Day 98 2/1/2022
Odometer 33,914 – 34,067. —- 153 Miles (11,367 Miles Total)
La Plata, Colombia – Tatacoa Desert, Colombia
I was up at about 6am today and on the road by 7am. I was excited to get to the desert so early today since I’ll have much more time to explore. I loaded up the bike as it was covered in water from a rainstorm while I slept. I didn’t put all my gear on today since I figured I’ll be sweating when I get to Neiva to exchange money and get to the desert. I started the bike up and started ripping down the twisty roads. It was barely light out and I was already having a blast. I was following a road along a river which was surrounded by lush green farms, trees and some mountains along the right side of me.
It opened up after about 20 minutes of riding and I looked ahead down the road. it was getting a bit foggy out there it seemed. Looked like rain to me so I pulled over and put my pants and boots on. Good thing I looked up because not even 30 seconds after I put my gear on it started to rain pretty bad. The rain came down for about 15 minutes and slowly dispersed. I stopped to take a little video of my bike on a bridge with a huge river passing under it. A few minutes later I stopped for breakfast on the side of the road. I got a lovely rice drink with some eggs, rice and soup. I’m over getting soup for breakfast. It’s already hot as hell out here and these guys are feeding everyone soup for breakfast all over Colombia!
Back on the bike and into Neiva I go. I pulled into the city and parked outside of a large mall. I ran inside and boom there it was. Thankfully the exchange shop was open. 3800 Pesos per dollar. Eh not great but I’ll take $300USD worth. Now I’m all set for a few days until I can get to another city and exchange some more for the rest of my trip here. Back on the road and I had about an hour until I got to Villaviejo which Is a small town right on the Tatacoa desert. It was starting to get hot real quick. The temps were rising into the 90’s and I’m stuck wearing full gear here.
The scenery went from lush green farms to desert all of the sudden. It was beautiful. I could use some dry weather. It’s been a while since I’ve had some of this. Everything has been wet lately from the humidity. I pulled into the small town of Villavieja and rode right past it into the desert. Dirt roads for a few miles until I got to my hostel. I pulled in and no one spoke English. There was a pool thankfully and only 4 other people there. I ended up getting a private room for $50,000 pesos a night. I told him I would stay two nights. The whole place runs off solar and I couldn’t use my fan until 7pm. There’s no outlets in my room either, only out in the eating area and there’s certain hours we can charge things. I unloaded all my things in my room and jumped right in the pool next to the 4 dutch people. I cooled off in there for about 20 minutes and walked right back out to my bike.
It was time for a rear brake pad change. I last changed them in Texas less than 10K miles ago. I can’t believe they’re gone in 3 months. I had another set with me but they were stolen along with my tool bag in Mexico. Luckily for me I’ve changed these things 7 times now between both bikes so it took me no less than 15 minutes. The rear cush pads were still all intact after 12k miles since I left NY. The chain was actually still in decent shape which I can’t believe my eyes. I’ve been hauling around a new chain and sprockets all along Colombia with me thinking I would have to change them by now but nope!
I put the bike back together and tightened the chain. Bike was all done being worked on. Time to cool off and slip back into the pool. I laid out near the pool for about 2 hours dozing off and waking up every so often to dip myself back in the pool to cool off. I woke up to the dutch gypsies talking about a 6 hour tour they booked tomorrow. It was a tour of the red and gray desert. I got back on my bike and rode into town to get some food and water since there’s zero cell reception where my hostel is along with zero wifi. I got into town and ordered some typical Colombian food and started some research. There’s a red desert which looks insane and a gray desert. I got 3 bottles of water, threw it in my top box and headed out to the desert to explore. I was only going to ride about 7-8 KMs east of my hostel where there was a pool overlooking the desert.
I went out there and paid for the parking and the pool. I don’t know why I even came here. It’s uglier than the pool at my hostel and I just paid 12k Pesos for this trash. Anyway I started riding east of the pool and stopped to take some photos. I also pulled out the drone for the third time this trip and got some footage.
I decided to go east more for a little more on the dirt road to see where I end up since it would be nice to ride some more dirt without the bike all loaded up. I came to a fork in the road with an actual map of the dirt road. The map showed a big loop around most of the desert. Eh screw it I said I’ll go for the whole thing now. It was probably a 50 KM loop. I started riding on the loop heading north and slowly turned west. The views were incredible. I only saw one person on a little motorcycle pass me coming toward me. I was completely alone other than the goats and horses I saw every now and then. They might have been wild goats and horses as well. I stopped for a few pictures and I enjoyed the silence other than the wind blowing pretty hard. The sun was strong here and I ended up getting a slight sunburn on my arms.
I rode through a lot of sand and almost crashed once when I hit the deep sand doing about 20. My right foot came off the bike and onto the ground since I almost went down but I saved it. I don’t know why I decided to put my foot down at 20 but I did. I came up to a few river/sand crossings covered with cow and horse shit. I was praying I wouldn’t put my foot down in this. I ended up making all three crossings without getting my shoes wet. It was pretty sketchy. I crossed through a lot of deep sand on this part of the ride and god damn I hate that stuff it’s so hard to ride in. I would hate to get stuck out here in the sun alone. I ended up making it all the way out and back at the hostel unscathed thankfully.
Once I was back home I jumped in the pool, went into town for a nice dinner with two fresh cups of Maracuya. I did some more research on my phone about the desert. I saw the gray desert but I didn’t see the red yet. I did pass a patch of the red on the way to my hostel from town but I didn’t see it going that far back. I found out there was a big loop on maps.me and I ended up running home to get my camera to do part of the trail at sunset. I took my drone as well.
When I got down to the trail I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. The way the dirt was getting eroded and then drying up and cracking after a rainstorm was unbelievable. I took the drone out at the end before their sun was gone and once again I couldn’t believe my eyes. I took a good look at the desert from an aerial view through my drone and I said to myself no one is going to believe this. It looks so fake on my phone it’s ridiculous. I can’t wait to edit this stuff and show you guys. The drone footage of me flying over the formations are out of this world as well.
After my desert trip I went back home and laid in the hammock after getting in the pool. I read my kindle for a bit for the first time in a while, worked on the blog, charged up all my things and planned on getting up at sunrise to do the rest of the red desert walk. I’m excited for what I’m about to see in the morning. It was lights out for me at 9pm.
2 replies on “Day 98”
Great drone pictures. Interesting stories. Good luck on all your further trips. Leo & Elisabeth
Nice meeting you two! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the reading!