(Tuesday 19th of February)
Manuel from Casa Ciclista Medellin (it was actually located in San Antonio de Prado- about 15km south of M. IN the mountains and UP the mountains)told us the climb will be gentle and it was. We left Medellin, heading for more mountains, feeling rested. The city sits in a valley surrounded by high mountains. The exhaust sits tight with no way out. Climbing on our bikes with diesel trucks passing us, filling our lungs with toxins - best thing is not to think about it, but don't breath too deep either. But the sun was with us, loaded with good food we kept climbing to an elevation of over 2000m. No, not "no sweat" lots of sweat.....
Lunch was had on top followed by "rollers". The views stunning, breathtaking....as we started to descent. I have never descended as long as this time on a reliable paved road. One hour and about 15 minutes pure downhill. Gentle enough, so not to use the brakes, while taking in the view. The downhill never stopped so it seemed - on and on and on and on and on some more. Purely marvelous. There have been many times on this trip when I was hoping for a downhill like that and I never really thought it existed. Climbing up always takes an enormous amount of time, zipping down the same amount of km is done in no time flat and it doesn't seem fair. Now, I was pleased to say the least. This is it, this is what I have been waiting for.......EVERYTHING PERFECT: Road, weather, view, traffic, curves, percentage of grade, bicycles and length of pure bliss......
Seemed like there was plenty of sweet places to stay as we approached the end of the day, but it was impossible to stop. This stuff is addicting - kind of when you get a perfect massage and in the beginning you hope this will never stop and you tare yourself away from thinking that it must, but then it doesn't - just keeps on going....We should have stopped. We didn't and then we had to climb again. Really didn't expect that, but I was kind of drunk from the experience feeling that foolish grin on my face and that is probably why this couple looked at us kind of strange when we ask if we could camp. They even had a sign out saying: Hospedaje. Nope, they didn't want us. Keep climbing....second try we got another "no" and by now it was dark again. Well, even that couldn't spoil the day and we finally found a cheap little hotel on the side of the road.
