D5: Cartago to Anserma

RideWithGPS Details || Distance: 57.9 miles || Elevation gain: 5500'

***PRO TIPS***
1. Start early. It's going to be a long, hot day!!
2. There's a great little store/cafe beofre making the left turn north in La Virgnia. Fantastic empanadas that will fuel your afternoon!
3. Grab fresh furit from a vendor in the town square of Belen de Umbria. You need the sugar!
4. Walk the main streets of Anserma and note the incredibly steep side streets!

This is a BIG day! Get ready for a ride unlike any other on this trip and a serious challenge, both mentally and physically! This is a ride you will always remember, for its diversity in terrain, the uniqueness of La Virginia, and its incredible, challenging, and bone rattling climb into Anserma. You will earn every single calorie you can consume today!! So, let's go!

Head west out of Cartago with the main flow of traffic. When the road splits, let the heaviest traffic go right and stick to the left on C4. The road traverses a very flat section along a riverbank and the road surface becomes very rough as you leave the main part of town. You'll soon know why! Although the traffic is light, very large trucks use this road.

Follow this route to the traffic circle and take the first right - onto Road 23. This road is SO wide, and insanely different than anything else we rode on this trip! First, its super flat. At times you ride along the Rio Cauca and there are open expansive views. Then you hit the sugarcane fields. And I mean, GIANT sugarcane - easily 10 feet tall. These fields are absolutely massive in scale. For the first few miles, we saw absolutely no traffic and couldn't understand the need for the road width here. Then...Columbia happened. We pulled over in awe of the garganutan 5-caravan long trucks transporting sugarcane from the field to the processing facility in between Cartago and La Virgnia. We only have video of this experience!

Our experience in Colombia was one big dichotomy after another; and nowhere was that more apparent than along this stretch. Literally, in the dust and wake of the 5-caravan truck followed a horse-drawn carriage. We only saw one of these carts from seemingly another era on the open road, but the tree-lined streets of La Virginia staged many of them.

We found La Virginia to be lively, full of local culture and intriguing with the horse drawn carts. We had read that this hot, valley town is very impoverished.

After riding through town, be sure to stop at a small store and fuel up on empanadas and other snacks. These were some of the best of our trip; and although we were well-ahead of lunch time, we knew we would need the fuel to power through the next 20+ miles of highway. There are a few other places to grab snacks along the way but we doubt any would be as welcoming or delicious as this place at the edge of La Virginia!

From this market on the edge of town, turn left and head north to regain the main highway back to Medellin. This road can be busy with traffic that includes commercial buses and trucks. There is a very wide shoulder from here to where you turnoff to Belen de Umbria. We rode this stretch during a period of high construction and didn't have to deal with traffic in both directions often.

At the left hand turn to Belen de Umbira, there is a small snack stand with cold sodas and ice cream! It's definitely worth a stop here to sit in the shade for a few minutes and enjoy something cold before beginning the day's first big climb. Between licks of our ice cream, we chatted with some of the local road construction crew on their lunch break. They were intrigued to practice a little English and had a good laugh at our partial Spanish and, more generally, at two white folks on bikes with the climb they knew awaited us to Belen and then to Anserma. Note: instead of turning here, you can continue along the main highway to Asnerma. This route only requires one (major) climb, stays on the main highway, and avoids the gravel climb described below.

After crossing the Rio Risalaralda, the actual cycling on this day begins! By now, the heat of the day should be in full force and the climb to Belen begins in earnest. Make sure you fill up on water before beginning this climb! The views open as you climb, affording an opportunity to look back over the Valle del Cauca, and before long, you've climbed back into a micro-climate suitable for growing coffee! You continue to climb amid the terrain you fondly remember around Filandia: steep hillsides manicured with plantains and coffee plants! This climb is long, its unrelenting and it will be hot if its in the middle of the day. And its beautiful!

Once you begin to top out, Belen comes into view, but don't rest once you reach the first houses on the outskirts of town! You have one final quad-busting push once in the city to make it into the town square! After you make it here, take the time to enjoy this beautiful hilltop town. Grab a cup of fresh fruit from a vendors in the square to bring your sugar level back to a reasonable level after dripping it all out on the steep pitches of tarmac leading into town.

After a respite and a tour around the town square, jump back in the saddle only to climb a little more before cresting and speeding back down to the Rio Risalaralda. This downhill stretch is the best of the trip - very little traffic and jaw-dropping scenery. Enjoy this 4 miles before you seriously need those quads again!!

Once down, the road Ts across the river and the final adventure of the day begins. Hang a right and follow gravel for the last 12 miles to Anserma.

The road begins gently enough, following the gentle grade upriver for a few miles. Yeah, the road is a bit chunky, but we're back to roads where traffic only consists of small motorbikes! But...and this is a serious but...when this road kicks, it kicks!! CONSIDER THIS FAIR WARNING!

This is a ride you will never forget...and likely never replicate! As you snake along the river and on the initial slopes of the climb, you feel like you're riding deeper and deeper into a rain forest. There is very little sign of humanity. Eventually, you begin to see coffee and plantains, which clue you into the fact that someone, at least one soul, has been down this road before. As you begin to climb, you'll come some rural pueblos that farm these steep hills. Music rings from across the steep hillsides, presumably to entertain the workers in the coffee plantations. At times, the grade, loose rock and dramatic washouts make the road utterly unrideable, particularly with any weight on your bike. When you first see Anserma on the ridge above, it seems that you'll have to climb into the clouds before you get there. Well, close.

The rest of this ride report is this. Keep grinding. Keep climbing. This road does - I promise - top out. Seriously, I promise it does. Your route finishes with a downhill. Yes, the gravel road spits you out at the highest point in town. Enjoy the pedal-free decent to the town square and your hotel!

Anserma is a blue-collar town with an authentic zona cafetera feel. Don't expect anything different in town than the locals would need. Food options in the evening are sparse. Both meals we ate within blocks of our hotel were good. After that ride, we treated ourselves to a whole chicken, four potatoes, four arepas, and two beers!!!!!

********RECOMMENDATIONS************

1. Hotel Mirador Santana. Very friendly staff with the nicest room of our trip. We had a balcony that looked over the street. Hotel is a few blocks away from the town square. The staff stored our bikes in the hotel's conference room behind a locked door.