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Hot Springs, Volcano and River Trip with Endurolandia


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I could put this in the Tours thread but it's also kind of a ride report.

I did this tour with some friends of mine with Endurolandia tours this past weekend and had a blast.  I'd done a tour with them my first time in Colombia three years ago and that one was great too.  This time I brought my gf and a friend from Canada who was in town.

Day 1 was from the Medellin area to a hot spring resort called Hotel del Otoño near Manizales.  We overslept and so they told us to meet them down the road at a town called Versalles.  We waited there for an hour and a half because there was apparently a road closure and they had to take a detour.

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I saw it was planned to be a long day and figured with that delay already that perhaps we just ride the highway to the resort and enjoy the hot springs.  Plus, I hadn't ridden with Rob before and wanted to make sure he was comfortable on his rental, a Kawasaki Versys 300 X.

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The rest of the group finally arrived and the next morning we headed up the Nevado del Ruiz volcano

 

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Little bit of drama with a water crossing but the rider was 2 up and chose a bad line and the guy behind was riding too closely and he fell too.  Everything is tougher at 14,000' in elevation and it was cold, wet and slippery.  Got out of there without too much drama.

Here's a good Instagram post with some video

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVsWlY0rysv/?utm_medium=copy_link

This was my third time at the volcano but I hadn't gone down this way before.  Turns out there was an eruption just 2 hours after we were off the mountain!  There was ash and smoke but luckily it blew the other way.

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We got to a cozy hotel and bundled up and had a nice hot dinner and got to know the group better.  Really super nice people riding mostly BMW but also KTM,  Honda and Ducati.  Apparently my Tiger 900 Rallye Pro is the only one in Colombia now because they haven't had a dealer in about 7 years but I've heard that's about to change.

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The next day we headed down in elevation and got to enjoy some warmer temps and made our way out to Rio la Miel to an eco resort on the river called Sol y Miel (sun and honey).  We stayed in bamboo huts with beds that had mosquito netting.  Very authentic and reminds me of a similar place I stayed in Guatemala.

But the highlight had to be the river boat tour in the morning.  They took us up river to see wildlife and we got to swim in a water fall and then float down the river back to the resort.

This guy drank a bit too much Aguardiente the night before

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The tour was free for me because I'm a friend and generated quite a bit of impressions on social media that covered my cost.  I also brought an extra paying customer which helped.  Endurolandia is a good outfit and gave us a tour and quite a reasonable price.  Colombia is open for tourism and covid is luckily no longer a problem here.  Flights from LAX are cheap too as I've seen lately.

This guy's video is a bit boring but it gives you a feel for the terrain.  I'd call it "intermediate" but there were some beginner riders who didn't struggle too much.

about 5:50 you see them go down in the water crossing.  After that we pointed out a better line for everyone

 

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18 hours ago, OneMonth.OneRide said:

Sounds like a fun trip ! How was it to ride that 2up ? How much are those tours ?? 

My buddy paid about $550 but then he rented a bike from another company.  You'd pay more renting one of their bikes (they have nice ones).  You'd also pay less if you'd combined it with some training class before the trip.  Great deal, IMHO

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