Day 90

Odometer  33,101 – 33,119  —– 18 Miles (10,419 Miles Total)

Mocoa, Colombia

A few minutes after I turned the light off to go to sleep last night I moved my leg and hit something that wasn’t there before. It scared me since it caught me off guard. I flipped my phone light on and it was the cat. She loved me so much she wanted to cuddle more. She pushed on the door until it opened I guess and crawled into bed with me. She curled up between my legs and started purring in seconds. I wish I could take her with me.

I got up today and it took me a few minutes but I decided to stay here another day. It was pretty hot and humid straight away. I walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Yeah I’m not expecting any hot water in this small town but when I turned the knob no water came out at all. I went downstairs and mentioned it to the hostel owners and they said the water will be on in a few minutes. I haven’t had a hostel experience like this yet. I was about to take my towel and walk down to the raging river to shower in there. I love it!

Daniella told me about a few things to do here yesterday which is why I stayed, along with me being very tired from 16-17 hours of riding in two days and getting murdered in a salsa class in Cali. I got on the bike at 8AM and headed into the city for breakfast. I found a place and ordered something with eggs and coffee. When it came out it was eggs with plantains and some bread. I’ll take it. It was so hot and humid here. Everyone in this small city was looking at me . I felt like an outcast here. It reminded me of those movies where the opening scene is a white guy with long hair in a button up shirt half open sweating like crazy deep deep in the jungle of some wild country and everyones looking at him. Yeah, that’s how I felt today. I was pouring sweat just sitting here ordering breakfast. I did a little work on my bike while I was waiting for breakfast, tightening up my crash bars since they rattled loose a few days ago. I worked on the blog for a bit and edited pics.

Daniella told me about a huge waterfall that’s actually right next to my hostel. It’s called the end of the world waterfall. Interesting. I got back to my hostel and the owners told me I can walk left 200 meters and pay 30k Pesos to walk 1.5 hours each way or walk 1200 meters to the right and take a cable car for 25k pesos and walk for 50 minutes. I liked the idea of hiking but this cable car sounded sketchy and I was into it. I also dont get why the quicker option with a cable car was cheaper but I was about to find out. I packed up my bag and headed over to the cable car. The thing looked pretty sketchy. We jumped in it and it was loud as hell making its way 100′ over the raging river below us. I got dropped off on the other side and he told me a story in Spanish about how to get to the top maybe? Daniella told me there’s people up there waiting to put a harness on you so you can go to the edge of the waterfall and not fall off.

I started cruising up this mountain. The guy told me an hour to get up there. 22 Minutes into the climb and I was at the top covered in sweat. There were a few people up there waiting for a few guys. I passed a few minutes before I got to the top. We waited for them and we headed over to the waterfall. It was a 5 minute walk down wet slippery wooden stairs where half the people ate shit and lost their water bottles. We got down to the edge of the big waterfall and waited for the harness’. I got mine and got some cool shots next to the edge. After he took the harness off the guide pointed to where I could go swim. I grabbed my stuff and went over in a hurry jumping right in with all my clothes since they needed a wash for sure. I got some other clothes I brought along and washed them in the pool of water under a smaller waterfall. It started to rain really hard and I just sat there in the water taking it all in. I’m in the middle of the jungle right near the Amazon jungle swimming in a river next to a 200′ waterfall in the rain. I was loving every second of this. I must have spent 1 hour sitting next to the river enjoying the view and the noise from the rain and waterfall. I wish I could record this and listen to it when I go to sleep. This was the moment I’ve been waiting for while covered in sweat hiking up here. After sitting there for a while I packed up my bag which was wet at that point except my camera. I put my backpack on and started hiking to the cable car.

Halfway there I remembered the guide told me he will radio to the cable car driver to come get me so I have to tell him when I go back. Well I didn’t. I made the hike back to the cable car in the pouring rain, I slipped twice and ate shit, covered in mud. I was playing music from my phone, singing and bouncing around the jungle. I was having a blast. I felt like a little kid without a care in the world. Wet, muddy, warm, and having a blast.

I got to the cable car and barely had any service. I called the hostel that owned the cable car and with my terrible spanish the woman had no idea what i was saying. 5 Minutes later the cable car started to come over and grab me. We took the car back over the river and didn’t die. Great Success. I rode back to my hostal without a shirt on since I was completely soaked and the hostal was 2 minutes away. I got right in the shower with my shoes and all. Once I was dry I headed into the small city to get some food. I went to a restaurant Daniella recommended and I couldn’t believe how good it was for the price. It’s one of the best meals I’ve had in Colombia so far! After that I went back to the hostel to work on the site for a while and chill out. I layed in the hammock for a few hours on the website and I finally figured out two months later how to make all the pictures bigger. I’m so happy you all can see pictures now in their full glory instead of squinting at every picture. But who am i kidding there’s probably 2.5 people reading these posts from now on.

After that I went back out to the city for a nice slab of grilled chicken with potatoes and a salad for dinner and some ice cream. Grandpa yak was telling me that when he got here on his trip in 2017 it was the day after a huge landslide killed about 1000 people. I googled the pictures of Mocoa, Colombia and I couldn’t believe how bad the landslide was. It looks pretty good here 5 years later!

I got back to my hostel and took off a kickstand extension from Touraracket (Touratech) since it bent when I crashed and it’s been rattling ever since. it actually never fit right because they claim all the welds are different on each kickstand. They suck. I’m gonna try to have the lower piece welded on by a shop in the next few days. I lubed my chain and held off on cleaning the chain since it will be dirty tomorrow on the death road ride. Now I’m hanging in the hostel waiting for my cat friend to come over and snuggle. I’ll finish the site up and pack up so I can hit the road tomorrow morning. I’m sort of thinking about holding off on leaving here so early since it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow. It was supposed to rain all day today too but it cleared up in the evening and it was very sunny.

Lunch

The view near my hostel

The hike in the jungle to the waterfall.

In my element!

Had to wear a stupid harness.

View from the cable car.

Breakfast

Morning view from my Hostel.

Little waterfall next to the big one.

Heaven

Dog hanging out at the big waterfall.