Anne-Sophie follows the sun: Biking through Colombia: From the coast to Pailitas

One thing is sure: Colombians are familiar with bikers, but not with a solo-white-female-touring biker.

Sometimes I wished I could hide my identity for several reasons: men wouldn't ask me after 5 minutes whether they can marry me and people wouldn't assume that I have a lot of money (but according to their standards it is true). Nevertheless it gives opportunities to talk - depending whether I'm able to understand their Spanish. After staying 5 weeks at the Carribean coast I felt confident enough with my basic Spanish to travel.

From Cienaga to Aracata - early in the morning.

Some statistics:
Day 1 to Cienaga - 41,8 km (avg speed 15,8 km/h)
Day 2 to Aracataca - 59,6 km (avg speed 16,3km/h)
Day 3 to Bosconia - 80,2 km (avg speed 15,4 km/h)
Day 4 to San Luis de Chiriguana - 80,8 km (avg speed 15,9 km/h)
Day 5 to Pailitas - 64,5 km (avg speed 16,6 km/h)

Biking in Colombia is a great challenge! For now it was fairly flat and good shape of roads, but mountains and windy roads are waiting for me. We'll see how it goes!

I wasn't even biking for 5 minutes and I already got a thumbs up from a woman. These positive gestures I received continuously along my way, and although it seems unrelevant, to me it is encouraging! Every morning I try to leave between 5.30 and 6.30 am to escape the heat , although around 9am it starts getting warm, certainly when there are no trees for some shade.

Every 20 km you can find little towns (pueblitos) where they sell fruits and drinks. Lunch is the best moment of the day, for 2 to 4 euros you get a big bowl of soup, a plate of rice (always rice!) with meat/fish, jucas/platanos, and a little salad.

Owner of a restaurant was interested in my bike - Chiriguana.

People are very friendly and curious. Depending on the size of the town, they know very little about Europe. So every time I stop I get a lot of questions about my origin.

Several times I got food offered or even accommodation! The hospitability is huge. Making friends has never been so easy!

In Pailitas I stopped for more then 1 night. Initially because I had a food poisoning again (First, I thought it was because of a lulo juice, but probably I need to pay more attention which water I buy..). Next, before I know I ended up staying 10 days in Pailitas, thanks to all my new friends who wanted to introduce me to their daily lifes!