes you can even make out the original paintwork that would have adorned the figures.
After San Agustín there was a chilly but stunning section of descent, which reminded us a little of Scotland, followed by a brief stop in Mocoa before we tackled the trampolin de la muerte (springboard of death). This road famously snakes it’s way up and over the Cordillera Portachuelo, connecting Putumayo with Nariño. Its name and reputation are largely down to the fact it’s a road that is well-used by motorists and is often plagued with landslides due to rainfall. But after cycling so many similar vías in Colombia, we found this one to be in excellent condition, and we revelled in our first day of climbing in intermittent sunshine among beautiful plants, stunning hillsides and plentiful waterfalls. A landslide did hold us back for about an hour, but we continued on to our planned campspot in an abandoned roadside building with relative ease.
The second day on the trampolin was less fun; we woke up to rain, and we rode in rain for a couple of hours before sticking our thumbs out for a lift. Although we had been so keen to enjoy the dramatic views, that day the cloud cover meant we could barely see the abundance of biodiversity, and we were getting cold and miserable. A kind truck driver deposited us, after a fairly bumpy ride, at the next town, where we recouped for our final push into the city of Pasto.
In Pasto, the rain and the effort caught up with Ed, who had a few days of feeling ill. Thankfully we were at the fabulous Koala Hostel, which is famous among bike tourers and was a comfortable base for Ed to recover and for me to visit the museum of indigenous arts there. Ed is now feeling a little better and we’ve since navigated another two big climbing days and, of course, another border.
We have again encountered enthusiasm and kindness from locals throughout this section, although we have certainly felt a change in atmosphere from further north. The country’s status as the centre of global cocaine production is more palpable in the south of the country, where the roads becomes fewer and therefore their logistic importance is greater. We caught many snatches of conversation referring to the business, the towns are definitely more hard-edged, and people are, unsurprisingly, more wary of foreigners. And although we haven’t been through many strongly indigenous areas, parts of these provinces certainly have their own regional character due to different population makeups. It’s been fascinating to travel in these areas and notice these differences, especially after Bogotá, which at times felt like a very international, almost nation-less city.
One last thing that’s helped us stay afloat in all the funk is of course our friends at home and further up the road. Fellow Brits abroad, Greg and Simon and Lizzie, have been up ahead riding the Tembr together, and seeing their updates has been a real salve. Although we are, of course, impossibly jealous, much more important has been the joy we’ve had seeing their smiling photos of each other, camping at beautiful spots and pushing their bikes up ridiculously muddy ruts.
A couple of weeks ago I read a fantastic piece by Jake Dacks on bikepacking.com, which detailed tips on maintaining the health of your relationship while on long-term tour. In reality it featured advice appropriate for any bikepacker, and the most pertinent was the idea of keeping in contact with friends and making a concerted effort to meet up with people in order to keep yourself happy. It made us realise that we are absolutely committed to rendezvousing with Greg again soon, even if it means skipping some sections of the Tembr. Our planned reunion is a little light on the horizon that makes such a big difference to our motivation levels. (The Pootlers - as we sometimes call Lizzie and Simon - are pedalling off out of reach for now, but we also dearly hope to see them again on this continent.)
That’s all for now - please (please) wish us better weather here in Ecuador, and the legs to once again ascend to head-swimmingly high altitudes. Until next time!
Toot or boot
The campsite in San Agustín being up a HUGE hill BOOT
One of the best vegetarian restaurants in Colombia being right at the bottom of said hill TOOT
A girl in a cafe asking me to speak Spanish… when I was speaking Spanish BOOT
Understanding almost everything in a Spanish-language tour of a museum in Pasto TOOT
Barely camping on this stretch due to lots of people around and a lack of flat ground BOOT
The most surprisingly hot and strong shower in a tiny roadside hotel north of Ipiales TOOT
Thanks and shoutouts
Greg, Simon and Lizzie for all their advice
Marios and Fiona
Gloria, Mary and family
Paul
About us
We are Edwin Foote and Suzie McCracken - thanks for signing up for our newsletter! Edwin is from England and Suzie is from Northern Ireland and normally we live together in Deptford, south-east London. We arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska, in May 2022 and are attempting to ride our bicycles the length of the Americas, hoping to finish in Argentina in 2024. If you have any recommendations of things we should do, people we should meet or places we should stay, we'd love to hear from you! Please reply to this email, leave a comment on Substack, or follow us on Instagram at ed_win and _suziemccracken.