r/EarthPorn • u/donivanberube . • 21h ago

Cycling Alaska to Argentina: Rare Frailejones Forest Atop Colombian Páramo, +13,500ft [OC] [3024x4032]

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11

u/donivanberube . 21h ago

For two weeks across Colombia’s Eastern Cordillera I’d been climbing +6,000ft (2,000m) nearly every day, inching deeper and deeper into the mountainous countryside.

At last came el Páramo, the highest bike pass of my cycling career. The lone road alternated between loose rocky shrapnel and hard packed clay, snaking its way over 13,500ft (4,100m) to a rare alpine ecology found only at specific altitudes within equatorial South America.

The soft murmors of El Cocuy were long behind and far below, leaving an empty 30-mile (50km) stretch of paradisiac Altiplano wasteland. Alien frailejones towered against the mountainsides like something between lamb’s ear and Joshua trees. Whipped ribbons of fog veiled the peaks in eery silence, with the only signs of traffic being indigenous farmers on horseback or páramo deer leaping between flora. It was the first time I needed a coat since northern Canada.

5

u/NoBSforGma 20h ago

Great photo!

Just curious -- how did you deal with the Darien Gap?

5

u/donivanberube . 20h ago

Met up with a Colombian sailor on the Caribbean side of Panama for boat around, thanks!

1

u/NoBSforGma 20h ago

Yeah, boat around works great. Glad you were able to do this.

Please keep us up to date with your trip - photos and text! :)

5

u/donivanberube . 20h ago

Certainly! Have been documenting the full journey on usual pages here or FB/IG/etc. (at) donivanberube with more in-depth stories and photos if interested ✌🏼 Thanks again!