Bike tour near Parque Arví - Sunday 5th of June, 2011

I have to admit that before going on this tour, I was a bit afraid of being left behind due to my uncertain fitness level compared to that of my tourists. Still, I was spured by the challenge and was determined that I would join them for the bike trip anyways.  
I picked up Mat and Lindsey at the InterContinental Hotel Medellin at 9:00 am and soon we were making our way to Santa Elena.  It was kind of overcast in Medellín but the weather did look more promising at where we were heading to.  We arrived at our meeting point in Santa Elena before 10:00 am and after paying close attention to Juan, our local guide and his safety recommedations, we were soon heading downhill on a paved road in Santa Elena (10:17 am) as a small bunch of happy campers.  We hadn't been on the paved road for 5 minutes when our guide Juan, asked us to turn left onto a dirt road (or mud road to be more specific).  We dogdged the mud puddles as much as we could but there were points where they were simply unavoidable.  I got a little worried when Mat asked me if it was going to be like that or was it going to get better since his girlfriend Lindsey was not enjoying it in the least.  

But the truth is that it was only going to get better and better.  And indeed, less than 1 km. later, we were away from all that mud and now going still on a dirt road but with very little mud to worry about.   We even ran into a bunch of stray steers but that was nothing to panic about.  It gradually continued to get better as we left that dirt road and back to a paved road.  As we were going downhill again, Mat got so excited that missed Juan's direction to make a right.  So Juan had to chase him down and let him know that he now had to go uphill to get back on track.  After a bit more than one hour, we stopped at a panoramic viewpoint for a snack.  Juan is the type of guide that really likes to pay attention to detail.  He not only used a cotton poncho as the table cloth (there was obviously no table) but he added a smaller piece of cloth on top to make it even more tidier and nicer looking.  Then he started taking stuff out of his backpack. 

What stuff?  Sesame cookies, guava bocadillos, murrapos (a smaller version of bananas, sweeter and of great taste), an exotic fruit called guava-apple and some bottles with hibiscus tea, also known in Colombia as Jamaica Flower. Juan made special emphasis on the tea's antioxidants and multiple health benefits and also on the energy boost we were getting not only from the murrapos but from the bocadillos. 

After the snack, we climbed up a cliff following Juan's advice to get a better view of the other side of the mountain and it was definitely worth it.  Anyway, we had already been marveled by extraordinary landscape through most of our route.  About 35 minutes after our snack, we made another stop and had a magnificent view of the Valley of St. Nicholas where we even managed to see, though at quite a distance, the famous Rock of El Peñol.

After alternating between dirt roads and paved roads, we finally made it to the main road that would take us back to our starting point.  At some point while on the main road, we were followed by a black lab-wanna-be for quite a while.  There were plenty of local tourists wandering around that road and enjoying quality time with their families.  There were also plenty of local vendors at both sides of the road selling traditional dishes, mostly beans cooked with firewood and chorizos that were hanging out for their curing process.  All this, at a very charming government owned and mantained nature reserve known as Parque Arví.
It seems that Juan's energy snacks did work for us since according to my GPS, we traveled more than 16.5 kms (10 miles) and even though at some times it felt a bit tough and rough, we all enjoyed it and were proud of our achievement.  Achievement...?  Yeap!  We certainly didn't break any speed records but it did feel like mission accomplished to exert ourselves on those bikes for almost 3 hours, go through diverse paths and roads, and enjoy pure air and breath-taking landscape.