Never a dull day!

 

The road from Ambato to Popayan is a relatively straightforward one of 270km through rich rainforest rising and falling to about 2000m. We departed the hotel at 7:00am as the roadworks started soon afterwards and if we weren’t out of the garage we would be entombed for the whole day. The promise of breakfast failed to materialise and we left feeling we had missed out on our usual starter of coffee and some form of nourishment.

 

Despite an early navigational error by Chris and Barbara (or will they blame Waze?) which resulted in a loop around back to our hotel to start again we were soon enjoying a magnificent drive. The promise of rain all day failed to materialise although we were driving for considerable amounts of time in low damp cloud.

 

We stopped for coffee around 11:00am, making steady progress on brilliant roads. For a country which produces its own wonderful coffee, the drink we were offered hardly constituted what anyone would call coffee. It was however hot, wet and the joy the villagers got from the cars was as memorable as ever. On we went feeling that we were eating the miles up and would be in the Hacienda Picola nice and early to enjoy the afternoon.

 

As is entirely normal on this adventure when 67km from Popayan we ground to a halt. There was a massive mud slide some 10km ahead, the road had been washed away, a replacement road was being worked on, the traffic going north wouldn’t move for at least 6-7 hours. We hunkered down for a long wait. There was no easy way around the problem and going back to Ambato was not an option unless things became desperate.

 

I thought that this was an ideal time to send up the drone to see what was happening. No sooner was the drone launched than Chris decided that he would drive to the front of the queue and see what was possible. Mad panic ensued, retrieving the drone, booting up the car and setting off to the front of the queue about 10km down the road. Despite being shouted at by various police we made it to the front where we were stopped and told we wouldn’t be getting any further until the road opened in 6-7 hours time.

 

Rule 1: Get to the front of the queue

 

The trick in this sort of situation is to smile, engage and persevere and that is precisely what the whole team proceeded to do. We explained how dangerous it was to drive such cars at night, we explained the necessity to get to Popayan, we explained that whatever the conditions ahead we would get the cars through but most importantly I think was the fact that all the oncoming traffic kept stopping to take photographs. It was becoming increasingly clear that we were causing a hindrance to the traffic flow. The senior police officer talked to the engineer sorting out the road ahead and surprisingly quickly we were given clearance to travel on down the road. We drove for about 10km with no traffic moving in either direction and just when we were wondering what the fuss was all about we crested a hill top to see that the entire pan-American highway had been swept away and a temporary bypass was being constructed. We were met by the engineer, photos were taken and we were off.

 

Rule2: Smile, engage and persevere

 

We drove down along the newly constructed tarmac road, up above we could see the reconstruction of the road that had been swept away in January. We passed over a new bridge and then drove one of the steepest bits of tarmac road I have ever climbed. I did wonder whether or not the Rolls would make it. I certainly cannot see a lot of the trucks queueing up making it up that new bit of road. And then we were out the other side climbing once again, passing mile after mile of queueing trucks waiting to be allowed through.

 

Rule 3: Once you are given the green light press on and don’t stop for anyone.

 

The remaining 67km to Popayan passed without incident until the final 6km to our AirBnB, Hacienda Picado. This was a rough gravel track and had to be taken very carefully. It is a proper country retreat. We were met by Maria who cooked us a late lunch (perhaps the toughest piece of beef ever served on a plate!) followed by an early supper. Fortunately we had curbed her enthusiasm and had a simple, delicious vegetable soup and fruit.

 

What a day! Talk about dodging a bullet!