RTW North to South: Almost to the Equator

KS- Thursday

This one is going to be short and sweet today, nothing major happened, and I'm just OK with that. We rolled out of Cali about 8am after breakfast at the hotel, nothing fancy, just eggs, bread, fruit and juice. Morning rush traffic was in full swing but luckily we were headed out of the city instead of in. Had a bit of a dueling GPS battle this morning, with all Garmin units being pretty much useless all day because they refused to let us drive on the Pan American Highway. Highway is a bit of a loose term, since the road narrows down to two lanes most of the time, and takes you through the heart of many towns. The good news is that the road was twisty and full of awesome views today. We dropped down out of the mountains for a bit, getting the opportunity to feel the heat again before climbing back up to cooler elevations. Typical stuff happened, pulled over by cops, turned out to be more of a social visit once we told them where we were headed. Its the first time we've been asked for our papers in Colombia, and we were glad to have them. Cool guys, but no pictures with them today. Then it was fill up the gas, top off the oil, lube up the chains, and head on down the road.

As we headed back up into the mountains the views were absolutely incredible. Running some of the roads reminded me of the Alps, steep, narrow, tight turns, and cut into impossibly vertical mountainsides. There was an impressive canyon off one side of the road, could almost pass for the Grand Canyon, except everything is lush and green.

During our late lunch stop, we picked a hotel in Pasto for the night and set our courses. Both of used the same mapping program (Google Maps) for this one, and became separated as we were led down different routes. Chips route was all big roads, mine on the other hand ended up being long tunnels, dirt, and extremely steep narrow streets through a shanty town. It was fun, some of the steepest roads Ive ridden down in a long time, and it made me wish my bike had better brakes, again. Other times I wish for more whoa are during higher speed multiple vehicle passing maneuvers when oncoming traffic dictates a very rapid reduction in velocity to squeeze back into the right lane. I stopped at waited for Chip for a while at one turnoff, but he never showed up, so I headed towards the hotel knowing he was headed for the same place. When I arrived he had not shown up yet so I called him and found that he had been routed to a non existent hotel and his phone was going dead. Saltwater has already destroyed his main charging port on the bike, but another one is on its way from Virginia. Through the marvels of modern technology I was able to send him a map with my location on it, and after a short while he pulled up to the hotel. Check in, park the bikes in a locked garage, and find some food. That pretty much sums it up. Tomorrow we hope to get an early start to make it to the border crossing into Ecuador before things get too busy. My wife is flying into Quito at 8pm tomorrow, which I'm sure Ive mentioned a couple times, and I will be there.

So, I'll finish with a couple pictures, and make a phone call for any last minute packing items from home.