Day 142
The next morning as I prepared to leave my hotel it was overcast and the rain had just stopped. The previous evening I had looked at the map and I had decided to return to route 43 on which I would head South on but for some unknown reason I forgot about that and I headed South out of Neiva on route 45. The early moring air was quite cool and the further South I went the cooler it got and then it started to rain.
Once I stopped to put on my rain gear I realised my mistake of taking the wrong road South and I looked at my options. To get back on to route 43 I needed to either return to Neiva some 40 miles back to the North or continue riding South and then head West either on route 20 to Popayan or to ride even further South before heading West on route 10 to Pasto. As route 20 was closer and as it was a shorter crossing I decided to take that one. Everything was going well on smooth tarmac and concrete roads until about 27 miles in to the 80 mile cross country jaunt when the tarmac disappeared.
Then it was another long hard ride on 40 miles of pothole filled and rock strewen dirt track and to top it all off it started to rain heavilly. I then spent the next two hours riding through occasional banks of low cloud whilst also constantly overtaking and dodging oncoming bikes, cars, buses, and articulated lorries that were also on this road.
What such large vehicles were doing on this road I do not know but if this is the normal traffic for this road I can see why it is in such a state of disrepair. On the way up I passed a large articulated lorry that had broken down and was blocking the road. I managed to get through as would other bikes but anything larger than a small car was not going to be able to pass it.
As the road climbed higher and higher it got colder and colder and at one point near the summit whilst in the cloud the temperature fell to about 10 degrees celcius, something that despite the altitude I had not expected this close to the equator. Again for most of the time I was standing up on the bike footpegs in order to make it easier for me to avoid the worst of the potholes and it was yet another unecessary long, slow, and difficult off road ride for me caused by my own stupidity.
Once I descended the other side of the mountain the rain stopped and the tarmac reappeared. I reached Popayan as the sun came out but I did not stop until I was well out of the city. Once refuelled and out of my rain gear I rode South on route 43 and my plan was to stop about 50 miles or so from the border between Colombia and Ecuador but by late afternoon I had decided that I was done for the day so I set about looking for somewhere to stay for the night. Now that the rain had stopped and the low cloud had lifted from the mountains this was the first opportunity that I had to stop and take a photograph of the spectacular scenery.
In the small town of El Bordo I found a hotel which was a expensive at 160,000 pesos (about 36 USD) for the night but as there was not a lot of choice in the town and as I could park the bike close to my room I decided to bite the bullet and pay it.
My numerous recent dirt track excursions have coated the bike with a thick layer of mud and despite the cleansing efforts of the heavy rain the mud appears to have been baked on and the bike now needs a good wash.
Day 143
The previous night after it had gotten dark the skies had opened and the rain had started to fall. On my travels I use a small front disc brake lock which has a small battery powered alarm built in to it. Once locked any vibrations to the bike, such as someone trying to move it, will set the alarm off however falling rain never does. Well it did that night.
I never put the cover over the bike until it has cooled down but the rain had started before I could do so and as the rain got heavier the alarm started to go off. So I then decided to put the cover over the bike, getting thoroughly drenched in the process, thinking that this would stop the alarm from activating. It did not, the heavy raindrops flattened the cover on to the bike and again the alarm continued to sound but luckily after a while the rain eased and the alarm stopped activating.
When I went to bed I had left my stainless steel camping mug and my soaking wet light weight leather riding gloves on a snall table outside my room. On getting up that moring my gloves had disappeared but thankfully the camping mug was still there. The hotel entrance on the main road some 50 yards away from my room had not been secured during the night and some theiving bastard had obviously entered the hotel grounds and swiped my govles during the night. Either that or a stray dog took them to have a good chew on them.
I had gotten out of bed at seven o’clock in the moring and by half past seven the heavy rain started again. I had my breakfast and waited till the rain eased which was around ten o’clock. I headed South and the road again descened and as it did it got warmer and the sun would ocassionally break through the clouds to give the air temperature a slight boost. When I stopped to refuel I removed my rain gear and set off for the city of Pasto some 100 miles to the South. It was initially quite pleasant riding along but as the road again rose steeply through spectacular scenery it got colder and on this stretch of road the odomoter on the bike turned to 9,000 miles.
The road continued to rise and then it descened again in to the city of Pasto which sits at an altitude of just over 2,500 meteres above sea level. I negotiated my way through the city and then I started a very steep climb out of the city to the South. The climb was so steep that for long stretches I could not use any gear above third, and only sitting at about 40 mph (60 kph) I was still overtaking lots of cars and lorries on the dual carriageway road that wound it’s way up the mountainside.
At the summit there was a toll booth and as I approached it clouds swept in from the East and enveloped everything. Once through the toll booth and on the other side of the mountain. about 300 yards South of the toll booth, suddenly there were no clouds. That was a really weird experience. Then it was a long but rapid descent down and in to a valley and as showers were now starting to appear I stopped to put my rain gear on. I also took the opportunity to take a couple of photographs of where I had just come from and the climb I had yet to make.
I had decided to stay for a few nights in a small hotel in a small village called San Juan which, when I took the above photographs, was only about 15 miles away and situated just off of the main maion road. The reason that I was heading to this particular hotel was because I had found it on the I Overlander site and previous travellers had reported that the hotel had hot water showers in the rooms, something I have not enjoyed since leaving Bogota some six weeks ago.
Anyway it was another long slow third gear climb up the mountainside and then a rapid descent in a very heavy rain storm until I reached the point where I needed to leave the main road and enter the village. Apart from having a hot shower the hotel also had a covered shed in which I was able to park the bike. The hotel was also cheap at 30,000 pesos per night (under 7 USD) and there was a restaurant on the ground floor which was a bonus.
All in all this has been one of the best hotels that I have stayed in here in Colombia both in terms of facilities and price and because of this I have decided to stay here until the New Year holidays have past and I will cross in to Ecuador in 2025.