15. The Road of Death
Day 104
I woke up to the sound of rain attacking the roof of my hotel. What is going on? All weather forecast were showing NO RAIN for today. I guess somebody didn’t get the memo. It is completely overcast, it is raining buckets and the surrounding hills are all in clouds. And I am about to ride the most dangerous road in Colombia. This is gonna be fun.
I had a good night sleep so at least something is going for me. I am not hungry, I am anxious to hit the road. I am packed quickly and wear all my rain gear. It is warm and muggy in Mocoa. It is already 23˚C at 7 in the morning. I’ve changed my approach to rain. I just accept that I will get wet. And with this thought I am heading out.
The Death Road of Colombia has almost a mythical status. Cut high through the jungle of Andes mountains, the road snakes through the valley, ridges and on sides of impossibly steep terrain. Road is mostly one one way with many landslides, waterfall and water crossings and many washout with bottomless holes on the road. And that’s where I am heading.
It is raining hard. I can’t keep my helmet visor down as I don’t see anything. I need speed to blow the raindrops away but I can go fast here. Yup, I am gonna be wet today. No problem to get out of town and on the road. The pavement ends after 15 km. It turns into a hard packed and very uneven dirt road. I am riding in 1st gear, chugging uphill. I started at 700m ASL. I crossed few bridges and the rivers have lots of fast flowing water. There is nothing but jungle, rain and clouds around me. Virtually no traffic. One car, that’s it. The road is narrow and climbs steeply into the clouds. I can’t see much around me. Maybe it is good so I don’t get scared. The road is full of puddles, rocky slabs and gravel. The whole place has a surreal feel. There are few breaks in the clouds just to tease me what I can see. I can only imagine what I can’t see. I am doing 25km/h. I am not gonna break any world speed record here. But I am in no hurry. The road is basically one turn after another. You quickly lose the sense of direction. Not it matters, there is nowhere to go but up. Steep climbs, very steep. I am peeking around every corner expecting a truck barrelling down on me. Nobody’s coming, so far. I ride like this for 35 km. It took me almost 1.5 hrs. I reach the first of few mountain passes. I am at 2,800m. I start a long descent. The visibility at times is less then 50m. You see the opposite traffic at the last second. My Nikon is safely pack in my covered tank bag. I am not taking it out in this weather. So all pictures I take are from my iPhone.
I start seeing more cars and trucks. Not much room for both of us. After a long descent to almost 900m I start climbing again. More trucks, buses and cars. Most of the road fits only one vehicle. There is lots of stopping and hugging the rocks on the side of the road. Some truckers are courteous but most are not. They ride like they stole it. That’s scares me more then the road itself. The bus comes around the corner and goes head to head with me. There is no room for both of us. He misses the spot where he can pull aside. I am not budging and we stop. I can’t go any more to the side, there is a solid rock. I made him to back up. The name the Death Road comes mostly from stupid drivers doing stupid things, not because of the road itself. Some of the encounters are pretty hairy. And when you catch up with a truck, he is not just let you pass. Oh no, you have to fight for it. Crazy.
The road is now up and down above 3,000m elevation. The temperature is 13˚C. Still raining hard. Few breaks in the clouds to remind me the views I am missing. It is still slow going. It seems it goes on forever. I can feel the wind is picking up and changing direction. I must be nearing the top of the last pass of the range. And there it is, at 3,300m after 66km hard fought ride I am heading downhill. The road widens and I am getting out of the clouds. I actually can see where I am going. At km 75, I am out of the mountain range in the small town of San Francisco. The cops at the police checkpoint don’t even bother to take their eyes off the their phones, checking Instagram probably.
At least it stopped raining, it is only drizzling. After the town the road opens up and it is as smooth as any roads in Colombia. I can sit down and enjoy the scenery. Lots of farm fields here. I soon get to town of Pastor which I bypass and head straight down to Ipiales, my destination today. There is a brand new 4 lane freeway and I can relax. We are descending down to very narrow canyon. We descend from 2,800m to 900m only to climb back up to 2,900m. No place to stop and take pictures. Soon, I am in Ipiales. I am heading straight to my hotel. Easy to find in the middle of the city. The hotel is actually a apartment building and I have entire 3 bdrm apartment to myself. All is perfect except the internets here is so slow, I can even upload anything. So I might have to wait to upload this blog and pics tomorrow. But I sit here at 2,900m and it is cold. And getting colder. I can’t believe I am less than 90 km from the equator. I didn’t expect that. I know for the next time …
The death road name is kinda pushing it. Challenging, absolutely but most dangerous? I think not. I expected much worse. Tomorrow is a short hop across the border to Ecuador. I have to check the weather there and decide where I gonna go next. I am only 3 km from the border so I am hopping to get there before most people decide to go there.
It was a fun but very cold day. I am still sitting here wearing 4 layers and with my Red Bull tuque.