Day 97 To Doradal via Pablo Escobars Hacienda Napoles

Day 97 seems to have come around fast, and we had been warned that the road could be terrible with huge potholes and landslides. As it happened we had some of these but it was not too bad. Ned had chosen not to ride his bike this day, so Willy was a little unhappy that he had to load the Suzuki onto the back of the truck. As it turned out, Ned may have found it a challenge in some places, but someone in the team would surely have helped. 

The road out of Villa de Leyva was heavy with cobblestones for a few hundred metres, but soon turned into a very enjoyable winding mountain trail on narrow tarmac with few vehicles. We had to watch each corner and for trucks, dogs and children in the streets of the small villages but it was fine overall. There were a very few potholes, but some were large and JC bounced heavily through one and stopped to see if his bike was ok. 

At one point we stopped for a landslide of black mud, where a front-end loader was attempting to get a semi-trailer unbogged, which did not look likely for some time. His action was to clear a narrow road uphill from the truck, leaving a greasy mess of black muck for us to ride through very carefully. One young lady on a motorcycle near to JC, went flat on the road, but we were lucky to make it through unscathed. Later there was a series of deep brown mud holes to negotiate, but I plowed on pleased that it was going ok despite the road's repuation.

Near to the mountain hotel, we stopped outside the gates to Hacienda Napoles, now a water park complete with over 160 hippopotamus. This was the home of famous drug lord, Pablo Escobar who was shot by the Comombian army and CIA in 1993. His story is one of extraordinary crime, where he made billions each month from selling cocaine into the USA. 

Our accommodation this night was in a hotel up a 300m gravel road, with each house on stilts overlooking a rubber plantation and river. We swam in the pool as the weather had become very hot, and also walked down to the river to visit the water holes there. 

Overnight there was a huge electrical storm with heavy rain, and it was still raining lightly in the morning. Despite me having a cold at the moment, we are travelling well, and looking forward to making more progress towards Cartagena.