Facatativa and Finca la Pepita

Facatativa, or Faca, is where I went last weekend. The lady who gave me a facial has a sister-in-law who is really into bicycling and they invited me up for the day. It’s an hour outside Bogota.

There were six of us in the group – the sister-in-law, a guy who owns a bike shop in Faca, his nephew, a retiree and a restauranteur.

We left Faca at about 8 in the morning and road… up. I was on a road bike and everyone else on mountain bikes, so I had a weight advantage – but still had to really work to not look like a wuss. There were bikers EVERYwhere! We were on a beautiful country road through farms of potato, corn and flowers for export (tons of greenhouses!) and we were constantly around bicyclists. We passed the town of Rosal and after another hour or so, and one more big climb, we reached Subachoque. Here’s one pic of a few of us in front of the square and church.

Again, bicyclists everywhere – standing around, leaning on their bikes, in all their lycra’ed glory. It looked like they were extras in a bike racing movie. We saw pelotons cruising between police escorts – four of them! – and, when crossing a highway, we saw a stream of bicyclists that must have been several hundred strong tip to tail.

Other scenes were slightly more bucolic:

 

TRIP#2: Finca La Pepita

Party in the mountains! Last Sunday I went to the mountains to enjoy the views and a barbecue – roast pig. My friend Jaime has a beautiful cabin there – built to his own specs. That’s my boss in the pic below.