South America, this is where the trip REALLY begins…

After landing in Bogotá, we began to hop from town to town in effort to reach Mocoa. By this time, we had opened our carburetors and dropped the needle down one position to account for the reduced amount of air available for combustion at the higher elevation. This allowed less fuel to flow into the engine, correcting the rich condition that previously had caused the sputtering.

Along our route to Mocoa, Mike and I discovered a game found mainly in Colombia and Peru. In Colombia, the game is called “Rana” or “Frog”. In Peru, the game is known as “Sapo” or “Toad”. You will see photos of the traditional game as well as a modernized electronic variant. Both are fun, the traditional being much more difficult to obtain a “Sapo” or “Rana”, referring to the moment at which one of the players successfully throws the game-piece into the mouth of the metal amphibian. As you can guess, points are gained or lost based on which hole the ball or disc (depending on the variant) lands in, and the winner is simply the person who first reaching the agreed upon number of points. Much to our dismay, at the time this was written, we had not seen the game outside of Colombia. It seems a rather old game, being slowly phased out due to lacking interest amongst current generations. Mike and I each have plans to build our own game set following our return to the United States.

At this point in the trip, Colombia had officially become my favorite in terms of food. The empanadas, Arepas were far better than I had experienced in the States, and I couldn’t get enough. Truth be told; however, eggs are a worldwide breakfast food, and we are really getting tired of them. Most hotels that offer breakfast offer only eggs and bread, the eggs often including sausage, and in this case, sausage means chopped up hotdogs. Except for the offerings of a few meat markets, I HATE HOTDOGS. And oddly enough, so does Mike. So unless you want hotdogs for breakfast (like our shared good friend Guisippie Nathan Longo, who somehow enjoys hotdogs as his lifelong favorite food) do not order huevos con salchicha for breakfast.

So, when I say, “This is where the trip REALLY begins”, that is because South America holds what I truly needed to justify making this trip via motorcycle. Death Roads. These so called “Death Roads” exist all around the world, but they are plentiful here in South America. I could say that I made this journey for the culture (though we did enjoy this), or to experience historical landmarks, but anyone that knows me well can see through such hogwash. Death Roads are typically high in elevation, unpaved, poorly surfaced, narrow, rocky, muddy, wet, foggy, land-slidey (I just made up a new word) and of course, racing with bus and truck drivers that value not life, including their own. Packed with stream crossings and mostly stripped of guardrails, these roads are far more treacherous to those traveling in four-wheeled vehicles than motorcycles. Motorcycles can hug the cliff walls, allowing other vehicles to pass. But when two (or more) full-sized passenger vehicles or trucks come speeding around a narrow, blind corner at the same time, physics comes into play, and one of the vehicles, due almost entirely in part to the concept of Conservation of Momentum, MUST exit the roadway, aka the side of the mountain.

The first of these Death Roads was not even on our agenda, we simply happened upon it while searching for fun roads to ride. Stretching from Mocoa to Pasto, Colombia, was the “Trampolina de la Muerta” or, Death Trampoline. Officially labelled Highway 10, the entire road winds through the mountains, but the Eastern half is completely untamed. We crossed several runoff streams and passed at least as many sinkholes and landslides. The photos do not serve justice, but some are added below. Rocky, pothole filled roads and fog thick as peanut butter were much of the route. I had to calm myself. I am not known as a very “coordinated” or “athletic” person, but excitement started to win me over. Laying on the horn through blind corners to alert other traffic of my presence (how things are done here) I was loving the speed and technical side of the riding. After tipping speeds of nearly 50mph, Mike spoke out over the intercom “Are you hitting 5th gear up there?!” At which point I thought to myself, “Slow down Jon, you aren’t, nor will you ever be Travis Pastrana”, at which point I reeled myself back in, and road more appropriately given the conditions. We spent $1600 each on our suspension, and I just wanted to get my money’s worth, you know? At this point we also had aired our tires down to 16 psi, just to maintain traction in the rocky mess. At one point I had gotten a little too happy with the throttle, and my rear tire roosted a decent sized rock into Mikes chest. Yea, time to take it easy.

The rest of the riding through Colombia has featured some of the best scenery I have ever seen. Peaks and valleys consisting of every shade of green, the contours outlined by the winding roads carved into them. We enjoyed watching specks of vehicles seemingly miles up the mountain disappear around curves, only to arrive at the same place as those other vehicles and look back down to where we were when we last saw them. Unless the fog was too thick, which at several times was so thick that you could not see past the edge of the road. As shown in a photo below, at the shoulder of the roads you see a few trees within the fog, hiding the cliff-edge just feet away from where you stood. Death Trampoline would also be our first stream-crossing, but only with a depth of around 10 inches. You can see a truck getting ready to cross in the attached photo. The only concern is the bike slipping on wet rock and bringing you down in the middle of the stream, but we both made it just fine. This site does not allow uploading of video files, and I do not have a social media account to link to, but I have the video of Mike blasting through the stream just for funzies.

The route South became more beautiful the farther we rode, with more and more mountainous terrain, lush foliage, and large coffee fields. Large lots of land were covered in coffee beans to dry them out in the sun. Colombia had been filled with great riding, beautiful scenery, delicious food, and fun games. Now it was time to head to Ecuador.