Today, I went for a first ride with the bike 112km back and forth to Zipaquirá, a rather touristic destination near Bogotá, known for its cathedral in a former salt mine, about 100m under ground. Although I started at 7 o’clock in the morning, there was already a lot of traffic on the streets of the awakening suburbs and I was rather occupied by keeping the track. I certainly would not have survived in this street chaos without my strong brakes.

My cautiously elaborated plan of taking the less frequented side ways was maculature after the first crossroads so I just headed northwards until I got out of town. Surprisingly, there were parts with perfect bicycle lanes along the road, which I really enjoyed as a counterbalance to the autopista norte where the cars kept passing me at a distance of 20cm.

After the rather flat way through nice green mountainsides, I arrived Zipaquirá for some breakfast in town and a guided visit of the famous cathedral.

While this church is said to receive 3000 visitors for worship on sundays, it was not overcrowded but nicely illuminated by some coloured light effects.

I took the same way back but arrived only in darkness in Bogotá where I had no luck with the streets: sometimes four or five lanes where any reasonable biker keeps on the very right side, but then joins another street with two lanes from the right… I was just grateful for my strong lamps!