After a few days of exploring Bogota, we decided to head out of the city to Roberto’s family farm, two hours north of Bogota. The drive was quite and experience. Roberto was very uneasy about driving at night so we left as early as possible. Unfortunately, due to the traffic, we found ourselves on winding mountain roads as the light started to fade. The roads were congested with buses and large trucks puking up clouds of smoke as they attempted to accelerate up the large inclines. The only way to pass these beasts was to take the risk of passing on a tight turn, usually carved out of the mountainside. At times, the cars and trucks attempted to pass in drones, with the last few subject to little or no sight of the road and a likely possibility of encountering large fast moving opposition. The road through the local town, Ubaté, town was a bit flatter. By this time, an oily dark had fallen and visibility was almost zero. This was compounded by a fog the left the road itself a figment of our imagination. Most of the time, the only way we knew that the road was beneath us was because the pot holes could not be so big in the Fields that skirted the area. At this point, rain drops the size of grapes began to fall, further impeding our progress. All the time, bicyclers came out of nowhere silhouetted in our headlights.

We arrived at the farm, safe and sound. The house itself is an old converted Spanish fort that sits on the edge of a mountainside overlooking the fields below. The interior is quite spectacular, with tile floors and plaster walls. The rooms desired to be a little bit cozier are layered with thick rugs, or straw mats. We spent the days exploring the country side as well as Ubaté. One of the highlights was seeing the 1000 kilo bull that they imported from Canada for breading. In the evenings, we chilled and read at the hearth of a large fire.

Today we are heading to Ecuador! The bus to the boarder alone will take about 22 hours. Although we are making our way through some territory that is controlled by the FARC (Colombian guerillas), we have been assured that the bus line that we have chosen has paid their “Vaccines” to assure safe passage.