Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona: Bicycling

Parque Nacional Natural Tayrona: Bicycling.
August 4.

Life was a dandy of a beach all day.  That meant beer, sand and swimming.  Things can get worse, but I hope they never do.

We met a couple from Portugal today.  They are Pedro and Sarah and they have been bicycling  south for 15 months.  They started in Boston in May of last year.  That must feel pretty good to tell people.  They have 9 months left until they need to make it to Buenos Aires.  They have come through The United States, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia.  They have slept in one police station and a lot of fire stations on the road.  It turns out that if you show up in a nowhere small town bicycling, the local fire-station will likely host you for the night.  Sometimes they set up their tent and sometimes they are given beds to sleep on in the station.

Pedro and Sarah’s bicycling journey has been pretty interesting so far.  They are never on the gringo trail.  The experiences they have in the countries they visit it is as real as it could ever be.  They were telling us a story about how they showed up in a town in Colombia where no tourists ever visit.  They asked someone in town if there was a place they could camp and someone told them that a guy named Juan-Carlos had the only place in town.  So, they headed in the direction they were pointed to and an old woman on the sidewalk was knitting.  She wanted nothing to do with them but they needed information so they asked if it was where Juan-Carlos lived.  Eventually she yelled for someone and some guy came outside and brought them chairs to sit and wait.  He called someone and after a while another man showed up and showed them a room in his house.  The room was nice and they wanted to take it but the man was ignoring them and would not talk to them.  Then he walked five meters away and started petting a dog.  In the meantime some other old woman came over and took over the knitting from the first woman.  Eventually Juan-Carlos moved them into the house and directed them to the store to go shopping for groceries in and stood on the street and watched them from the time they left until the time they finished shopping and returned.

One time they were bicycling though Maryland, U.S.A, and Sarah got diarrhoea.  They were in the middle of the city and there were only houses around them and no place to hide.  When Sarah got to where Pedro was waiting with his bicycle she was crying.  She told Pedro the problem and that she needed a toilet immediately because of her stomach but there was no place for her to go on the busy street with traffic.  A man was mowing his lawn so Pedro approached him and asked, “Can she use your toilet?  She’s very sick.”  So, the stranger put away his lawn mower and took her into his house to use his toilet.

They told us that one hour a day by bus for everyone else is one day of riding for them.  They have had eight flat tires between the two of them in 15 months of bicycling and are still on their original bike tires.  They are on their honeymoon.  They are never ever apart.  I suspect that 24 months of riding bikes together across North and South America is a pretty good ‘get to know ya.’  They still make-out all the time after 15 months never apart, so the bond in the journey must be very strong.

Check them out at http://nosdebina.com/