Bianca and I went climbing one last time at Valley de los Halcones, a very sweet spot near our home. We also wanted to climb in memory of our friend Mikey. - the one and only crag he visited. We met some other friends in the valley and had a wonderful climbing day...
My friend Tutti climbing a sweet 5.12 in Valley de los Halcones.
Several days later, we packed up the bike and headed back to Bucaramanga to visit and climb with friends at La Mojarra, one of Colombia's best sport climbing crag. Arriving in Tunja, 80 kms north of Suesca, we stopped to fuel up then continued on. After nearly 50 kms, I realized that I didn't recognized any of the road. Something seemed to be wrong. We pulled in at a gas station to ask directions. We were completely off route. Our google map on Bianca's iphone showed a good looking road toward San Gil. "No worries" I said, "lets just take that road". So we continued along until the highway split in 3 different directions. Confused, we asked at another station which way to San Gil.... "Ohhh", then man said. "Better go back to Tunja! very far, bad road.. long long way"... great.
The nice road on our GPS map turned out to be nothing but a bad dirt road. Way to too far to go back, we decided to go for the adventure and continue along the mysterious road, highway 64.
Luckily Bianca noticed the little sign on the side of the road, Onzaga - from now on the road turned to dirt. We were way to far to go back to Tunja. We didn't know if the road would be open all the way to SanGil. Continuing along, we started riding down a twisty mountain pass until arriving in Onzaga. Nothing but a few homes in the middle of nowhere. I stopped to ask
some old folks outside their home if the road to San Gil was open. They told us it was but in very bad shape. Looking at my loaded bike with my surfboard strapped on the side. They told us to be careful. We thanked them and rode off into the unknown...
The road continued in a deep valley surrounded by green lush high mountains. It was spectacular. We had to cross several rivers, one being over a foot deep with strong current. We kept our fingers crossed not to get any surprises with a landslide or higher rivers to put a dead end to our path. The sun was getting low and the riding was slow. We felt in a place were no tourist should be and not a place to break down!
We had no idea how much longer the road was. We were totally alone on this remote road in the middle of Colombia. It was getting darker by the minute and we really needed to get to San Gil soon. Not a good place to ride in the dark.
Finally, after nearly 90kms of dirt, rocky road, it turned into asphalt, relieved to ride a good road again and out of the boonies... a sign came up, SanGil - 20kms. It was now pitch dark, but at least the bad part was behind.
Bianca and I smilled, our asses were sore and we just wanted to get there and find a hostel for a warm shower and meal.
Our detour turned out to be amazing and sure not on the tourist map! We safely made it to SanGil, found a good hostel for the night. We sat back sipping on a cold beer, thinking about the crazy road, the luck we had to get out of it safely. No breakdowns, no worries... Getting lost sometimes bring you to amazing places... This was one of them.
Pure adventure in the middle of the Colombian mountains.
Off we go into the unknown...
one of several rivers we had to cross.
Twisty mountain pass - not a place to be in heavy rain.
Colombian wildlife...
watch out for cows!
Personal backseat photographer... Bianca in action.
Surf on wheels, challenging on bad dirt roads!
Sun getting low, time to get out of here...
