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Flag of Colombia:
Kms cycled: 11,000 km
No. of punctures: 4 (Miss Jordans bike), 2 (Daveīs bike)
Problems with the bikes:
Miss Jordans bike: Broken chain, broken gear hanger and derailleur. New bottom bracket, springs on the hub broken. Tyre change
Daves bike: Broken frame near to the gear hanger. Tyre change.
Countries visited so far: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
What is Colombia famous for? Production of coffee, emeralds, the singer - Shakira, and the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude).
Favourite sports: Cycling and Football.
Capital of Colombia: Bogota.
Current location: The coffee region - Manizales, Colombia.
Dear Schools,
We hope that you have been enjoying all the activities of the busy summer term and we hope that the teachers are not too tired! I bet you are all looking forward to the summer holidays.
We are now about half way through Colombia and we imagine that we will have another month of cycling before we reach the Caribbean Sea. From there, we will then work out how we are going to get across to Panama.
Colombia
Dave and I love Colombia. It is a country that has a reputation of being incredibly dangerous due to its unstable past, but over the last few years things have changed a lot and the people of Colombia are hoping that more tourists will eventually come back here. We feel very lucky that we have been able to visit such a beautiful country.
It is a country with more plants and animal species per unit area than any other country in the world. It has over 300 plus species of mammal, 1920 species of bird and 3000 species of orchid.
The best thing about Colombia so far has been the hospitality and friendliness of people. Often people have stopped beside the road to give us their telephone numbers in case we need any help with anything on our journey. We have been bought lunch and dinner and are regularly invited into peopleīs homes for the night. We have really enjoyed staying with people as we have made friends and learnt a lot more about the country that we are travelling through.
Highlight no. 1
Dave and I stayed with some friends who own a finca (small farm) in San Agustin. Whilst we were there we visited a very important historical site called the "Valley of Statues". Hundreds of statues have been found. The oldest date back to 3300BC. What is interesting about these statues is that there is very little known about the culture that produced them or what they were for. What has confused archaeologists is that the statues display characteristics from many different cultures, including Asian influences and those of the Amazon cultures. Speculation states that they were something to do with sacred ceremonial and sacrificial sites.
Valley of Statues, San Agustin
Highlight no 2.
We stayed in San Agustin for two weeks and we really enjoyed learning about how people live in this small mountain town. Many people still use horse and cart as their main form of transport.
Shopping trip to town!
Highlight no. 3
Recently, I have been missing teaching and working with children. Luckily, I had the chance to work for a foundation that is currently being set up to provide fun activities to the local area. I spent two weeks teaching English to the local children who live on the farms in and around San Agustin. We had great fun learning English through games, such as, "Whatīs the time Mr Wolf?" and "Duck, duck, goose."
Learning the names for items of clothing.
Highlight no. 4
One of the main reasons for this adventure is to try and raise awareness and money for our two chosen charities; Juliaīs House in Poole, which helps terminally ill children and their families and SOS Childrenīs Village, a charity which helps orphaned and abandoned children all over the world.
We were very pleased to be invited to an SOS Childrenīs Village in Ibague, Colombia to learn first hand, a little more about the charity and how the money that we have raised is being spent. We met the director of the village, spoke to the children, had lunch with one of the families and chatted to many of the adopted mothers and aunties that work for the charity. We left humbled and inspired by what we learnt.
The SOS Childrenīs charity in Ibague was set up in 1985 after a volcano erupted and buried 25,000 people in the city of Armero in a avalanche of mud.
The city of Armero, 2009. We visited the site of the terrible landslide of 1985. SOS Childrenīs Village started in Ibague as a result of this incident.
As a result of this terrible incident, many children were left orphaned. SOS Childrenīs Village bought 5 hectares of land in Ibague and initially built about 16 houses to accommodate the children.
Now, SOS Childrenīs Village in Ibague supports 185 children, 220 families and has about 22 houses. The SOS Childrenīs Village is a safe place for the children to grow up in. The children are brought up in a stable environment in a beautiful home. They children live as a family unit. There is a maximum of 9 children that make up a family, and they share three bedrooms, therefore they grow up with many brothers and sisters to play with. In each house the children have their own adopted mother who looks after them and cares for them. In addition, the children also grow up with aunties that provide additional support to the children.
The houses are spacious and set in beautiful grounds.
Like all families, rules are laid down for the children, however we were interested to see that the running of the house and rules are created together by all the family. Each child has certain responsibilities or alternatively, have a rota for jobs around the house. Saturday is the day for cleaning. Education is also very important and success in educational achievements are celebrated within the families and throughout the village. The children also receive pocket money. We were also impressed to see so much art decorating the houses that the children had made either at school or through various art activities that have been held in the village.
Dave and I were inspired by the mothers and aunties that we met. They have dedicated themselves to look after these children as if they were their own. Prior to working with the children, the mothers and aunties have to undergo a rigorous selection and training process.
Luzma, an SOS mother with her children.
She was the first SOS mother in Ibague and after 23 years of working with SOS left at the end of 2008. To read more about Luzma, click here
Photo from SOS Childrenīs website
The SOS Childrenīs Village in Ibague operates as a community and within the village, the children we spoke to said that they loved using the playground, forest and swimming pool.
SOS children playing on the playground equipment
Photo from SOS Childrenīs website
In 1997 a youth facility was also set up to help the children when they leave the village at 18 years old. This facility helps the children by providing them with support for the future. Money has also been spent on a vocational training centre for agricultural training and organic farming in the area of Guayabal, along with an SOS primary and secondary school which teaches 500 children. This school supports the local neighbourhood children as well as some of the children from the SOS village.
Dave and I chatted so much to the families of the village and had such a great time that we forgot to take some pictures. Luckily, Juan Carlos, an assistant of SOS took some for us during our visit and we are currently waiting for these photos to be sent to us. Once they arrive we will upload them onto our site.
Both of us left the SOS Childrenīs Village feeling inspired by what we had seen and it has given us the urge to carry on pedalling north to raise more awareness and money for them. We are hoping to visit a few more SOS Villages and projects in Central America.
Could your school pledge to raise money for either Juliaīs House or SOS Childrenīs Village for us?
To learn more about our charities, click on the link below.
Juliaīs House - http://www.juliashouse.org/
SOS Childrenīs Village - http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/Pages/default.aspx
Dont forget you can visit up on our website: www.cyclingnomads.com
Or to see all our photos so far go to http://gallery.cyclingnomads.com
To donate online please visit: www.justgiving.com/cyclingnomads
Cycling Nomads are sponsored by:
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