We spend all Saturday in this cute little white housed town. The hostel is run by a family in a colonial house near the main Plaza. We basically stayed in their house in their room and cooked in their kitchen. Did laundry and got some stuff done while enjoying the day off as if we hadn't had one for a long time! (not true, we took quite a few days off in Cali - just felt like we needed more...)The dog "Negro" greeted me by licking my legs clean of the salt from sweating...he wouldn't stop and our host Nina got mad at him, but I told her I really enjoyed that warm tongue bath. (Now, I don't care if it sounds "kinky" - what could be wrong with that? I still took a shower after the prewash.)
Leaving on Sunday is always good. The road to Pasto looks long and windy on the map - scares me I have to admit. Just because we (kind of) managed the most difficult ridge in all of Colombia weeks before -as in Alto de la Linea- doesn't mean we are "off the hook" with more difficult cycling in this country.
El Bordo our destination for the day wasn't too far from Propayan (some 85km). Seems like all the high ridges funnel together in the south and the landscape is becoming "out of this world". The Andes - the real stuff. I really don't know how to describe it - wish I had the words....even the photos don't do them justice. There is a "feel" to these giants and it's different from the Himalayas. And it is still just the beginning.....
While climbing I am thinking thoughts like: How do I feel like when I am done with this trip and it belongs to history? The pain - like giving birth - gets forgotten and only the beauty remains? This is big and I know it, but when it's all said and done it becomes bigger and only the memory and this journal will be left. I want to know it NOW!! I want to remind myself that this is special every minute of the day. This is not something everybody does. This is ...this is....this is...what is it? Sure, a life style. My life is cycling every day..learning spanish every day........hunting for calories every day....meeting people, different people every day....watching the world turn and show itself in different angles every day.....eating strange, mostly yummy food.........every day.
I am learning, but my suitcase full of new stuff get's full and I don't seem to be able to pack any more in it. Don't quite know what to do about it - having a bit of a rough time writing.....On the bike, during the day I have all kinds of phrases and sentences in my head what I want to write, but in the evening it seems all gone...my head is empty as if I left everything on the side of the road....thoughts fly out of my head and don't remain until the day is over.
Here we are in a little hotel next to the road some 64km away from Pasto. Dinner is done - things are calm and cleaned up. The night is young and I want to write everything down - I am not even tired.....
Oh, darn, just gonna stop here now, catch you later...
