Day 4

I woke up at 5:45 today and hit the road. Weather looked pretty good and I might actually not get rained on today but who knows! I had a 7 or 8 hour ride to Popayan and it was going over the Andes Mountains with a-lot of dirt riding. I almost got busted by cops going around a truck but luckily they didn’t stop me. My visa for the bike is expired and I don’t have insurance so if I get busted I’m in tons of trouble and I’ll have to pay a-lot in fines. I passed a few roadblocks by cops but they let me cruise right through while stopping others. Lucky.

I took this route on the last trip coming north so I figured I would remember most of it but as the hours went by none of it was coming back to me. I ended up riding about 2 hours in the dirt today. More than I would like to with these tires. I hit some real muddy spots going over the mountain today but luckily I didn’t crash once! Such nice views today with most of it being twisty roads so that was fun and the time passed by quite quickly.

Crazy to see how much of a beating these bikes can take and they still run great after years and years of abuse. It really makes me appreciate machinery and how well it all works when it works. My bike was just rattling like crazy for most of today’s ride and I keep having a feeling that the box is going to fall off the back or my panniers are going to fall off. I rolled into Popayan two hours earlier than Google said I would and got myself a little hostel right in the center. I went out for some food and walked around a bit. It’s a small city with not much to see here but they have a great delicious restaurant right near my hostel which I went to twice today.

They have a grassy pyramid shaped hill on one side of town so I went for a little walk up it to get a nice panoramic view of the city with clouds in the background and rain pouring down behind the sun. I have a bit of free time on my hands tonight and my mind started spiraling. I looked up directions to Quito and the border and for some reason I started panicking with how much of a journey it is with nowhere to sleep in the middle at any hostels. I put my phone down and decided to go for a walk.

The emotions from their last trip are coming back slowly. So much anxiety coming from so much free time. It’s funny how we all are too busy at home all the time with work, life and errands to ever self reflect. Now it’s all coming back to me. Time to get used to not working all the time or having anything to do. Nothing I can really do to run away from these feelings I just have to take them as they come. This was one reason I really didn’t want to break the trip up into two parts.

Coming back to this life is a bit rough to get used to so quickly. What a rough life I have huh?

So tomorrows gonna be a big day. I am trying to leave Colombia. It’s a 7-8 hour ride to the border if I don’t get hit by any rain and then I’ll see what I can do to sneak my bike out. Hopefully no one will ask to see that I closed out my TIP for the bike. Once I get into Ecuador I can relax quite a bit as I will be legal there. I also called the bike shop in Quito and told them I’ll be coming in a day or two for the tires I ordered from them over the summer. These guys just made my day and told me they’ll throw the tires on for free. What a bunch of nice guys. Ecuador Freedom Bike Rental is the name of their shop in Quito if anyone ever needs to rent a big bike down here for a little vacation.