On Sunday I rented a bike and took part in Cyclovia along with thousands of Paisas. My neighborhood is El Poblado and the main road through it is Avenida Poblado. For Cyclovia, they shut down the southbound lanes to cars, and it is packed with bikers, runners, and just people walking. I picked up my bike at Parque Poblado and decided to ride north first because I thought it only went a short distance in that direction. But after I rode several miles, passing downtown, I turned around because I really wanted to ride south toward Envigado.
I stopped back in Parque Poblado where they set up a course and bring out push bikes for toddlers. Where else can children learn how to ride in a city with so much traffic?
After my quick break, I took off from my upscale neighborhood of El Poblado toward the upscale suburb of Envigado. Unlike the downtown portion of my ride which was pretty empty, it seems that every family in El Poblado and Envigado was out walking with their children and dogs. This was not a course for fast riders which was just fine with me. On upscale Avenida Poblado, I passed shopping malls, a McDonald's with a two story glass enclosed playground, and a small shopping center with an Office Depot (I thought they were out of business) and a Bo Concepts (I was tempted to go in and visit my couch).
It was a beautiful morning and I was really enjoying the ride when ... I felt a few drops. The weather forecast in Medellin every day is for scattered showers, and every day it rains, but the rain usually passes in fifteen minutes. So when it started really raining, I ducked into a storefront to wait it out. But Cyclovia ends at 1 and I had to return my bike then. By 12:40 the heavy rain was over so I headed back only to discover that there were cars on the road! One of the workers told me that the course was closed. But I thought it went till 1, I said. Oh, in this section it closes at 12:30, he told me. Great!
Now I had to ride with the horrible Medellin traffic on the rain slicked avenue. Fortunately, I only had to go a mile or two before I got back to the part that was still closed to traffic for Cyclovia. Whew. But I had to hustle to get back by 1. I was in going north in the southbound lane. I wonder what happens, I thought, at 1. Am I going to be in a head-on collision with cars? I was motivated to keep moving fast, uphill and down. And I made it back to Parque Poblado with two minutes to spare.
I have to say that Cyclovia is a massive undertaking. There is someone at every single corner stopping the bikes when the light is green for the cross traffic. I don't know if the people working there are volunteers for employees of the city agency that puts on Cyclovia, but they were everywhere on the course and they were all helpful and nice. And my fears about a head on collision were completely unfounded. Apparently they have done this once or twice before, and they had the reopening of the roads completely under control.
I found out this week that the part of El Poblado where I am staying is called Manila. There are also neighborhoods of Medellin called Buenos Aires, El Salvador, Barcelona, and San Diego. It is amazing how far around the world you can get without ever leaving Medellin.
It is usually nice in the mornings when I am in class, and then rains in the afternoons just when I get back to my apartment to drop off my computer. If I am lucky, I can time it so that I eat when it is raining and then can walk around. My last day in Medellin didn't work that way. It was nice out while I had lunch and then started to rain. I am ready to head to the Caribbean coast for some seriously hot weather.
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