After 95,000 kilometres, I finally made it to the Andes

It's been almost three years since I set off from Alaska and I've now finally made it down to Colombia, the star of South America. In this video I'm heading deep into the central cordillera to get my first real taste of the Andes. After more than a decade of bikepacking it takes quite a lot to really blow me away but this country reminded me exactly why I started doing this in the first place. I've also got some pretty big news to share with you because after living on a bicycle for so many years things are about to change. But first let's back up a bit. The last time you saw me I was barely surviving a two-week kayak crossing of the Darien Gap making it through some pretty dangerous ocean conditions by the skin of my teeth. Sketchy though it was, that crossing got me to South America. Ten years ago I set myself the target of cycling the length of every continent and hitting at least 100,000 kilometers. And now finally here I am. South America is the last continent. With less than 10,000 kilometers to go the finish line is finally in sight. I collected my bicycle in Cartagena then made my way up to Medellin. With the help of some locals I'd plotted a challenging route through Colombia's central mountains 650 kilometers on the back roads heading south towards Ecuador. The first week out of Medellin was tough and beautiful. Every day brought massive climbs and extreme temperatures which was a solid shock to the system after almost two months out of the saddle. It was a pretty amazing week but looking back the absolute highlight of my time in Colombia was just about to begin. This is going to be a crazy week. I am so excited for this next section. I am now leaving the city of Manizales where I've spent the last few days just resting up and it's a Sunday which is a perfect day to cycle anywhere in Colombia because everybody's out on bikes or running yeah it's just really good energy really good vibes on the streets because there are so many people out and about being active. I am so excited for this next section this next week I think it's going to be really special. I am absolutely drenched in sweat as has been my usual experience in Colombia so far but although it's super hot and humid right now I'm going to be going up to over 4,000 meters in the next day. I'm heading up into the clouds up into my first paramo which I'm incredibly excited for and yeah I don't think I'm going to get there today because I've got a 2,000 meter climb to get there but tomorrow I'm in the paramo and I can't wait. My route up into the paramo was one that had been recommended to me by a bunch of people I'd met along the way. It made for a great climb but best of all halfway up I'd get to visit my first hot spring in South America. This is going to be the best thing ever wow it is like really hot hot every mountain pass should have a hot spring halfway up this is just wow it's genuinely boiling hot this is perfect good morning today I get to see my first paramo check it out we have blue skies and we have a view I could not see that at all yesterday I was completely shrouded in cloud but today blue skies and sunshine so fingers crossed it hangs around for a while you looking forward to getting up there so I've made it up to 4,000 meters and this is the start of the paramo and I can see frailejones all over the landscape and frailejones are these very distinct I guess plants or what would you call them plants trees that grow only in the paramo and I've wanted to see frailejones for many years so it feels very very special that they are everywhere right now it is absolutely amazing here I absolutely love it it really reminds me of the Scottish moors maybe or like the Yorkshire moors northern England Scotland maybe it's the grey but yeah it's just so beautiful here it's so quiet as well I'm about to reconnect with a bigger road but it seems like there's no traffic on it because I can't hear any road noise just a tiny little bit of bird song and the wind so this is now Park Nacional Los Nevados yeah this paved road I think has only been paved relatively recently I'd probably be happier if it wasn't paved because it means there's more traffic and I've deliberately timed it so that I'm riding this road on a Monday really wanted to avoid being here on the weekend because I think it does get really busy but right now it is really really quiet and wow look at this that is the road that I came up on looking down the valley absolutely incredible Aparamo is a high altitude moorland sitting between 3,200 and 4,500 meters above sea level the frailejones up here act like massive sponges pulling moisture straight from the clouds and slowly releasing it to feed the rivers below they are literally the water source for millions of people across the northern Andes so they are heavily protected by law as keeping the ecosystem healthy is a huge deal for the region I freaking love it out here with all this low cloud frailejones and this spooky mist kind of hovering around the visibility comes in and out it's just so moody right now out here absolutely incredible wow what a place I'm so glad I came this way so worth the effort so here is that rain that I was expecting but it's still so cool to be up here every now and then the clouds clear and then you get a bit of a view and it's just so so cool here absolutely amazing right got the uh full armor on right now so hopefully I'll be able to stay warm and I've got a thousand meter descent back down out of the Aparamo to the next town where I'm going to be spending tonight I made it down to the town of Murillo and I'd accidentally