May 21-22, 2014
May 21, 2014
Got a late start, 9:00 am due to heavy fog. The plan was to back track for an hour and take 3N south to Mollebamba.
Water stop on 3N:
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
Mostly small farms with pigs and dairy cows in the area:
From May 21-22, 2014
Nice entrance to a village:
From May 21-22, 2014
The weather seemed to be holding so I decided to take a break and have lunch.
From May 21-22, 2014
There was a couple men hanging out and I was able to get some road information. The road is good and it would take about two and half hours to reach Mollebamba if it didn't rain or rather rain heavy. One of the issues being mud slides, which are common throughout these mountain roads. Finished lunch and was riding again at 12:30. Fifteen minutes out, it started raining, heavy rain. It stayed that way for two hours except for about a ten minute period of heavy hail. Luckily there were just a couple small mud slides and other than one sort of bad wash out, all was good. An hour out of Mollebamba the rain stopped and things started drying up.
It was still looking like rain but all was good when I arrived. Found this place in the center town that had rooms. Parking in the store below
From May 21-22, 2014
Not much going on here.
From May 21-22, 2014
These girls kept saying, hello, they wanted to hear me speak english.
From May 21-22, 2014
Most buildings here are made with adobe bricks. Entrance to my hostel, bathroom on the right beyond the wood pile, room up the stairs on the left.
From May 21-22, 2014
Dirt floor, no window. It was actually very comfortable:
From May 21-22, 2014
When this truck stopped things got pretty lively. A small grocery store on wheels, toothpaste to live chickens. Locals and local store owners get much of what they need from this truck. The couple that own it make a routine route through the mountain villages.
From May 21-22, 2014
It didn't take long for the word to spread there was a gringo in town with a large moto. Spent the evening visiting with the locals drinking beer. Surprisingly I was told that very few motorcycle travelers take this route. Many of the people I spoke with had never seen a moto like mine. I was told that occasionally a bicyclist will pass through.
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
May 22, 2014
Woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunny sky. Got on the road early and stopped at the first village I came to for some breakfast:
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
Just need to descend down, cross a river and then ride up that road. Seems to be a common theme in this country:
From May 21-22, 2014
That's what I descended, looks like a good road and for the most part it is, however, there where a couple washouts that were not comfortable:
From May 21-22, 2014
Small village:
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
This village had lots of interesting narrow streets:
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
Typical adobe farm house:
From May 21-22, 2014
Village square, Tauca:
From May 21-22, 2014
Entering the dryer climate area:
From May 21-22, 2014
From May 21-22, 2014
Beginning of the area known as, Canon del Pato, it's a canyon section of 3N that is famous for it's numerous tunnels:
From May 21-22, 2014
The plan was to ride to Haullanca and spend the night before riding the rest of he canyon. It was getting late and I still had 40 minutes of riding to do. The road was fairly good here however there were a lot of sharp rocks so the going was slow.