Nuevo Retén

It almost feels like a new start: after 13.440km, 140.000m of elevation gain and almost 800 cycling hours in North and Central America we had a bit of a break while sailing from Panama to Colombia. Today, we are back on the bikes, this time in South America.
The first stretch took us out of Cartagena, passing the fishing harbour and a really poor residential area. What a contrast to the touristy historical centre! But people looked very curious and smiled and waved at us.
After some km on a dirt road, we got onto the 4 lane highway 90B, smoothly paved, no traffic and a shoulder. Quite nice to cycle! Unfortunately, it changed to a 2 lane highway with no shoulder. But at least not too much traffic.
Roads here in Colombia seem to be toll roads most of the time. The good thing is that motorcycles don't have to pay anything and get an extra small lane to pass the barriers. This is actually quite convenient as we can use the same lane to pass quickly and easily as well.
Cycling today was relatively easy, quite flat, nothing particularly exciting. We just had to fight the heat and some slight headwinds (of course, the wind had changed from Northeast to South, now that we are going South).
Michl did well on his first 90km ride. When we found a restaurant that also offered rooms, we called it a day. We had dinner at the restaurant, as the room was already full with our luggage and bikes, so no proper space to cook. Plus, Colombia is a lot cheaper again compared to Costa Rica and Panama. This, we enjoyed yummy grilled chicken breast with rice and salad and fresh juices! Sleeping early to be able to get up early to be the heat...Read more