Colombia is just an amazing place to visit! Friendly and welcoming people, stunning scenery, great coffee and the most incredible twenty two wheeled trucks weaving their way around the high mountain roads and passes (no rail transport here).
Colombians have a great love of cycling which is on a different scale altogether given the mountains and high altitude. It's an exceptionally popular sport and has produced so many good riders over the years such as Luis Herrera and more recently Nairo Quintana who won the Giro d'italia in 2014 and placed second in last year's Tour de France. There is a very good Guardian article if you'd like to know more about riding Colombia at, Cycling in the hills of Colombia.
One of the highlight's of our visit was Bogota's Ciclovia (cycleway). Every Sunday from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon some 120kms of main roads through the centre of town are closed to traffic and opened up to cyclists with some skateboards, scooters, rollerbladers and dog walkers thrown into the mix. It is tremendous fun, a fantastic way to see the city and mix with a huge cross-section of Colombians and an even greater cross-section of bicycles - mine was a 'beach cruiser'. A bit of a cycling street festival with a liberal spread of juice and food vendors and plenty of pop-up bike stores along the way.
We rented bikes from Bogota Bike Tours in La Candelaria. They also offer guided tours but we opted to do our own thing and you really can't get lost on the Ciclovia - you just follow the other riders.
We've never seen so many people on so many bikes having so much fun. Viva Ciclovia, viva Colombia!
Colombians have a great love of cycling which is on a different scale altogether given the mountains and high altitude. It's an exceptionally popular sport and has produced so many good riders over the years such as Luis Herrera and more recently Nairo Quintana who won the Giro d'italia in 2014 and placed second in last year's Tour de France. There is a very good Guardian article if you'd like to know more about riding Colombia at, Cycling in the hills of Colombia.
One of the highlight's of our visit was Bogota's Ciclovia (cycleway). Every Sunday from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon some 120kms of main roads through the centre of town are closed to traffic and opened up to cyclists with some skateboards, scooters, rollerbladers and dog walkers thrown into the mix. It is tremendous fun, a fantastic way to see the city and mix with a huge cross-section of Colombians and an even greater cross-section of bicycles - mine was a 'beach cruiser'. A bit of a cycling street festival with a liberal spread of juice and food vendors and plenty of pop-up bike stores along the way.
We rented bikes from Bogota Bike Tours in La Candelaria. They also offer guided tours but we opted to do our own thing and you really can't get lost on the Ciclovia - you just follow the other riders.
We've never seen so many people on so many bikes having so much fun. Viva Ciclovia, viva Colombia!
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