timed my arrival perfectly with a local cabalgata which is basically a massive traditional horseback parade where the whole community gets together to celebrate the area's cowboy culture the town square was completely taken over by horses and hundreds of local riders it was a pretty amazing atmosphere to ride into I soaked it in for a bit grabbed some food and then went and got myself a room for the night good morning it's actually cold which is fantastic so excited to be cold I'm just on my way to get myself some breakfast and then let's get down back down into the sweltering tropics right now the temperature is perfect and I know it's going to get much hotter because I'm going to be dropping down now nearly 2000 meters before going back up again but right now this is idyllic it's warm but not too hot not too humid just just right it's just so calm it's just you know a few motorbikes go past maybe a few people on horses everyone's really friendly get these beautiful views it's just so idyllic so I hadn't actually known this but apparently this is an official bike route which is very cool which is the route of temperance yeah very cool you can see why they made it a bike crew this is absolutely beautiful wow hello mama pig wow you're just the chicken is just pecking you in the face wow this poor pig is getting harassed what is going on here yeah that's right that's right you tell her one of my favorite things about this section was that it gave me my first sighting of wax palms these are the tallest palm trees in the world and they are also the national tree of Colombia so while I'm just taking my bike for a nice walk up this 20% gradient hill I have to say I am very very happy because it finally feels like I have got back into the right headspace I guess what I would call the the headspace of joy because I don't know if you've watched my video on bikepacking Guatemala a little while back you'll know that I was definitely struggling with some pretty heavy burnout fatigue and just not really feeling like I was actually enjoying it anymore so yeah I actually seriously seriously considered quitting oh let's take a break I seriously considered quitting because this would have been this I mean this is regardless I mean this is something I haven't really talked about here on my channel but this is this is my last year of living on a bike full-time I am definitely not done with bikepacking in general but in terms of full-term nomadcy this is definitely going to be my last year and I just need to make it down to Patagonia and it will be mission accomplished but nevertheless I seriously considered quitting I think it's the first time I seriously considered quitting I wondered if it was worth it to push through another eight months or so when I just wasn't really having fun when I was just doing it for the sake of doing it to complete this self-imposed objective which doesn't really matter to anyone except myself but I knew that I would never forgive myself if I did quit and give up and I knew that I'd regret it so I decided that I would push through but there was definitely a part of me that was worried that the next the rest of this trip the next six eight months or whatever it's going to take me to get back down there to Patagonia was going to be a sufferfest and then I was just going to be gritting my teeth and just enduring it getting through it but yesterday up on the paramo I was just grinning like an idiot the whole day and just having the best day ever and today as well I've just been having such a great time and I'm struggling to make any progress because I keep stopping to take photos and videos and it's just so beautiful here and there is really nowhere else I want to be right now this is exactly what I want to be doing I mean what a great way to spend your day just traveling pedaling through these beautiful landscapes getting some exercise getting some fresh air what else what else could you want to do with your day I mean it's just such a beautiful way to spend your time this is still going to be my last year for sure I mean I definitely am ready to settle down a bit going forward but it's just making me really happy because actually I'm not done yet I'm definitely not done I can still have an amazing time doing this I still love doing it I still love being out here and yeah that's a good revelation oh dear this isn't going well okay today has been the most insanely good day I just it's been so unbelievably good this this place is so freaking beautiful and it's just like packing paradise but I better get myself down head into Santa Isabel and find myself a place to stay and I'm excited to get myself some food I'm hungry well I've got myself a room and if you're curious what ten dollars buys you in Santa Isabel it gets you a very small room gets you a small wet room bathroom with no toilet seat a bit of artwork here and almost every hotel I've ever stayed in in budget places no matter how basic no matter how mean always has a tv for some reason anyway this is this is the deal I've got this nice little view out over the town and yeah I'm happy to have a bed tonight good morning it is a beautiful perfect sunny day it's proper cowboy country here people on horses donkeys in the streets absolutely love it it's a proper countryside town and here we finally made it to coffee country I have been waiting for the coffee plantations to start here we go your finest Colombian roast this this is where it comes from well that's the hardest climb of the day done and it's absolutely kicked my ass it's just so freaking humid and hot oh it's a good coffee I'm gonna get myself some food and