8. Roadblocks, Fog and Deep Valleys
Day 115
I got up early today. There is nothing I’d like to do in this town for me so lets get out of here. I decide to combine two days into a one long one. I have over 400km ahead of me. I quickly get out of town and motoring on a decent road. Majority of today should be on the main road. There isn’t anything I want to see here. Lets face it, the trip up here was a waste of the time but at least it wasn’t raining and it was warm.
I settle into a rhythm but about 20 km behind the town there is a big line up with cars stopped on the side of the road. I ride up ahead and there is a roadblock at the intersection. The road ahead isa blocked but luckily for me, I need to take a turn and take the road which is not blocked. That was close!
I am moving nicely and again settling into my pace. About 65 km into my day tI see another line up ahead of me. That’s not good. Everything is stopped, people out of their cars. Not my day … I ride forward and there is a police road block. But there are more cars stopped behind them. I ride up up to them and ask them what is going on. A road block, political protest. Great! Can’t I get through? No. Is there a route around? No. How long is it gonna be? 10 hrs, maybe few days. Not the answers I want to hear. As I am contemplating what to do, one of the policeman comes over and say, if you want to try it, go ahead. Finally a glimmer of hope.
I get on the bike and I am inching forward about 2 km uphill. There are more and more people towards the top. There I see a riot squad with their full gear on, another police units with shield and more riot gear. They don’t mess around here. Then I see the barricade. Big piles of sand and bunch of fallen tree trunks. Nobody can get through that, maybe only on bike. You need a front end loader to clear it. I am totally out of place and everybody notices me. I ride closer and police just step aside. I shut the engine and assess the situation. Bottom line, it is no good. Guys come over and tell me that I have to go back and take the coastal route. That’s extra two days. I don’t like that idea. I put my bike into neutral and slowly pushing it towards the sand piles. I ask what is happening and people start telling me. I have no idea what they are saying but it is clearly a political statement and/or demand. Nothing to do with me. I look for people in charge. I spot a guy and head directly towards him. I ask him if I can get through and ask if I can talk to jefe, the boss. To my surprise he goes away and in few minutes returns with another guy. I ask him to let me go through telling him I need to meet another people tonight. A white lie … He asks me where I am from. From Canada. His demeanour changes and tell other guys that I am OK, I am Canadian. Then he tells me to go back and return in other lanes as there is a concrete median. That’s better. I am the centre of everybody attention. I slowly ride back by the riot police and they are giving me thumbs up. I return in other lane and am approaching the barricade. There is a small opening between the sand files which is covered by wood tree trunk. As the boss sees me he tells something to the other guys and they start move the trees. As I go by there are guys cheering me on and giving me high fives. I don’t even wait till they move the tree out of the way and ride over it. More cheers. There are some locals right behind me who try to take an advantage of the situation and would like to piggy back. But the trees are quickly put back and the guys are politely but firmly stopped. I fist bumped at least two dozen guys and that was it. I waved ate the boss and he gives me a thumb up. I am on the other side. That was intense. I slowly ride by line up of cars and truck in the opposite direction. 3km! I made it, again, it was close.
The rest of the ride was pretty boring. But sometimes I like boring. I’ve had enough of excitement for one day. It is overcast, but not raining. Road is OK, so I am making good time. My GPS is telling me I will be at my destination pretty early. Good, I like being early.
I make a turn off the main highway and head for the mountains. My destination is in a deep valley in the m middle of Andes. The road to it looks pretty squiggly on my map. That should be fun. I follow the GPS tracks but can’t find the road I need to turn to. It all private and fenced off land. I have to backtrack about 30km and take another road paralleling the other one. This road is soon getting into jungle and starts to climb. Traffic is almost none. But the road is getting worse and worse. And higher and higher. It is drizzling and I am getting in the clouds. Visibility drops dramatically. I can see more then 20m ahead of me. I am dodging potholes and when a truck emerges 20m in front of, I am getting a heart attack. I am doing 30 km/h. I still have 80 km to go. This is hard. My GPS is confused as but at this point there is only one road I can take so I am not worried. This continues for another maybe 50 km and it is very tiring. I have never seen a fog like this. Then I crest the top and I am in other valley. The clouds open up and the view is amazing. I stop many times to take pictures. But no picture can capture the vastness of the mountains or the depth of the valley bellow. I am just trying to soak it up. Then I can see the other side of the valley, wow. You have see it to believe it. And everywhere on the mountains you can find small house. How they get there and what they do there, I have no idea. I keep snapping pictures. My progress is slow, now due to the fact that I am stopping every 100m. It is mesmerizing.
I finally make it to my destination, Alausi. A small town in a deep valley in the middle of Andes. Very picturesque. I just didn’t expect the mountains be so big and the valleys so deep. Awesome.
No problem finding my hotel, right on the main road. Standard procedures, quickly offload everything. The bike is behind the locked gate. I am off to explore this town. It looks like I am the only gringo in town. Normally, this should be full of tourist. The main attraction is a train that rides along the steep mountain side and above deep valley with breathtaking views. But the trains sits idle. They shut it down when the Covid hit 3 years ago and they haven’t recovered yet. By the number of tourists in town, this will take awhile. The receptionist I was talking to wasn’t too optimistic. What a shame. I walk around, taking pictures. The train and the cars sits there at the train station in the middle of the city like a museum pieces. Too bad.
I am walking along and there is a view point overlooking the deep valley bellow. There is an old guy sitting by himself. It creates a nice picture so I take a few. Then I go to the guy and start talking to him in my broken Spanish. I showed him the pics I just took and he likes them. Mr. Chonga is his name. Lives here all his life. We chat and then he tells me about the landslide that killed bunch of people in town earlier this year. I didn’t know that. We chatted a bit more the I took more pictures of him. He likes them again.
I continue to walk for a bit then head back to the hotel. I check the news and found that part of the town was hit by a massive landslide. Many people killed and many more lost their homes. The road to the town was cut off. And there is a mobile hospital still set up at one of the squares. Not a happy times for this town. But it sure has an impressive location.
I am tired. Today was an eventful day with lots of riding. It is time to hit the sack