Suesca: A weekend getaway

This weekend was another long weekend – or puente (bridge) as the Colombians say.  I had another chance to get out of the city with friends.  My friend Liliana’s brother, Willy, owns a bike shop and on the weekends runs bike tours in a small town called Suesca known for mountain biking and rock climbing.  In the town he owns a small hostel as well.

On Saturday, a friend of Willy’s, Juan Carlos, picked up Liliana, her son, and me – and we headed to Suesca for the weekend.  The town is about an hour away but within 15 minutes of leaving the city the air is clean and fresh.  We drove the whole way with the windows down, playing great music and laughing.  We also stopped at this amazing little restaurant that served the typical Colombian foods – meat, potatoes, plantains, and yucca – and drank Refajo, a refreshing beverage made by mixing beer with a typical soda (kind of like cream soda) called Colombiana. 

We arrived to Suesca around 4 pm and spent the entire afternoon and evening relaxing at a little restaurant in the center of town.  It is impossible to visit this town and not be relaxed.  Everything slows down the minute you get there.  Everyone in town knows each other and so we hung out at this restaurant like it was our own home.  We played music, ate empanadas and pizza and soup.  We also drank Canelazo - basically Christmas in a cup – it’s a hot beverage with cinnamon, lime and aguardiente – and in the crisp evening air of Suesca it is the perfect thing to sip to stay toasty.  

Around 8 pm, what felt like the entire town met up to play basketball.  Basketball is not quite as popular in the Colombian as in the United States.  Generally, I find that in the U.S. most guys can pick up a basketball and have a decent game.  In Colombia, no.  It was SO much fun, but we played 8 on 8, which is kind of ridiculous and the players were not good at all – traveling, shooting the ball over the backboard (repeatedly), etc.  I looked like an all-star and I haven’t played basketball in ages!

We ended the evening by heading to the hostel and enjoying a good night’s rest. 

Early the next morning, we woke up around 7:30 in the morning to head into town for breakfast – eggs, empanadas, and coffee.  Again, this town is very relaxed.  We took our time, enjoyed each other’s company, and eventually headed back up the hill to the hostal to get ready for our bike trip.  Things were not quite as organized as I expected.  The bikes didn’t have toe clips (I’m used to riding with clip-in shoes…I realize this sound pretentious but once you’ve used them it’s very difficult to enjoy riding a bike any other way).  I also had no water, a helmet that was extremely tight, and was scared to death that I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  I had decided that I wasn’t going to bike.  Liliana was going to follow behind in her car anyway because she had her 4-year-old son Marco with her anyway, and just wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  Juan Carlos said that he would like to bike ride and so Liliana, Marco, and I began to follow him in the car.  After about 5 minutes up a very steep hill, Juan Carlos stopped and said he needed a break and that I should ride for a bit.  They totally tricked me into riding! :-)  But I was so thankful.  For about 2 hours, Juan Carlos and I took turns riding.  When one of us needed a breather, the other would hop on the bike for a bit.  The views were breath-taking, there wasn’t a single other car on the road, and the weather was overcast and cool – perfect for the strenuous work.  After the two hours, we finally reached the downhill and I flew down the hill for a good 10 minutes or so.  Absolutely awesome!  When the car caught up with me – the roads were extremely rocky so going downhill is easier on a bike – Liliana decided she was going to give it a try.  She was feeling out-of-shape and weak but she missed biking so she got on.  

This may have been the second highlight of the week because I got to drive!  As some of you may know, I LOVE driving and I have not been able to drive since I got to Bogotá because I, 1) Don’t have a car and 2) Can’t drive a stick-shift, which all the cars in Bogotá are (for the most part).  Juan Carlos’ car is also a stick-shift but he knew that I wanted to learn and told me this was the best place to do it.  I "learned" pretty quickly.  I spent the next 30 minutes driving down the road practicing going from parked, to first, to second, and back down.  I probably sounds silly but I was in heaven!  I am not quite ready to cross off “Learn to drive a stick-shift” from my bucket list – I still need to learn how to reverse and practice with the other gears – but I am off to a great start and am SO happy about it.

We returned to the city on Sunday evening but it was a perfect getaway for the long weekend and I hope to return often!