then we're gonna continue but yeah oh today's been tough look at all of this beautiful coffee I'm at the top of the pass and I have this absolutely bonkers view out over the valley here obscenely beautiful and yeah god totally worth it it's been a slog today it's been so freaking hot and humid but it is all worth it for this the challenge I've got now is that it is going to be dark in 45 minutes and I have no idea where I'm going to sleep tonight and I've been looking but wild camping is is not looking like it's going to happen it's just super steep fences on either side of the road so yeah I don't know I from here it's a thousand meter descent so it's all downhill pretty much so I guess I'm just going to roll and I'm sure something will come along oh that was very easy stopped at the first finca I passed and they've let me camp and yeah I get to camp with this absolutely insane view uh-huh so now the problem is I don't want to leave I don't want to leave this view it's just absolutely ridiculous and I know this video is not going to do it any justice but it is genuinely one of the craziest views that I've ever seen in my life up here I just stumbled across this little cafe that was basically closed but they opened up to let me buy a coffee at this absolutely mental mirador this viewpoint makes it all worth it when you get to see places like this you know I really thought that maybe I was done with being able to enjoy this kind of thing over the last few months I really didn't enjoy Central America at all and I really thought maybe it was just maybe the spark was gone but yeah I guess location really does matter I am just so happy to be here right then making my way through the chaos of morning rush hour in the city of Ibague oh my god it's so cool in here this is beautiful I don't know if you can see but I'm already drenched in sweat after only the first 30 minutes but yeah to my route for final few days to get to Salento is actually a really famous one and it's very well known as a very beautiful route and tonight as a reward for the non-stop climbing that I'm going to have to do I get to spend the night at some more hot springs this is certainly an adventure so I've arrived at the hot springs not the nicest and gets quite busy it's a Friday night tonight but there is also a second private hot springs that you have to access by hiking down the mountain for a kilometer yeah so I'm gonna give it a go so there's no getting my bike down here or at least there is but there's no well let's say it wouldn't be much fun getting my bike back up again so I've left my bicycle locked up in a shed with a lady who runs a little tienda a little shop up on the roadside who I guess is in affiliated with this private hot spring but yeah I'm gonna hike down and see see what we can see but yeah hopefully this is worth the effort the finca at the bottom of the trail actually took four months to build with locals using mules to haul all of the materials down the mountain from the dirt road above the thermal pool itself was one of the best I've ever found big enough even to swim in and for an afternoon and a night I had the whole place to myself well I am now leaving paradise with some difficulty very difficult place to leave partly because it's so nice and partly because leaving requires hiking a kilometer up a very very steep hill after having spent the morning in a hot spring which feels very rude to my legs just such an amazing place and yeah finding places like that is really just the best thing about journeys like this these little hidden gems anyway now I've got to get back up to the road get my bike packed up and then head off again muchas gracias there she is delicious chicken foot soup along with my breakfast after breakfast in the village of Toche I had one more big climb between me and the end of my route in Salento and this was a section that had been on my radar long before arriving in Colombia this incredible road cuts straight through the Carbonera valley most tourists staying in the area head to the nearby Cocora valley to see the wax palms but the Carbonera valley is where the real magic is it holds around 600,000 wax palms and an insane 80% of the world's wax palms are found in this valley alone wow I am tired it's been nearly 2,000 meters of climbing today over only about 35 kilometers so that's a lot of climbing and yeah it's getting dark I still haven't found a single place where I could reasonably camp so I guess I'm gonna have to get over the pass and then hope that I find something on the other side at least I'll be going downhill then so I'm looking forward to stopping looking forward to getting over the pass and hopefully I find somewhere to camp soon good morning I've had a wonderful lazy morning in my tent reading a book with a cup of tea and it's a beautiful day and all I have left now is a 1,000 meter descent into the little town of Salento and in Salento I'm planning on taking a few days off checking into a hostel and giving my legs a bit of a break because they are definitely feeling it after all the climbing I've been doing over the last week but yeah what an amazing week it's been I kind of feel like I've I've found myself again this week it's just been so beautiful and so fun and it's been a while since I've had this much fun bikepacking and it gives me a lot of hope for the rest of this year in South America but anyway I hope you have enjoyed this video anywhere close to as much as I have enjoyed riding it thanks for watching and yeah I'm looking forward to a nice few days rest so again thanks for watching I hope you're all good and I will see you guys in the next one