How we bikepacked Colombia from North to South
We kicked off our year-long bikepacking trip through South-America in Colombia. In total we spent 58 days in this wonderful country, which turned out to be a lovely introduction to the continent. In this article, you will read all about the route we took, how and where we camped or when we slept in accommodation, how much money we spent and other practical info.
*According to Strava
Click here or on the link above to download the GPX file
Content:
Our Route
Which Bike To Use In Colombia
Weather
Budgetting
Our Route
Part 1: Cartagena to Girón
Part 2: Girón to Bogotá via Oh Boyaca!
Part 3: Bogotá to San Agustin
Part 4: San Agustín to the Ecuadorian border
Mid January, we flew from Brussels to Cartagena with layovers in London and Bogotá. We packed our bikes in sturdy cardboard bike boxes and they flew with us from home. Cartagena turned out be a good place to start because we could reassemble our bikes at the airport, leave the boxes there and ride into the city without having to take a taxi. We spent 3 days acclimatizing to the tropical heat and to recover from the long flight. The city was a pleasant surprise. The historical centre was colorful and vibrant and was in fact a very nice introduction to Colombia and South-America altogether. We didn’t do any excursions because we wanted to save our energy and had to arrange some practical stuff such as preparing our bikes, arranging new sim cards and stocking up on food for the bike trip.
From Cartagena, we started riding southeast over El Carmen de Bolívar, Santa Cruz de Mompox and Aguachica to Girón. This stretch mostly followed paved roads, other than a section of roughly 20km from San Cayetano to San Juan Nepomuceno. Here we rode on a little dirt road with short and very steep climbs. It took us over 5 hours because of the amount of hike-a-bike. It’s better to avoid this, unless you’re riding a mountain bike. The section from El Salado to a bit before Buenavista was unpaved too, but less rough.
During the first etappe of our ride through Colombia, we had relatively little climbing. Only from San Alberto the altitude increased. The first big climb came right after the Cañon de las Iguanas and brought us all the way up to Zapatoca. From then on, most of our days were filled with long downhills and lots of climbing.
The day after Zapatoca we reached Barichara from where we followed the Oh Boyaca! by bikepacking.com. From fantastic offroad terrain and reaching our highest point of the Colombia at 4100m to camping at the páramo and riding through wonderful small towns, this route was a continuous highlight for us. We have written an elaborate article on this route already, click here to read it.
After spending some time riding towards the East of Colombia, it was time to start riding south. We mapped our own route from Villa de Leyva (where the Oh Boyaca! ends) to Bogotá, following small dirt roads as much as possible. Because we are riding mountain bikes and are able to ride on rough terrain, this is actually what we prefer the most. It takes us away from (heavy) traffic and guides us past places we would otherwise never end up.
When planning our route for the second half of Colombia, we debated between riding to the coffee region of Salento or to visit the Tatacoa desert. Because we took our time to ride the Oh Boyaca!, we chose to visit the Tatacoa desert instead of traversing over the mountains again to Salento because that would have cost us more time and we had a rough time planning in mind. People always say you have to leave something unvisited so you always have a reason to come back.
On our way from Bogotá to Villavieja we once again chose dirt roads to follow instead of the main road to avoid traffic. The riding itself is also a lot more fun because of the variety in terrain which makes it a lot more playful. Don’t be mistaken, asphalt roads are definitely welcome every now and then to give our bodies a break from all the bumps and to be able to cover some more distance.
From Villavieja to Mocoa, we followed paved roads and took a little detour to San Agustín to visit the archeological site - our last touristic activity in Colombia. In Mocoa we opted to stay in the lowlands instead of going to Pasto via El Trampolín de la Muerte because we wanted to move South a bit faster. We crossed the border with Ecuador at Lago Agrio/Nueva Loja.
Which bike to use in Colombia
Which bike is the right bike for bikepacking in Colombia?
To be honest, probably any bike that can carry some type of bags will do the job. With that being said, your bike choice will likely determine which roads you will be able to ride.
