We lunch at the town of Tulcan. Travel has been slow, over mountainous roads climbing up to 12,200 feet and then descending to this small city. Tulcan is the town nearest to the border, and we have to go back and forth between the two until we get the right stamps and paperwork. This takes up considerable time, as the border is quite a few miles from the town.
We finally cross the border into Colombia and arrive in the town of Ipiales, elevation 9,000 feet. We’re only a mile or so from the border, but we clocked up 65 miles today.
After spending the night in Ipiales, we’re on the road again. Not long after leaving town, we round a corner to find a line of broken glass and bottles across the road. We spot and avoid it just in time. This is bandit country, and this is why you don’t travel after dark. We have only one puncture during the day.
Bad weather slows us down considerably and we don’t make it to the next town; luckily, a friendly family living in a small adobe house on the roadside shelters us for the night and prepares us a meal of eggs, rice, and something made from the local sugar cane. We sleep on the floor, glad to be dry.
We give the family a reward for their hospitality and travel on into low cloud and mist. We’re still on the winding mountainous roads, but they’re not as rough as the day before. In two hours ride we reach the town of Popayán. Robert and I part company here. I don’t know where or what he’s up to from here, other than he has a friend. He spoke Spanish well and was good and interesting company.
It’s great to be back on my own, and I can travel quickly, on an excellent road, to Cali, a big city. I talk to the captain of the fire station, who invites me in for a shower and clean up and recommends a local hotel. Captain Mauro is very interested in my travels and has a friend with a BMW motorbike who he wants me to meet. Dr. Alfred Loredo is a motorcycle enthusiast, owns a transport company, and has a very nice property in the hills. He puts me up in his gardener’s house. I spend a couple of days in Cali, and then Dr. Alfred gives me an offer: he can provide free passage from the port of Buenaventura to Panama by ship, but I must be on the road the next day. There is no road through the Darién Gap to Panama, so an offer like this cannot be refused. I have to settle with only a few days in Cali.
Captain Mauro and Dr. Alfred have been busy; they arrange papers for a police clearance so there can be no delays on the road or at the port.