horses

The ride from Armenia to Salento was short but difficult. The morning greeted me with a 20% grade up from the hotel in Armenia. There was a slow climb the majority of the way, but at a shallow grade. Peter, a Colombian cyclist, passed me, and I asked him about the ride to Salento, the ride to Periera, the climb to Ibaque, which, according to him, is nor the steepest climb in Colombia. The scenery was fed by moist rainfall an webs of green moss and foliage were carved into the foothills. Perieira is beautiful, but I have not seen it--most would call it muy linda, but it is North and it makes no sense to go there. Peter went out of his way to ride with me to Salento, and it was steep, he was a better climber than I, and I had my gear, perhaps less than Moraline, but the gear adds up, but it makes me a stronger rider.
Enesto suggested I ride a horse in Columbia, and Salento is a near good as it gets in Columbia, and I rode a horse with 8 others to a coffee plantation, where a local man showed his plants, provided information about the growth cycle of coffee, demonsrated how it is de-pulped, dried, roasted, and ground. Nonorganic coffee produced 4x the crop of organic coffee--14-20 kilos per plant, 4-5 kilos processes. I had no problem with the horse for hire, the large group--the majority of them women. I was very happy and relaxed to be in Cololbia with new people. I will be on the road again soon and my legs are already tired and I have a very dificult climb tomorrow. I like the locals here, I like the foreigners who visit--there are nearly no Americans here, just a 60 year old man and his 14 year old son and his Colombian partner/woman/ladyfriend. Riding the horse put me in a primitive state and made me feel very free and happy. My horse, Bikina, worked well with me, and she was noble and sweaty and the saddle bags were of leather and very useful. For lunch I ate local sausages and rice and beans and plantains and fried sweet corn pourage with a beer. In the morning I ran a hill and then stairs and then pullups and the day before crunches and pushups and tricep dips and then back again to today I found a trail but a soldier with what appeared to be an AK-74 with a foldable metal stock asked politely to turn around. I will face the mountains again tomorrow morning. Mountains and horses and and green landscapes have replaced women.