Day 97

Odometer  33,666 – 33,914 —-  248  Miles (11,214 Miles Total)

Pasto, Colombia – La Plata, Colombia

Little did I know when I woke up that today was going to be one of the top 5 rides of my life.

I got up quite early and was ready to hit the road ASAP to get out of this cold boring city. I walked down to the bike garage and luckily the bike was untouched. I had a bad feeling about the place. I brought my luggage down the stairs, loaded it up and hit the road. I wasn’t sure where I was going to ride to today. I just knew I was going in the direction of the Tatacoa Desert which was about 14 hours away. On the route was a huge pass over the Andes mountains and I was a bit nervous about what It would bring.

Would I be stuck on some long wert dirt road for hours upon hours? I wasn’t sure. The road started beautifully out of Pasto. It was still very cold, foggy and wet. It was drizzling a bit but the roads were twisty the whole time and I was having a blast. I was riding through some wild roads in the mountainside but I couldn’t see over the edge because of the thick fog. I was blasting around trucks and cars going up the hill having a field day with music playing in my ears. I came around a corner and the clouds broke. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I pulled over on the side of the road to snap a few pictures. Rolling hills thousands of feet high in elevation with roads carved into the side of them with a river at the bottom. The clouds were burning off slowly and the view was opening up. I sat there in awe for a few minutes letting all the hard work I just did passing the slow trucks and cars pass me while I was staring at this view on the side of the road. I got back on my bike and just as I took one last look the clouds burned off even more. I jumped off the bike and took some more pictures.

I got back on my bike and less than 1/4 mile later I saw an even nicer view so I pulled over again. As soon as my tires hit the drainage part of the side of the road my bike started sliding like it was on ice on a hill. My tires hit the curb and the panniers hit the guardrail making the bike lean over hard and I couldn’t hold it up on that angle so I jumped off. I hit the kill switch and just left the bike there while I took a video and some pictures of the view, with the bike on the ground. Everyones going to laugh when they see this one! Not a bad Monday morning view before I even had breakfast at 8AM. I got the bike standing upright and kept riding. It was a long way down the valley and I crossed over a gorge. The clouds were finally starting to let up and the sun was poking through a bit. I crossed through a small town and decided I would get breakfast at 9am. I pulled over a little shop and got a typical Colombian breakfast. Eggs, rice, coffee, a chicken wing, some salad and beans. While I was eating I was pouring sweat. Holy shit I finally made it out of the cold weather! It was about 85 degrees and early in the morning. I kind of wanted the cold air back. This was brutally hot and humid.

I got on the bike and kept riding. I stopped for a pee break on the side of the road and took a video of the view. A pee with a view! I was riding twisty roads for hours and hours with a little bit of rain here and there. The temps were warming up and cooling up the whole time. I started climbing up a huge mountain and decided to stop for a fresh cup of juice. I got two cups of grapefruit juice for 15,000 Pesos. I might have overpaid but I’m ok with it. It was delicious and refreshing. It was a small town called Sotara in the Mountains. I still didn’t get to Popayan as I was riding through it to get to the Andes. I was contemplating stopping there as I didnt know how long the ride over the mountains would take but I decided to go for it today.

It was at this moment I realized my trip is almost over. I think I have about a week left of exploring before I’m back in Medellin for ten days or so, loading up my days with Crossfit and salsa lessons before I go back to New York. I’m going to be back at the union gig waking up at 4:30am real soon so I better start enjoying every second of this. I truly started to live in the moment more than ever before on this trip. I was appreciating every single turn, every smell, every little town, everything. I’m going to miss this for sure. This week is going to be full of fun and adventure which I haven’t really had in a while. No rush to get anywhere. Wherever I end up I’m happy and I will continue on the next day.

I got to Popayan and started up route 25 which would turn into 26. I opened up IOverlander and checked the route. Shit not one person has a restaurant, hotel or campground checked off on this ride over the Andes. I hope I get through this and out the other side. I started up the mountain as it got cold and started to rain a bit. I pulled over to throw my gloves on and I was happy to see a few cars and bikes going up the same route but there still weren’t a lot of them.I was still having a blast with the music playing in my helmet ripping around turns. I got to a roadblock where they were doing construction. I got off to pee and while I was doing that I said to myself let me check IOverlander to see if anyone left any comments about the road. Suddenly a little hazard symbol popped up.

Someone was here three weeks ago and said they waited 2 hours for the road to open up due to roadwork. Shit I hope I don’t have to wait two hours right now. I read some more and people were saying there’s 20 miles of dirt roads between here and La Plata. They were saying the roads are trash in the rain and it’s a one lane road for most of the time. They also noted how the Colombians were terrible drivers. I waited about 20 minutes and they opened the road. I got right on it. I was ascending and descending into thick thick fog not being able to see more than 50 feet in front of me, it was raining and the roads were slick. I had a mix of paved and trash mud roads. I was having a blast and not too worried. This was part of my last adventure before I went back home craving this all summer.

Icame out of the fog into some more roadwork and the view was breathtaking as people said it would be on IOverlander. I stopped for a few photos by some parts of the road that had a clear view of the mountains across the valley. I had a blast descending down the dirt road. As I got to the bottom where I had maybe 15 miles left of dirt roads to get to La Plata there was a dog in the road so I had to stay in the middle. I looked up and there was some local idiot looking at the mountains on a motorcycle. We were both doing about 40-45 on a dirt road. This guy wasn’t even looking forward. I got on the horn and just at the last second he looked up and with no helmet on I saw the expression on his face. He was about to hit me head on and possibly kill us both. I couldn’t swerve because of the dog to my right. He turned at the last second and clipped my pannier with his knee. I heard the impact and felt it a bit. I looked In my rear view and his leg came flying off the bike and he almost flipped off the other side but stayed on. He stopped and I kept riding. Fucking idiot almost killed me.

I got off the dirt road and the bike felt so smooth after hours of riding in the dirt coming out of the Andes Mountains. I had a lovely ride next to a huge river for about 45 minutes before getting to La Plata. The roads had tons of debris and rocks from mountains next to the road where there were landslides occurring weekly from what I seemed. I found a little hotel on IOverlander and it was $35000 pesos for a private room. Not bad, I took it. I brought everything into my room and went into town to get money exchanged because I was running low. I walked around for about an hour but no luck. The ATM broke when I was waiting in line for it and there were no exchange stores in the town. I went back to my hotel and ordered two dinners at the restaurant. I watched some Netflix in my room and researched what tomorrow’s ride might be like, what to see in the desert, how to get out of there with the dirt roads going to the north and just about anything else I might encounter there.

I didn’t have much internet as it cut out at 9pm and I just went right to bed hoping I could sleep through the night. It was finally hot and I only had a fan in my room with no windows.