Medellin- Bogota. Rio Claro(February 20th)
A sunny early start after we had breakfast in the room of our cheap hotel and headed out in expectation of a pretty mellow day with not much climbs as we were heading to the valley for the biggest river in Columbia: Rio Magdalena. The map shows a green, flat valley. No such luck....now in lower elevations we encounter high humidity and high temperatures. All these years of Bikram yoga (thanks to my sweet daughter) has prepared me for this - now I know WHY I had chosen to torture myself through these classes. My body seemingly just excepts it - the heat and me staying in the same room. My mind does too - There are some mantras though - negative mantras that keep going around and around in my head while being alone with myself pedaling.....when the going gets tough the thoughts become less joyful: My 28 year old marriage has come to an end (another story, another -all together - different journey). My mind gets stuck on one thought on either me or my soon -to-be ex-husband's behavior in the last three or four years or so. A simple idea repeating itself formed in words circling, it's not doing me any good. So, I sing a song......a kids song is best.....I know a gazillion of them in German and in English.
Yes, yes, yes, climbing again, my legs are screaming at me, but only because my head says it's not supposed to be that way, the map says: level. This can turn into another negative mantra as you can simply see....
Stop thinking....isn't that what meditation is all about? Let's try....hm.....doesn't work....back to the kids songs......and I actually know one in Spanish now: Un elefante se balanceaba sobre la tela de una araña......I don´t mind repeating that one until the cows come home...
There is supposed to be a river called Rio Claro before we get to the big one and Manuel from Casa Ciclista says it's a good place to visit......we see signs for it...yes, we stop (even though it is a beautiful downhill again at this point in time) there is a campground and a restaurant. We eat an eight dollar meal which would cost about 20dollars -easy- in the States...........We are so full we can hardly set up camp. After a dip in the river we manage to walk the one and a half km walk to register for a river rafting trip on the Rio Claro mañana. The day is over again.......the tent is sweet - I like it better than any hotel room. The night peaceful and warm and in anticipation of tomorrow I fall asleep.
