Roaming South America

Bike ride to two more

July 2, 2022

This morning I rode my bike out to visit two places, not really towns (pueblos), but rather, communities. To get to them meant riding on dirt/mud roads that were incredibly rough.

I started out by riding north to La Union then across the valley to La Victoria then north to Obando. Okay, all good so far, nice paved roads with paved shoulders. And dry. At Obando the road to Molina changed to a dirt road and was more wet than dry. And it wasn't just dirt. It was rather large rocks that were pounded only half-way into the ground by the many "tren ca?eros" - literally 'cane trains' which are 4 or 5 trailer semi's hauling sugar cane from the farms to the processing plants. There's a not-very-good photo of one in the Andeluc?a photo album They're everywhere here. They're very long. And the farm roads they use are very rough. And, since it apparently rained the night before in this area, they were wet, quite wet. You can see in the photo album. By the time I arrived in Toro my legs were covered in much, my shorts and jersey had mud all over especially the backs. The photo above doesn't really show the mud very good. Then I took the "ferry" across the Cauca River. The ferry is a non-motorized boat with space for two cars. It is connected to a cable that crosses the river. The river current pushes the boat. Because it is connected to the cable it gets pushed sideways and makes it across in less than 2 minutes. Pics in the photo album Molina. After Molina and on my way to Toro I passed through another community, this one called Bohio. It has a small church and park, and there might have been a tienda in a house, but I wasn't sure, so I just road on past. In Toro I bought some Gatorade and adjusted my seat, it had come loose enough to move out of position on those really rough roads. Then the easy ride home from there on paved roads. I did get a little bit sunburned but nothing of concern. In the end, it was about 84 kilometers around.