Days 226-244: Medellin rest days
Medellín is a cool city. I spent more than two weeks here. Walked a lot. North–South is flat, but East–West feels like a hiking expedition.
Met some friends for a few days. Explored the center, El Poblado, Comuna 13, and did a day trip to a big rock called El Peñol (Guatapé), with 600+ steps to get to the top, with some awesome views.
I did invest in a travel yoga mat during this time as I felt a little lazy not cycling, and thought it would be good for the legs. Plus it doubles as some protection for my sleeping mat. I contacted the DownDog yoga app who gifted me a free membership. Thanks! Have no excuse now.
I ordered some tires, new keyboard and a spare derailleur hanger on Amazon. Delivery of these failed two times, so eventually I just had to Google translate an email to them asking if I could collect at a warehouse, which they eventually accepted.
I was scammed one evening. 2 women came up to me. They said that they didn’t want money but asked if I would buy baby formula for their children, showing pictures and telling me their story. I am used to saying no when asked for money but as they weren’t asking for money and had a good story, I fell for it. Next thing I know, I am tapping my card in a shop for baby powder. As I tap, I realize that it costs 50 USD…
Not 2 minutes later another woman with a similar story with a similar sheet of paper was asking me to buy baby formula too. Over the next few days, I hear the exact same story about 10 times. I guess this story works…
That wasn’t the only dodgy moment…
Another night, I was walking through a park after dark. This was probably stupid. The path was quite narrow with railings on either side, out of sight from the road and there was a guy walking towards me. The Spidey senses were definitely tingling so while he was still about 10 feet away, I said “Buenas noches”. He starts fumbling with his trousers for a little too long and 3 seconds later pulls out a knife. Looked more like a prison shank type knife that you see in movies. He said something in Spanish that I didn’t understand. As I was about 10 feet away from him, I started backing away. He didn’t pursue. After 2–3 seconds of me backing away, he also turned and went back the way he came from. 15 seconds later I was back on the main road and felt safe again.
Doing quite a bit of reading during these days off. Not sure how, but The Optimal Dose by Dr Judson Somerville turned up in my recommended reading on the Kindle so I started this. I am now 4 books deep on the topic of vitamin D3 and feel like I am at risk of becoming one of those crazy people ranting about its benefits.
Also got the bike serviced. Not sure what they did but they certainly cleaned it well. It looks like new.
On the last day in Medellín before I planned to cycle, I discovered that my Garmin GPS device was not charging. The pins looked corroded. I contacted Garmin support about this. They said that it is still under warranty but won’t be able to solve it for me while I am on tour. So I will ship the device to them with the repair/replacement sent home. So I had to splash out on a new Garmin… This was very painful.
Got up today, did the last of the packing up of the bike and was excited to get going after the long break. Carry the bike down two flights of stairs, put on the high vis and gloves, load up the course on the new Garmin…
No maps. I mean, the map just showed one main road through the country and nothing else. I’d seen that road yesterday and figured that meant the maps were there. They weren’t. The exact same problem as when I first started this trip… Older but none the wiser clearly.
So go to a coffeeshop and spend the next hour trying to get my phone to transfer over the maps. But to no avail. I don’t think this is possible.
So I decide, fuck it, I will stay another day. I found a dodgy hostel, checked in, and found an internet café nearby. The Linux head in me hates that I have to use Windows but I download all the maps I will need for South America from bbbike.org and transfer them to the device.
Spent my surprise last day hanging around Medellin engrossed in my Kindle. So now with maps downloaded, Kindle charged, and legs itchy, tomorrow begins the South America leg of this silly little bike ride.
