Two hours south of Cali lays Popayan. The city is known for being one of the most picturesque in all of Colombia. The town is also known for its offerings of a free mountain bike ride share, and hikes into the national park to see active volcanoes. We should have chosen the volcano because it would have been considerably safer considering how the day went.
We were driven an hour outside of the town to some thermal springs. The springs were surprisingly nice considering that the water was a putrid color of green and smelled of rotten eggs. We soaked for a couple hours alternating between the hot water and the absolutely freezing cascade shower in an attempt to prevent ourselves from smelling like a Denny's line cook.After we melted the stress away from our month long vacation in the pools, we embarked on the 30k "downhill" route back to town. The HostalTrail provided us with mountain bikes that appeared tough enough to make the way back. We speed through the first kilometers passing through a town, several waterfalls, and other breathtaking sights. Suddenly the tail of my bike became squirrelly and a thwap sound emanated from the tire every several seconds - my tire had gone flat.
The bikes were equipt with a spare tire and pump in the event of such a misfortune. We sat on the side of the road taking the tire off and replacing the tube. Overloaded trucks carrying everything from livestock to produce sped by at a distance that was unnerving. Comically we tried to figure out the world's hardest bike pump and how there is a definite difference between a Shrader and Presta valves. We finally got the tire in and pumped up, put the tire back on and prepared to set off. The replacement tire was flat. We undid the tire again and inspected the tube finding that it had previously been mended twice before. Luckily Dan, a British guy we'd met that morning, also had a tube. We tried that one too with the same result of a slow leak. Finally we used the third and last tube in our emergency kits and it held.
We set off for a rather enjoyable downhill section which concluded around a bend with a hill. Naturally as any cyclist would've, I downshifted to prepare for the hill. Pink, grind, boom, bang. The bike almost launched me, it stopped so quickly. The derailer had snapped off and become wedged between the spokes and frame.
There was no emergency kit provided for the derailer and we were still 20k away from home. I ended up tying the chain to the frame, dropping the seat and scooting using one leg to propel. Sadly, I could not make it up the numerous by scooting alone, so I walked the bike a good way of the remaining distance.
Dan had ridden ahead to send back a recovery party for me. As I reached the outskirts of town the same truck that dropped us off pulled up. The driver was astounded we'd made it that far, and in good time too.
