Saturday 31st May 2025 Popayán to Peurto Tejada
Never ventured far last night, still full up from the pizza and chips, so only had scrambled egg and rice, obviously with a few beers, the little town was starting to get a bit lively as we walked back to the digs, they will do well to keep us up. Few bits of really loud music last night, nothing to worry about, I can sleep on a washing line, nothing keeps me awake if I am tired.

Getting lighter earlier in the morning now, all ready to rock just before 6, full up with yogurt and cereal, just had to follow the main road out of Popayán, then head North to Puerto Tejada a small Town on the outskirts of Cali. Heading out of the mountains on to the flats, hopefully, just a few slight lumpy bits, but should be able to push on a bit, all being well.

Once again a humid and damp as we started off, quite refreshing as we headed out of town, soon cleared all the building and on to the open road, bit of construction works ongoing, looks like they are building a bigger road to Cali and Medellín, just had to deviate off the road a few times onto unmade roads, always a bit of fun, but luckily it did not happened to much, managed to keep a fairly good pace going. Stopped for a coffee and soft drink in a little village called Hogar, just sat in the leanto watching the traffic rumble by. Set off again, with a bit more purpose, enjoying the long descents with very little up hill, legs feels so good about time. Good to get on the flat steady roads, not pushing the pace, but it creeps up steadily, find yourself cruising along at 15 / 16 MPH without trying, we kept this up for a good couple of hours, until both of us realised we were hungry, just been through Santander de Quilichao, it was market day, place was busy as ever, stalls all over the road, motorbikes and cars weaving in and out of the traffic, even the Policeman gave up on a busy junction, just left the traffic to sort its self out, in some sort of fashion. We did not fancy stopping there, so pulled over when we got out of town, into a little wooden shack next to a fish farm of all places, nice little stop, only about 12 miles from the finish so can relax. Nice plate of scrambled egg, rice and plantain, good solid food, for two highly tuned athletes, then we go and spoil it all by having a few beers to wash the lunch down, very nice.

Soon back on our way, sped through the last 12 miles in just over 1/2 hour, slowed down when we come into the town, first digs were all full up, it is a bank holiday out here on Monday I believe something about Ascension Day 40 days after Easter Sunday, Colombian take the Monday after it for a bank holiday, seems like a good idea. Nice lady said there was some more hostels down the road, so off we went, is search, soon found a place, not the one we was looking for, but seemed OK. All booked in nice cold shower least its warm now, so it is very refreshing and washed the kit, left it hanging over a chair with the fan going full blast, think it will dry. Next door is a beer warehouse how lucky is that, got a few to help me write the blog, I find it better the more I have had, everybody else may disagree especially my Mum

Need to sort some more routes out, so that’s next on the agenda, before we hit the town, maybe find a Salsa club and burn the midnight oil, that’s not going to happen, but we can all dream.

Well the salsa club never happened, but did have a couple of beers in the local pub, much to the amusement of the locals, watching them play a game similar to darts but using 36mm washers, throwing them in slots on a big board, seemed good fun until one guy through it to hard and broke the scoreboard, probably losing. Then went for a bit to eat nothing fancy, nice pastry for the walk back to the digs, then bed. Saturday night and in bed for 9.