1 August
When we left Villa Rica this morning we thought we'd have less than a 9 hour drive to Equador. Not. We are still in Colombia after driving almost 12 hours. There were countless stops due to construction, rough road where there wasn't construction, and then just traffic in general that made the transit slow. Of course throw in that we had several ups and downs in altitude it made for a "delightful" day.
Villa Rica is about 1000m in altitude, then up to Popayan at 1730m, then down to Patia at 1300m, then up to Pasto at 2,560m, then down to Pilcuan at 1900m. Roger drove most the day in either second or third gear because of the climbing, or using the engine to brake when we were going down.
We had our first Army stop today. All the guy asked me was what were we transporting? I said nothing in our casa rodante, and he waved us on.
We were going to stop in Pasto, but didn't come across any parqueros (places to park). We also tried to get gas a gas station, but they didn't have any gas. We then noticed almost all gas stations didn't have fuel and the ones that did had lines on the street, which we wouldn't stop for because of the traffic on the roads. In fact the traffic and pollution was so bad in Pasto, our CO detector went off. That's some wicked pollution, but can be expected with all the motorcycles and high sulfur burning Diesel engines in a congested area. When we finally came across a station that did have gas and a place for us to wait in line, it took over half an hour to get up to the pump.
We're about 25 km from the border. It will be our first independent border crossing, so hopefully it will be easy and won't take too long. Quito is about 300 km from where we're spending the night. We paid an almost toothless, and half blind Colombian 3000 CP ($1.60 US) to spend the night in his closed gas station. We can hear a creek or river running out one window. The other window is closed due to road noise. It is surprising to us that in Colombia, traffic continues after dark, not like in Central America. Fortunately, if traffic continues earplugs come in handy.
When we left Villa Rica this morning we thought we'd have less than a 9 hour drive to Equador. Not. We are still in Colombia after driving almost 12 hours. There were countless stops due to construction, rough road where there wasn't construction, and then just traffic in general that made the transit slow. Of course throw in that we had several ups and downs in altitude it made for a "delightful" day.
Villa Rica is about 1000m in altitude, then up to Popayan at 1730m, then down to Patia at 1300m, then up to Pasto at 2,560m, then down to Pilcuan at 1900m. Roger drove most the day in either second or third gear because of the climbing, or using the engine to brake when we were going down.
We had our first Army stop today. All the guy asked me was what were we transporting? I said nothing in our casa rodante, and he waved us on.
We were going to stop in Pasto, but didn't come across any parqueros (places to park). We also tried to get gas a gas station, but they didn't have any gas. We then noticed almost all gas stations didn't have fuel and the ones that did had lines on the street, which we wouldn't stop for because of the traffic on the roads. In fact the traffic and pollution was so bad in Pasto, our CO detector went off. That's some wicked pollution, but can be expected with all the motorcycles and high sulfur burning Diesel engines in a congested area. When we finally came across a station that did have gas and a place for us to wait in line, it took over half an hour to get up to the pump.
We're about 25 km from the border. It will be our first independent border crossing, so hopefully it will be easy and won't take too long. Quito is about 300 km from where we're spending the night. We paid an almost toothless, and half blind Colombian 3000 CP ($1.60 US) to spend the night in his closed gas station. We can hear a creek or river running out one window. The other window is closed due to road noise. It is surprising to us that in Colombia, traffic continues after dark, not like in Central America. Fortunately, if traffic continues earplugs come in handy.
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