From Medellin we rode south down the Panamerican Highway to the Ecuadorian border. Overnight stops in Salento to learn about coffee, Popayán for vintage Tango music and Ipiales for the border.
The roads south are quieter but there is a lot of road building going on. New bridges, cuttings through the hillsides and stretches of dual carriage ways mixed with the twisting old roads. Through the roadworks the roads are often slippery with mud. Traffic is controlled through one-way sections with Pare and Siga (stop and go) signs. The local scooters ignore these with the risk they meet a truck coming the other way.
The climate is becoming more mountain tropical with massive storms in the late afternoon reducing visibility to 10 meters or so.
Eventually we make the border. Over the last few years 2.5 million Venezuelans have fled poverty at home into neighbouring Colombia and Brazil. They are heading south for work in Chile and Argentina. The border into Ecuador is processing thousands a day with Red Cross providing shelter and food.
An advance group of 5 bikes crossed the night before. Their rides were there to help us cross. Together with an early start and good organisation we got 15 bikes through in two hours. Leaving two bikes and a van to cross this afternoon for reasons too complicated to go into just now.
And with that, we are in Ecuador. My second country. Number ten for the end-to-enders.
The roads south are quieter but there is a lot of road building going on. New bridges, cuttings through the hillsides and stretches of dual carriage ways mixed with the twisting old roads. Through the roadworks the roads are often slippery with mud. Traffic is controlled through one-way sections with Pare and Siga (stop and go) signs. The local scooters ignore these with the risk they meet a truck coming the other way.
The climate is becoming more mountain tropical with massive storms in the late afternoon reducing visibility to 10 meters or so.
Eventually we make the border. Over the last few years 2.5 million Venezuelans have fled poverty at home into neighbouring Colombia and Brazil. They are heading south for work in Chile and Argentina. The border into Ecuador is processing thousands a day with Red Cross providing shelter and food.
An advance group of 5 bikes crossed the night before. Their rides were there to help us cross. Together with an early start and good organisation we got 15 bikes through in two hours. Leaving two bikes and a van to cross this afternoon for reasons too complicated to go into just now.
And with that, we are in Ecuador. My second country. Number ten for the end-to-enders.
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