| 11 Cycling Days | 734 km | 15,287 m ascent |
Our route from Medellín to Bogota and through the Páramo de Sumapaz
After nearly two and a half weeks it was time to say goodbye to our Airbnb. Cycling out of the city was exhausting as always. Even though Medellín had a lot of cycling lanes, a lot of them ended very abruptly and inconveniently. We spent a few days on main roads that were, for the most part, pleasant to cycle on. Every now and then, we were overtaken by local cyclists – and later learnt, that we had been cycling sections of one of the longest continuous road climbs in the world. Collecting elevation gain only started properly now! And it wasn’t about to stop any time soon – the Andes are sending their regards. On the third day, we cycled nearly 2300 metres uphill and finally got off the main roads. Towards evening, we were cycling on a truly beautiful, lush and overgrown dirt road. When we passed one of the very few houses, we asked if we could pitch our tent for the night and were greeted warmly. We were allowed to camp in the backyard, use the drinking water and bathroom and had an incredible view of the surrounding mountains.
Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados
The next day, we continued on that beautiful dirt road and continued to cycle uphill, passing fancy-looking thermal spas. At some point, the dirt road turned into pavement and we were at an elevation of nearly 4000 metres! This was our first time in a Páramo – that are unique ecosystems in the Andes South Americas, which are primarily found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru at an elevation of 3000 – 4500 metres. They work like giant water reserves – plants and the soil absorb water from the air and slowly release it into streams and rivers. The best-known plants are probably the frailejones. Páramos are famous for their misty, wet weather, but we were really lucky and the sun was out almost all day.
We cycled for a while at just over 4000 metres through Los Nevadas National Park, with stunning views down into the valley and up the Nevado del Ruiz volcano – the second-highest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere. At 4,149 metres, we set a new, provisional altitude record for the tour that day!
Ruta de la Templanza
From Murillo, we cycled along the Ruta de la Templanza to Santa Isabel – a beautiful but rather demanding gravel road. It started really well, with a view of what seemed like an endless sea of clouds! The road was sometimes more, sometimes less stony, and repeatedly nastily steep. There was almost as much uphill as downhill and we only made slow progress. On top of that, we shouldn’t forget to stop to enjoy the view and take photos. We passed through a forest of wax palms; reaching heights of up to 60 metres, the Quindio wax palm is considered the tallest palm species in the world and is Colombia’s national tree. Sunset was coming closer and closer, and when we took a wrong turn, it became clear that we wouldn’t make it to Santa Isabel that day. We ended up at a family’s place, where they explained that the only way to continue from there was on horseback. We asked if we could camp there and were, once again, given a warm welcome. They let us spend the night in their courtyard and treated us to tinto (black coffee with LOADS of sugar).
The next morning, we set off and cycled the remaining kilometres to Santa Isabel – where a descent of nearly 3000 metres awaited us! In contrary to Mexico a few months ago, we actually had good weather and it got hotter with every kilometre. At some point, the wind felt like a hot-air blow-dryer, and down in the valley it was a suffocating 39 degrees (102.2°F) in the shade again…
Uphill again to Bogotá
From our altitude of 220 metres in the valley, we had to climb back up to 2700 metres within two days. That’s precisely why we didn’t actually want to go to Bogotá in the first place, but rather stay on the other side of the valley. Unfortunately, however, we had a few things to sort out for a future visa, which meant we couldn’t avoid the trip to the capital. There’s was no other way and we had no choice but to carry on climbing. At least, it was quite shaded, so the climb wasn’t as unpleasant as we had feared. Time and again, we had views of the mountain range on the other side of the valley – where we had been just the day before – which was quite funny! Towards evening, we arrived in a small village and an elderly couple, who was walking towards us on the side of the road, started talking to us. We hadn’t even talked much when they asked if we’d like to stay the night with them – they had plenty of space and lived just around the corner. We gratefully accepted the offer, as we didn’t even know where we would have slept that night. The two of them were incredibly kind; we were given our own guest room and chatted until we all fell into bed.
The day into Bogotá was, above all, cold and wet. Back at 2700 metres, the rain was rather unpleasant. The traffic was both fascinating and exhausting to cycle through. The highway was definitely open to everyone – buses, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians… What a chaos! Fortunately, Bogotá has a huge network of cycle paths and we were relieved when we finally reached the first one. However, the cycle paths were relatively narrow and almost as busy as the highway before – cargo bikes, scooter, road bikes, taxi bikes, and us with our panniers… Once we arrived at the hostel, we had a hot shower and ordered some vegan burgers – yummy!
We didn’t stay long in Bogotá, as we had had our fair share of rest days and city in Medellín. We sorted our things for the visa, bought food for the next leg and worked on the blog.
Páramo de Sumapaz
Changing our plans and cycling to Bogotá had a positive side effect: we were able to cycle to the Páramo de Sumapaz! We had actually decided against it earlier because we didn’t want to descend from one mountain range into the valley only to climb back up to over 3000 metres on the other side… The Páramo de Sumapaz is the largest Páramo in the world and lies about 50 kilometres south of Bogotá.
Leaving Bogotá proved to be super exhausting, the city just went on and on and on! At least it was Sunday, so lots of streets were closed off and open only to pedestrians and cyclists. Despite the light rain, there were soo many people outside, running or walking or cycling – it was really cool! It’s a shame we don’t have that back at home… That day, we cycled up to an altitude of 3500 metres and camped in the bushes a few kilometres from the entrance to the national park. The night was really quiet and we were happy to finally be able to wild camp again.
The next day was windy and fairly cold, but at least it wasn’t raining. The temperatures must have been just above freezing. The frailejones were in full bloom, which looked fantastic. We enjoyed the views, took loads of pictures and made slow progress. In the afternoon, we got overtaken by a car and the passenger started talking to us. Turned out, it was the mayor of the little village San Juan de Sumapaz, and he invited us to stay in the local hotel, which he would pay for. Funnily enough, Sebi had already read about two other cycle tourists to whom exactly the same thing had happened. We accepted the offer and decided to cut the day a bit short. Unfortunately, on the last few kilometres of gravel, Sebi went flying over his handle bar, but luckily, apart from a few holes in his clothes, nothing else happened. The front wheel simply got stuck in some loose gravel and wouldn’t do what Sebi wanted it to. Upon arriving at the hotel, we had to give a short interview, and we managed to improvise something in English and Spanish.
Back into the valley
Although we descended to below 1000 metres the next day, somehow we still had to climb almost 1000 metres uphill. The road was a dream once again – a dirt road right through the jungle. We spent the night in a small and cozy hotel in Pandi and it was so hot! We can’t even tell you which was more exhausting during that time: all the elevation gain, or the extreme temperature fluctuations we experienced in such a short period of time. Less than a day earlier, we’d been freezing at just above freezing point, and in the evening it was still too hot in the room, even with the fan on. We were grateful for the little shop opposite the hotel selling coconut-based ice cream, which was a real treat after a day in the heat.
Published on September 04, 2026
Experienced from 02.07.2026 – 14.07.2026
