Colombia 4-3-2023

 

Another steep morning climb with the coal trucks to the top and the town of Jerico.  We are in coal country and see some workers covered in the coal dust.  Dump truck carrying coal ply the road from small mines worked mostly by hand.  It is mostly down hill to Socota where we find a nice hotel to stay at with a closed sign nailed to the door.

Doing good

Hey we are on a bike route

In tow

There is a quick decent and a long ascent in the morning.  Top of the ridge is a large coal mine.  Then we have a nice decent down past Paz de Rio and its coal train.  More climbing is needed to get out of the valley.  Three kilometers from Belen disaster strikes as Lani’s chain breaks.  All our quick links seem to be 9 speed and the chain appears to be 8.  Quick links don’t fit and no quick fix.  So plan C is me attaching webbing to my back rack to Lani’s front rack.  It works and I tow her on the relatively flat ground to town.  In town she is able to coast down to a hotel.  In the hotel room we find a quick link that works to fix the chain searching the repair kits again.

A bit of the morning is spent finding a chain in town.  With this working spare 8-speed chain we start up hill.   The late start also allows us to find a camp near the summit for the night.  Once again in paramo zone.

Love and Kisses

Steve