When leaving Medellin, we decided to take a short cut to save about a hundred miles. The road was showing as paved on both online and paper maps and it is a peaceful area. So this was going to be a straightforward matter, at least on the map. And what was supposed to happen at some point during this journey did indeed happen: we ended up driving at night on a mountainous road that was only partially paved. It took us almost four hours to drive 60 miles, creeping up and down on a narrow road, alternatively dirt and paved (but full of potholes), among trucks, carts and various kinds of vehicles. The scenery was just gorgeous. We finally reached a small town after 7pm where we could spend the night in a small hostel with very nice owners. We went up to 2’500 meters high. We cannot recall how many times we saw signs of “obras en la carretera” (work in progress), “desvios” (detours) or area geologically unstable… Apparently the road is under construction, so the maps are a bit ahead of time. During the last hour, my eyes were constantly on “Maps With Me” to check our progress and how far we still were from the small town; I was not driving of course and it was pitch dark outside. Our official photographer was doing the driving, so there is unfortunately no picture of this beautiful area…
Well, this is a learning experience, we will now stay on major highways as our camper is not exactly designed for mountain unpaved roads. Although major highways are not any better sometimes…
We are going to hang around Santander for a couple more days and head off to Bogota, the Amazon and the Zona Cafetera, hopefully on paved roads!
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