Crossing the Cordillieres

Back in the 1980’s, when Colombian riders first appeared on the European professional cycling circuit, Colombian Pro, Lucho Herrera, mentioned that climbs like Alpe d’Huez were too short for Colombians. Yesterday we crossed the Alto de Letras, at 3800m the highest mountain pass road we have ever climbed .
We marvelled about the many bicyclist, before we found out about this being the longest climb on earth in the bicycling community,more than 80km ,with temperatures of 97 at the Magdalena river to almost freezing on top of the pass.
Driving in Colombia does take patience, 25 miles per hour average is a reason to celebrate , but usually there is a long lines of trucks laboring up or down the steep hills not much faster than walking speed. On our mountain range crossing from the Bogota to the Meddelin area ,we also visited a Saltmine ,which provided some interesting pictures.Read more