Bike (Road) 4:30:00 [2] 86.5 km (19.2 kph) +2050m
A loop ride from Cauca Viejo downstream, right near Bolombolo and a climb up the back way to Fredonia via Venezia. The road was very quiet (tertiary road) and climbed through ranches towards Cerro Tusa (a dramatic rock peak that supposedly is the mountain in the background of the Juan Valdez ad). We hit a number of gravel sections ranging from 50m to 500m - we probably had at least 3 km of gravel. For the most part this was uphill and rideable so not a big deal. The weird thing was that the pavement in between was quite smooth. After the first climb we dropped a bit to Venezia where we had a nice snack stop. The climb to Fredonia was a little busier especially once we reached the intersection with the main road (but still not bad). The last bit of the climb was also steeper. The main square in Fredonia was even busier than yesterday as it is a holiday weekend. So far Fredonia and Venezia are my favourite small Colombian towns. The rest of the ride took us along the scenic mountainside road to the coffee plantation from yesterday and then back down to the river. Temperatures were nice up high and warm once we got back down to the valley bottom. Most of the bigger (and more affluent) towns seem to be higher up and enjoy a more pleasant climate than the valley bottom towns.
