Riding a horse felt a bit like riding a bicycle with a brain. Let me explain. Whilst riding my bike over rocky terrain, I have had to constantly pick and choose my way through uneven surfaces. On the horse I felt I could just urge her in the general direction and trust her to pick the way (although admittedly, it took me a while to relax, trust her and let go of the need to control every move). Steep gnarly rocky surfaces that couldn’t be ridden on my bike suddenly became a possibility. What an incredibly effective form of transport… for roads too rocky to be ridden by bicycle I mean… (video below)
How did I come to be riding this horse. Well, like most events on this trip, it was totally unplanned. It started with a pleasant back road route from Duitama towards Villa de Leyva via Paipa and Palermo. (I could confidently follow it thanks to velofreedom.com who rode it well over a year ago…)
Having finally understood my desire to avoid heavy goods vehicles and lunatic bus drivers, Reinaldo (my warmshowers host in Duitama) escorted me on a pleasant route to Paipa that avoided the main highway. We parted company partway up the mostly paved climb out of Paipa; I then followed a fun dirt road descent for some mid-afternoon rain and lunch in Palermo nestled in a pleasant valley between mountains. The rain didn’t stop so I considered a room in the only ‘hotel’ in town where I happened to be eating. It came in at the same price as my meal, the bargain price of 6000 pesos (less than US$3). Although mildly tempted by the extraordinary cheapness, it would have been a long drawn out afternoon trying to relax in the somewhat dirty windowless cell on recommendation I headed up to a house that overlooked the pueblo. Although the lovely owners had a room that they could rent me for 20000 pesos I opted to camp on their lower floor in an attempt to adhere to my ‘budget’. It also had a great view of the pleasantly positioned little town and I ended up staying an extra day; my hosts looked after me showing me a waterfall and taking me horse riding. The terrain that beast could handle with me on its back amazed me. Some video action for you follows:
The trip from Duitama to Palermo:
Exploring Palermo – waterfall, horseriding and crops – prepared to be blown away by my Spanish (ha!):
The blue line is the route for this section…
