If you’re heading up to Bogota from southern Colombia the most direct route is through the town of Melgar. The problem is that the road is a busy highway and also just after Melgar there is a tunnel that bicycles are prohibited from using. This means either having to put your bike on a bus to get through the tunnel, or finding an alternative route. This is one of two posts on the site detailing alternative gravel routes. This one is the shorter option, and takes you around the tunnel before rejoining the main highway a little further up in the town of Silvania. It’s a good option if you want a bit of gravel, but not as much as the Muña variant detailed in another post. After a fairly intense 12km gravel climb, the road levels off and makes it’s way through rolling hills covered with verdant vegetation, before passing by the holiday homes of Bogota’s rich and famous in the 1980s and 90s on a quiet, paved b-road and then rejoining the main highway up to the city.

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