Entries about clif

No doubt, we´ve had some help.
Like when we were wandering through the jungle searching for the river road north and coming uncomfortably close to running out of food and water, there was help, as local folks time and again gave us food, coffee, encouragement, and a place to stay for the night. Most importantly, they gave us directions and frequently guided us themselves (or sent their kids to be our guides) to the nearest ice cream shop, next crucial road junction, or the only river ferry for 100 kilometers in any direction.

We like to think that as travelers we repay their kindness by telling stories of our travels and in so doing, bring something new and different into their lives, but we always know they are giving us more than we can ever repay.

This trip however we got lucky and got some help in this department from Clif Bar...they sent us several boxes of delicious bars for our trip across Colombia (Risa is no stranger to these good folks, as she has been eating and writing about them for years and last year was given similar assistance for her epic bike trip from Peru to Patagonia).

As a consequence, we were able to do more than shake hands and say ¨muchas gracias¨ when we were given help in a tight spot...we could hand them a Clif Bar as well! Actually this always had to be followed up with an explanation of what a Clif Bar was, that it tastes best when biking, climbing, working hard, and maybe not as a side dish for dinner. But it meant we had presents to give, so give ém we did!

Not that we didn´t enjoy them ourselves too, because as long as we had a reserve stash of a couple bars each, we reasoned that we could just keep going. Even if the next town on the map didn´t exist (a frequent problem), we could always have bars for dinner. Actually, this cushion of protection probably made us extend ourselves farther than was prudent, crossing the mountains north of Duitama, or crossing the desert of the Guajira. But we always made it, and in so doing managed to spread some of the same love we had been shown amongst others across the country.