Sasn Carlos to Medellín - an amazing ride

The ride from Sasn Carlos to Medellín was amazing. The first few kilometers were mix of the scenery that I had previously seen; very nice. A few km in, however, and it changed to long downhill. It started above the clouds and eventually descended below the clouds. Today, I got a blister on my thumb from the downhill braking, but it was so worth it.

The ride into Medellín itself was not so nice. I thought I would be able to ride the regional highway all the way to my destination in Medellín. I looked at it on Google Street and it looked like there were either adequate shoulders or good sidewalks. This was not quite the case. There were lots of breaks in the sidewalks/shoulders which put me in traffic. I saw a girl on an off-street riding a bike in the same direction as I was going. I decided to follow her and ended up finding some bike paths that took me to my destination. They were slow because they ran into a lot of lights, but were much safer than the route I was taking. I should have listened to my own advice that I gave from Cartageña : take a taxi when I get to the city.

I arrived at my destination: an apartment next to International House Medellín and Unidad Deportiva de Belen (Belen Sports Center). I am pretty excited about the location as I can swim and I will take an archery class while I am here.

Also, I had my first encounter with another touring biker: Juan from Spain (http://www.bicicletaporlatinoamerica.blogspot.com). He has been biking from Honduras. He is now on his way to Bucaramanga and will return towards Bogota and then on to Ecuador. There is a good chance that our paths will cross again. I have also noticed that he is taking a lot more pictures than I have; I need to improve that.