Departamento del Cesar

One of those days as a bike tourist again... We got an invite again: Delwin invited us to stay with him in his village Pelaya. As it was going to be extremely hot as always, we started early from El Banco. And as it was all flat with no wind in the morning, we arrived in Pelaya at 10:30am already, including a short stop for fresh orange juice.
Delwin picked us up from a supermarket and showed us his office where we could put our matresses for the night. We quickly showered out of a bucket (they cut off the running water during the day) and he gave us a tour around his former school. Then we went with the 3 of us on a scooter to Delwin's house, stopping at many places on the way to meet his family and friends. His girlfriend had prepared fish with rice and yuka for lunch. We then spent the afternoon relaxing in his backyard and discussing German and Colombian culture. Delwin is extremely well educated and knows a lot about European history. He also knows a lot of German football players and sportsmen in general.
Late afternoon, he had a surprise for us. We went on a boat trip on the nearby lake. On the way there, we stopped for some corn drink and great laughter with a funny man - he was definitely a personality!
The boat trip was great. We saw heaps of birds and an amazing sunset. No caiman though, although they had told us there were plenty of them in the lake. The boat wasn't really stable. As soon as someone moved, we almost rolled over. But in the end, nothing happened of course.
Back in the village, we went out for empanadas for dinner and back into the office to go to sleep early.Read more

As a farewell, Delwin gave us a couple of bags, medals and bocadillo (a sweet made of guayaba which gives you energy). Then we headed to San Alberto. The route was uneventful, mainly flat with one bigger hill to climb. We saw the first real mountains of Colombia and lots of interesting animal road signs.
Again, it was really hot, even though it was overcast all day. This made it really exhausting to cycle. When we arrived in San Alberto, we were happy to find a hotel with airconditioning. We decided to explore the town a little. As we were hungry amd thirsty, we bought fresh cold orange juice from a street vendor, some bred and cake from a bakery and a dinner of soup and meat with rice, pasta, yuka, platano, salad and sugar cane juice (way too sweet for us). The dinner was really tasty and huge and only cost 1.60€. It's actually cheaper than cooking. Finally, we went to a refill station of water gallons to ask if they can also refill our water bottles. They did it and didn't want any money for it as our 6litres are pretty much nothing for them. Nice people all around!Read more