We chose rigid steel mountain bikes for our trip across South-America. By far the most important characteristic of these bikes is the wide tyre clearance. Currently we are riding 29 inch wheels with 2.6 inch wide tyres which we think strikes a good balance between rolling resistance and comfort. These tyres let us travel on most unpaved roads without many problems, but they still roll relatively fast on pavement.
In any case, we think tyres of 50mm/2 inch or wider would be most suitable for riding in Colombia. Unless you plan to ride exclusively on paved roads, a wider tyre will give you significantly more freedom and allow you to explore more remote areas, especially in the mountains.
Weather
Most of Colombia has a warm climate almost all year round with two dry and rainy seasons. The dry seasons roughly range from December to February and from June to August. We rode through the country from mid-January until the beginning of March and we found this prediction of the seasons to be spot-on. Apart from a couple of showers during our ride of the mountainous Oh Boyaca! route, we had dry weather pretty much all the way from the Caribbean Coast to the South of the country. Only the last couple of days before corssing the border with Ecuador were quite wet.
In any case we would recommend to bring functional rain gear when bikepacking in Colombia, no matter the time of the year. We use Gore-Tex jackets, waterproof pants and waterproof shoecovers. I tend to get cold hands really quickly, especially when it rains, so I like to use waterproof overmitts as well.
We experienced some really hot days on the bike, especially in the North of the country. Think 40°C in a humid climate. Although a little warmer, we like to ride in long sleeve sun hoodies. The lightweight fabric dries quickly and we can pull the hood over our helmets for extra sun protection. We mostly do this to avoid having to put sunscreen on our arms and neck because it feels sticky and dirty very quickly.
Keep in mind that the weather can change quite quickly though, especially in the mountains where temperatures will drop significantly at higher altitudes. We camped at an altitude over 4000m a couple of times and were happy to have brought a good insulating (down) jacket. Although it didn't freeze during the coldest nights, a sleeping bag with a comfort rating of 0°C is your safest bet for a ride through Colombia.
Budgeting
During the 58 days we traveled through Colombia, we spent exactly €1698,48 in total with the two of us. That comes down to €29,29 a day, which fits perfectly in our budget of €30 a day (€15 per person, per day).
This amount includes everything: Colombian sim cards we bought and two top ups for mobile data, all the accommodations we stayed at, groceries, going out to eat, almuerzos along the way, sunscreen, entrance tickets to the archeological site in San Agustín and a tip for the guide, coffees and pastries, transaction costs when withdrawing cash from the ATM, spare bike parts, a visit to the hair dresser for Hannes, an extra map we bought for our Garmin GPS,…
We didn’t use any other transportation other than our bikes, so of course that saves a lot. The fact that riding our bikes through this magical country is our main activity and highlight instead of taking busses and paying for entrance to go visit places also plays a big role in how we are able to keep our spendings low.
We use prepaid credit cards from Revolut to pay whenever we can pay by card and to withdraw cash. We got recommended these cards because they have decent conversion rates and a practical app to manage your spendings. It comes with a lot of safety settings too, which gives a sense of security when traveling to unknown places. Another type of card we’ve heard of are the ones from Wish. We don’t have experience using them, but they are supposed to have similar features as our Revolut ones.
For mobile internet, we bought sim cards from Claro after having read online that these have the best coverage all over the country. Around the corner from our accommodation in Cartagena was an official store from Claro, so it was an easy fix. In the smaller villages, we found plenty of small stores that would sell ‘recargas’ or in other words: mobile data top ups.
Here is a quick overview of different categories and how much money we spent:
Food (eating out + groceries + cool drinks): €972,15
On average, this is €16,76 per day for the two of us
Accommodation: €569,78
On average, we spent €12,66 per night for the two of us over 45 nights
Sim cards + mobile data: €30,28
Other (transaction costs at the bank + entrance tickets + tips + pharmacy visits + boat rides + bike parts): €126,27