No aggressiveness with the tourist, a “no” is enough to end any wild sale. Always eager to test local products, I knew at my arrival (and having a local contact) I would try the famous perico. For those who do not see what this is, imagine that with this product in the mouth / nose, you speak much more than usual and you are as active as a Sarkozy. In short, at $ 6 a gram (tourist price, if I am not mistaken, this is bought around € 70 per gram in France for a poor quality), it’s now or never to discover the effects. You should know that many locals take it occasionally and if there are addicts, there are also those who know how to control themselves. I’m a big boy, I know my limitations and I also know the products I would never take. Anything taboo around drug is also more harmful than anything else in my opinion. It is best to know the real effects rather than just listening the people who talk about it.
I let my friend buying the product to the mobile vendors in the streets. It is always necessary to wait ten minutes before the bags arrive in your hand, and then in your sock. No one sees the coco but everyone knows what happens, the transaction is usual. Colombian law prohibits the police apparently putting their hands in your pockets (they could put something in and ask you some bucks), but nothing prevents them to ask you to turn your pockets. So in the sock, no worries.

The first taste is absolutely disgusting. Bitter, it anesthetic inside the mouth only with the little left over you have on your fingers. The rest, already in your nose, is waking your brain up in a Vesuvius mode. Now you know what you have to do to stay awake until the next 13h. Ideal for party fans. After 3 days at this pace, I had to hit the road to go to Bogota. 1100km in 9 days, that’s a good challenge to get back in his leg. My head is ready, I know the song, I started, my legs are heavy, they are struggling, and I suddenly feel all the fatigue that my brain still refuses while my heart rate, usually slow on the bike is unusually high. It’s as if my body no longer transmitted signs of fatigue in my brain. But you do not cheat on a bike. The first two days are pretty hellish, I have no energy, I advance nothing, I slept very little the night as if it was still.

That said, I do not regret my experience, I wanted to be if I did not have this opportunity. I had even taken another gram to test the effects at altitude. I’ve always heard that the South Americans chewed coca leaves to annihilate the effects of altitude, I thought it would be interesting to try one last time in these conditions and on the bike. But one morning, while I was struggling to recover from a derailleur half past one, still under the fatigue of the product, I thought it was time to put an end to the experience and I dutifully emptied bag by nature. A European consumer would kill me for this mess but I know it was the right decision, it was far enough away like that. Know the effects yes, rot life, no.

The bad points have gradually disappeared and it took me catch up in the days that followed. 150km of days were well shackled to reach the foot of the mountain which rises to Bogota at nearly 3000m high. Colombians landscapes, first very dry north between Cartagena and Bosconia have regained color and animation along the route. They warned me successively to the presence of monkeys, tapirs, anteaters and even of lazy. Beautiful birds and unknown to my poor knowledge in ornithology peopled my journey to the capital.

Drinking water was initially a problem north of the country before reappear in abundance down to the south. Service stations have as usual been a great help in my way, giving me successively water, regular showers and a place to sleep safe. Some local warned me of the dangers that awaited me, including FARCs the outskirts of Cucuta, others assured me that I feared nothing. Initially very well hidden or in “fincas” (agricultural property), I finished the end of my career by sleeping on the edge of the highway. I was not more in danger that night near Barrancabermeja, where installed near a communication antenna, lightning came down to my tent. Take a token 22h half asleep, it’s even more powerful than the Perico!

I started on the ascent to Bogota confident, via the villages of Villeta and Guaduas. After 1000km at a frantic pace, nothing could stop me. Nothing but a hardware problem. When no derailleur screws decides to lose his thread, it poses some problems in the gear changes. Inventive, I managed to fix it with the means at hand for a few kilometers before the derailleur being might explode in my rays in a 90˚ angle, breaking 3 the way and ruining any hope of 20km pursuit the summit. Infuriating.

The next day, with 10,000 pesos in my pocket, I stoppais a bus to 9200 pesos after a hitchhiking hour without success. I spend a final evening in Bogota Alex company, Katerina its Chilean cyclist friend, and Karin, who accompanied me on the roads of Costa Rica. Everyone was therefore met one last time before I’m flying away from South America.

A sick and Spanish bowl was installed. I wanted to see, to discover something else. Africa attracts me, as the average East, Central Asia, and I do not have a lifetime ahead of me to travel. We had to make choices, so I’m leaving just arrived in South America and is already excited by my new destinations. Locations where I pédalerai now alone, Alex having another road draw with Katerina. Another journey begins, different but at least as exciting!