5 week tour of Colombia

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gbhk
gbhk

So I'm landing in Cartagena in a couple of weeks and planning to tour Colombia. My first dilemma is whether to head to Santa Marta and then take highway 45 towards Bucaramanga and San Gil which is apparently quite busy with traffic or to head inland towards Magangué and El Banco and then rejoin highway 45 near Aguachica. This appears to be shorter though the roads may be rougher and I'm going ultralight on a road bike. The rest of the tour for now is Giron to Bogota via San Gil, then Bogota to Mocoa on highway 45 then on to Pasto, Popayan, Cali, Armenia, Manizales, Medellin and then back to Cartagena. I would appreciate any feedback or advice on roads to avoid or not to miss.

Thanks in advance

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jkbc
jkbc

You can't really go wrong in any part of Colombia. The main highways can be busy, but local racing cyclists on the highways are quite common too.

You might want to double-check about that route between Mocoa and Pasto. I didn't go that way but I've read other accounts of it. I'm pretty sure it's not paved and it's generally all-around difficult. For example see here.

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bicyclejunkies
bicyclejunkies
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The road between Mocoa and Pasto is the Trampolina de la Muerta and is a great ride! Mostly unpaved indeed, but well worth it.
Popayan is a beautiful city, San Ignacio is quite interesting.
You definately must visit the coffee district and do a coffee tour near Salento, which is a very nice little town.
We didn't like the highways, very busy and smelly fumes... most gas stations offer simple lodging in case you need one.

Here are photos and two short blog posts: bicycle touring in Colombia

Enjoy!

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