March 4, 2025 Santa Rosa de Cabal to Salento

 March 4, 2025 Santa Rosa de Cabal to Salento: 40 miles, 5,153 feet of climbinb

I woke up to pouring rain. I nonetheless put on my bib and jersey and wolfed down my cold oatmeal. Juan Jose decided to change the route. Instead of skirting around Pereira, we'd save 5 miles and go right through the center of town.

The rain settled into a light drizzle and we set off. As we approached our first downhill, the rain turned into a downpour. I could hardly see, the rain was coming down so hard. I stopped and struggled to put on a rain jacket. I zipped it up and pop, the zipper blew out. So I continued down the hill with my jacket flapping, feeling a bit chilled even though the temperature was in the low 70's. As quickly as the rain came, it went away. Sun came out and my jacket got stuffed in a back pocket.

The ride through Pereira was an adventure. Lots of traffic and mopeds zipping in and around us and our group zipping around stopping buses and parked vehicles. Loco-mbia as Jose referred to the crazy, anything goes in Colombia. 

We made it through Pereira and across a beautiful bridge with no issues and from there it was smooth sailing and beautiful smooth pavement  until we reached the turn-off to Filandia. This was an out and back to quaint little town in the mountains. The road was cement and bumpy. Big downhill that rattled my fillings followed by a steep 14% grade to the village. I asked around trying to find out why it was called Filandia. No one seemed to know or care.

At this point we still had another big climb to get out of Filandia and I was questioning if my legs had enough reserves to make it out. But after a hearty lunch and some exclellent café con leche (coffee with steaming hot milk), I felt pretty good.

Once out of the Filandia road, it was back to beautiful roads and a great descent through a national forest. I stopped and caught some video of our group flying by.

Of course, every beautiful descent is followed by a long climb. The climb though was surrounded by trees and very little traffic. The grade was reasonable and below 6%. I felt like I was in a jungle. You could hear birds, insects, running water and all kinds of plants and flowers surrounded me. But then we arrived at the outskirts of Salento. The stretch up the hill to the center plaza was in double digits. Here's some video of our riders braving it up the hill.

Jose climbing with wings

Me, at least not tipping over

Mike climbing strong

Orlando, determined !

Salento proved to be a beautiful village with lots of activity and tourists from all over the world. Our accomodations were excellent. Comfy beds and hot water. We stayed in Salento two nights. Some rum was consumed on day 1 and there were many happy faces.

Tomorrow was to be a rest day, but plans were made  to take a jeep ride to a park and do some serious hiking. No rest for the weary.