Day 3: to Termales del Ruiz (112 miles)

Today we got up early and rode to a national park famous for the tallest palm trees in the world. They are now a protected species. And a engraving of this landscape is on the 100 denomination money in the picture below.

We headed out early to beat the tourist rush. I thought the view was amazing. The palm trees are in fact very tall. They kind of look a bit like trees in a Dr Seus book. Look carefully in the picture below and you can see them in the fields and up in the mountains.

After seeing the palm trees we headed back to town to have breakfast and then head out on the ride. The mileage today was not as much as the previous day, but it was mostly dirt road and jeep trails. We rode through valleys with steep sides that farmers grow Plantains, Coffee beans, and raise cows.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant by a highway and had a traditional Colombian meal called Frijoles Consuelo. It is beans, rice, potatoes, sausage, corn, and Avacado. It was quite good.

After lunch we had more riding on dirt roads through canyons and farms on the steep hillsides. We gradually gained elevation till we suddenly arrived at the city of Manizales, which has a metro population of about a million people and is at an elevation of about 7,000 feet. I did not get any pictures of the city. We did not stop and I was concentrating on the traffic. Lots of busses, motorcycles, cars. Here is a picture from the internet. It gives some idea of this city up in the mountains.

As we navigated our way through the city we rode underneath the "Cable Aero Manizales". This is literally like a subway or train line in the sky. It goes down one mountainside to the valley floor and up the opposite mountainside, connecting the two sides of the valley. It was pretty cool to see it. Here is a picture from the internet.

Manizales is near the Nevado Del Ruiz volcano, which is active. It last erupted in 1985, causing a mud flow that wiped out a town. We headed out from Manizales towards the Volcano, up a long narrow jeeo road that was really fun to ride, and gaining more and more altitude. Then suddenly, we had arrived at our destination, a hotel at hot springs Fed by the volcano. The elevation of the hotel is 11,500 feet.

Here is a view up a side canyon shortly before we got to the hotel.

we arrived.

The hotel has a series of concrete pools for bathing in the hot spring waters. Shortly after checking in we were all enjoying the hot springs.

there is also a set of stairs and walkway down to a waterfall that the pools overlook. This is a nice place to spend the night. We had another good dinner.