I left Tierra Dentro around 11 am after an early morning exploring the main site. My goal was to arrive in Popayan before dark. Usually, I never leave so late because the day rarely goes as plans and everything becomes much more difficult at night. However, I really did not have the time for another night in Tierra Dentro because I needed to cross into Ecuador in two days.
I was happy to see the weather was clear because the most of the ride was going to be on dirt roads.

I stopped in Inza to get a little food and fluids before hitting the dirt roads. Just as I pulled in a soldier came over to talk to me and said it was about to rain really hard. I think he was also trying to tell me not to go to Popayan today because the road was bad but I really didn´t understand his Spanish.
I felt so sorry for this poor horse.

I don’t think those sandbags are to keep the soldiers dry.

The electricity went out but I managed to get some food and coffee while I waited for the rain to stop.

Then, it was back on the road.



Right about here I began to regret not trying harder to understand what that soldier was saying.



After this pass the road was not too bad but then I came upon this scene.




I crawled up to where some women were cooking food for the workers and pondered my situation. I was considering turning around but my options were not much better. The road back the way I came could be just as bad or worse and would probably take two days to Popayan even if the road was passible. I walk up to where a group of vehicles were waiting for the road work to finish to have a closer look. They said the pass would soon open up. Also, the tire track lanes were solid underneath the river of water. I resolved to forge ahead. Even took time to convince the road works supervisor to take my picture.


From there on the road only improved with only some minor difficulties.







You never know what is going to be in the middle of the road.

At one point, I felt like I wasn’t sitting right on the bike. Everything was running well but something didn’t feel right. I stopped to look the bike over and notice that the bike was splitting in half.

Well, not exactly, but two subframe bolts were gone and the rear someframe seperated from the front subframe.



I, the engineering genius, figured some zip ties would be as strong as BMW bolts. Or at lest hold until I got to Popayan. Ironically, I had a bag of bolts but none of my nuts matched the bolts. Why I didn’t just stick the bolts as I would later do in Popayan is a mystery.

Everytime I hit pavement I thought I was done with dirt but the dirt just kept pulling me back in.

I made it to Popayan without a problem although those zip ties didn’t last. I went to a garage for some nuts bolts but eventually just stuck some long rusted bolts in to keep the frame together until I got to Quito.