I took a bike tour of the city of Bogota in Colombia. I heard about the tour from a couple of Australian girls staying in my hostel. They had nothing but wonderful things to say. So, on the tour I went. It seemed like a well run tour company, and although the bikes sure weren´t up to North American standards, whatever I was in South America!!! I just made sure there were two tires, a chain and that the breaks worked. Good enough for me.
The tour started off beautifully. Bogota is a great city, full of life and vibrance. Our tour guide was great and thankfully spoke english very well. We had just finished having lunch and a beer in a beautiful park and were on our way again. I was biking along, full speed ahead, when it felt like I hit a wall. I flew off my bike, at top speed on the downward slope of a hill. I hit the pavement at full force right into on coming traffic.
Luckily, I had managed to avoid my face hitting the pavement, but my knees and elbow were not so lucky. Traffic slowed down and went around me until I managed to get up. I was not badly hurt, just a little shocked. I went back to check out what had made me fall. There were no bumps or rocks in the road. I turned my attention to the bike and realized that the front rim had basically expoloded. The rim had stopped the front tire instantly and I flew right over the handle bars and landed nearly 4 feet from the bike. I was lucky, it could have been much worse.
The bike was done for. The tour guide called the office and had a guy come a bring me another bike so I could continue the tour. When the tour was over, the guys in the shop were very nice and cleaned up my wounds very well. I was still worried about contracting some sort of Colombian pavement virus, but what can you do!!!!
Over a week has gone by now, and after a few days of oozing green scabs, the worst seems to be over and the scrapes are healing nicely. I certainly will have some scars as memories though!!!
Join me as I TRAVEL MY LIFE AWAY!!!!!!!!
CG
I've been there,and remember in Bogota it gets cold at night times,its beautiful there,the food is great also.You can visit the Casa de Nariño which is the presidents house,many tourists walk around there its beautiful.
ReplyDeleteFelicity- Bogota Hotels - Deals Corredor Turistico
OMG! I can't believe that happened to you! You poor thing! Thank God you didn't smash up your face. . .or worse! And here I was worrying about you traveling on the "Most Dangerous Road Ever" where you were going to win the t-shirt. . . . .glad you are ok!
ReplyDeleteWow! This is such an interesting article, I did not know about this Bagota, but now want to see it. Thanks for such great info.
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