Barbosa – Chiquinquirá – Ubaté

On 29 August I had the ascend from Barbosa (1600m) to Chiquinquirá (2600m) – an ascend of more than 30km from the village of Puente Nacional on. I left Barbosa early and began my route for the day. The beginning was smooth, and there is a small ascend followed by a descend to Puente Nacional. The ascend of 1000m from the on is not really that steep (with some exceptions), but long. I had to take a break for breakfast at an altitude of 2200m, and another break shortly before I reached 2600m.

This ascend is not followed by a descend – from this point on up to Bogota the savannah is at an altitude of 2600m. The last 10-15km luckily were pretty flat. Nevertheless, I got to Chiquinquirá very tired.

The town of Chiquinquirá has quite some buildings from colonial times, and two big squares. And there are a lot of shops in the centre of the town.

The next day I did not leave that early. From Chiquinquirá to Ubaté it’s only 50km, without any major ascend. But on leaving I noticed that above all my legs were still quite tired from the ascend the day before, and so I did the route quite slowly, with some breaks. The road passes the Laguna de Fúquene, at an altitude of 2540m.

Ubaté, or in full Villa de San Diego de Ubaté, is the ‘dairy capital’ of Colombia, and there is also still some part of the historical centre left. I got the before midday, but unfortunately could only get into my hotel room (Hotel Zaclordy – economical and friendly) after 3pm. But I could leave my bike and my luggage there, and so I went to have some lunch (not bad: avocado salad, rice, potatoes) and did some small walk through the town centre.

In the afternoon I could finally rest – and I needed it. For dinner I went to a restaurant next to the hotel and had some spaghetti with champignons and a white sauce – not very Colombian, but vegetarian.