El Pedregal
Away from the coast and start up the hill. Today I climbed to 1375m (4500ft) as I started away from the coast.
The first 10 kilometers were very flat and came along several beach resorts.
Here there was a roundabout and one road that continued along the coast.
I took the other road. For the next 18 kilometers, it led up the hill to climb to 1000m. It was a consistent climb and never much more than 8%. There still wasn’t much vegetation here.
One of my favorite signs about using your road intelligence, along with the tagline of “don’t leave rocks in the road”.
Hooray! It was nice to get to the top. The terrain opened up. The next 15km were mostly rolling but keeping at the same elevation. After that a gradual climb again. In contrast with riding along the coast, there wasn’t a headwind. More often cross wind or even slight tail wind.
A woman working at one of the places along the way.
I came past a citrus orchard and then at 60km there was a road junction along with a small store. It was a good execuse to sit and take a break. As I was sitting there, the local bus came past. People came out and the store owners sold them some prepared food.
After this, the area near El Pedregal had more agriculture.
I took the turnoff into town and had several hostals to pick from. Found a reasonable one and walked around town.
One of my common lunch items (chicken-fried rice) being prepared.
A number of women here selling and some peeling potatoes. Must be one of the crops in the area.
Today TDA was scheduled to depart Cartagena. My calculation says they have somewhere near 11,200 kilometers on their route to Puerto Montt. My distance is closer to 5,000 kilometers. So it will be an exercise of the tortoise (me) staying ahead of the hare (TDA) on our respective journeys to Puerto Montt.
Regarding potatoes: we read Peru is where potatoes trace their origin. That is why they have such a large variety. Also corn supposedly hails from there.