After a great time with Lucho and his family the time finally came to bid them farewell. Leaving a big city on a bicycle is never easy, especially one with traffic like Bogota. I woke early to avoid the peak hours, but the cars never stop there. I peddled through the smog and constant horns for about 45mins and arrived at the northern 'bus terminal' - ie. a section of the highway where all the buses pull over. There were about 25 buses at any one time, all of which pull would over briefly with a man hanging out the door yelling indecipherable town names while people hurriedly jumped on and off. I somehow managed to make sense of the chaos, threw my bike under a bus headed vaguely towards Santa Sofía and jumped on. My heart was pounding. The adventure had begun again.
I got off the bus about 50kms from Santa Sofía - the closest this bus would go and set about putting my bike together. When I realised there was a piece missing I had to chase down the bus, leaving my belongings in the care of a local who had wondered over to say hi. By the time I got back a few more people had come to see the stranger putting together his bicycle, and when I was ready to go, a small crowd had gathered, intrigued as to where I had come from and where I was going. They peppered me with questions for a while until I decided to take off. Waving goodbye, I headed for Santa Sofía once again.
Santa Sofía. A quiet town with a huge strange church.
Taking a few back roads, I arrived at Santa Sofía in good time and found Proyecto Gaia - a bioconstruction and permaculture project that I planned to volunteer with for a week. Beatrice (the owner) was a lovely lady, and made me feel quite at home.
