14. Desert and Mud
Day 103
It was a very short night. Another rooster has his time zones mixed up and started squaking at 2 a.m.! Then the neighbours decided that the best time to crank the music at the party is 4 a.m.! What can you do. My bike is literarily 3 meters from my bed so packing is no issue. A quick breakfast and I am heading out of town at 7.
I plan to do over 400km today so it will be interesting. The first part is offroad. Nice morning but it is HUMID. After few km. I see what I came here to see, the Tatacoa Desert. Except it is more like Tatacoa Mud. The ground is soaked wet after recent rains and desert floor is full of green plants. All the trails are closed. I take few pictures and continue on the road. The sand is getting wetter and soon become a very slippery mud. I adjust inching forward carefully picking my line. Few inches either way and I am stuck at the best. The dude is getting deeper and there few sections I have to go around. But later I can’t get around and the mud gets deeper. And I hate mud. Then I get stuck at the bottom. The suction of the mud hold the tire. It takes few tries and lots of HP to get out of there. Basically a full gas and release the clutch. Hat can possibly go wrong with this technique… But it worked. I am getting tired. I just don’t want to drop the bike because I know how hard it would be to pick it up. A few river crossings and many more km later I get on the paved road. I did 40 km in 2 hrs … Way too much work. I am not sure if it was worth it. But for some reason I made it without dropping the bike.
The road is nice with many rim breaking potholes so I need to pay attention all the time. I made it to the main road. Not too much traffic. I get gas and as always everybody is surprised how big my bike is. 250cc is a big bike here. Mine is 5 times as big …
There are many constructions on the road and tons of one way sections. At every stop, bikes goes to the front of the line. Patience is not in Colombian dictionary. They all are itching to go and as soon as they let us go, it is like a start of a motorcycle race. I play along. Somehow, nobody gets run over. We all meet again few km later at another construction site.
The road is closed had, this time for the road bike race. 2 hrs. One other guys tell me to follow him, he knows the way around. Few other guys join is as well and we go offroading. Problem is that all other exits are closed. There is no way to continue before the race is done. I park my bike right in the main intersection in town and have a lunch. I am sticking out like a sore thumb and people stare at me but I am used to it by now. After lunch I go to watch the race. Might as well. I take my Nikon and start taking pictures. Looking at them now I am quite pleased. There is nothing so far this camera can’t do.
The race id over and everybody is racing to go somewhere. I am about a half way through my trip today. The road is getting progressively worse and more narrow. There was no rain forecasted anywhere today but that doesn’t mean anything. I put on my rain gear and go through few rain showers. Road starts to climb and traffic all but disappears. I get to the top at 2,600m and there is a police checkpoint.This time the soldiers check my bike. Not too seriously though. A lady from the car ahead of me gave soldiers bag of oranges and they in turn gave me a couple. Nice! I ask if I can take a pic of them and they were more then willing to oblige. There is noticeably bigger military presence around here. I see truckloads of soldiers armed to their teeth. More road blocks but everybody wave back and let me pass without stopping. There is nothing but thick jungle around here. This is one of 3 areas in Colombia where they grow coca. I still have 100 km to go but the road is mostly nice. I am making better time then expected. Pretty soon I am at my destination for today - Mocoa. I didn’t book hotel last night as I wasn’t 100% sure where I will end up. I head to one I found online. No problem getting there and they have room and nice safe, gated parking.
It is time to clean up and head for dinner. I am only a few blocks away from the centre. When I get there, it is full of people. It is dark by now but kids are running around and everybody is having fun.
That’s it for today. I am tired but I need to watch a F1 race and do the blog. I think I’ve decided that I will ride almost all the way to the border. I have my hotel booked already. And as I am writing this, it started to rain. Again, a proper tropical downpour. It is very loud with thunders very close. I hope it won’t last long. I have a long dirt road section ahead tomorrow … Anyway, that was today.