ODO: 325,738
The day we have been exited about and nervous about for a little while has arrived: Puente Negro day. This is a bridge made famous by Top Gear, so we really have no idea what to expect. Will it be as sketchy as it looked on TV or will it be all hype? We get ready to find out. The drive in is a fun dirt road through small villages on a cliff, along a river. We cross several bridges of increasing sketchiness, and pass through several tunnels before we come to the main event. It is an old train bridge that was converted for vehicle traffic. The rails were removed and used to build several more bridges further down the road, but we don’t know that yet. Puente Negro is a narrow, wooden bridge about 300 feet above a raging river. The bridge does not look like it is fit for any vehicle traffic, let alone our 7200lb rolling house. We park on the side of the road and walk out onto the bridge, the large railroad boards moving a lot more than we would like as we do, to survey and make our decision. It looks MUCH sketchier than it did on TV…
A motorcycle crosses towards us, and doesn’t give us any sort of “don’t do it” look, so we get in the truck and start the crossing. The bridge is narrow, maybe a foot wider than the truck, with no railings, and halfway across the railroad ties are covered by a thin, rusty metal sheeting. Berne stops in the middle of the bridge so we can look down. It’s a long ways down. Safely across, we take a quick break to play with the flock of chickens in the road and catch our breath. As we continue on our wheelin’ adventure we cross more smaller, narrower and increasingly sketchier bridges. About five total bridges before we climb a steep and windy hill away from the river, back to the highway. The brakes start squeaking intermittently once we hit the pavement, hopefully they’re just dirty and it clears up on it’s own. The rest of the day is spent laying down miles towards the drug hippos. Pablo Escobar brought hippos to Colombia, and we want to see them! We end the day in a friendly restaurant’s parking lot.
We wake up to rain, but it doesn’t matter because we are off in search of drug hippos! In the wild hopefully. Pablo Escobar brought hippos to his ranch in Colombia, and after the police killed him, the hippos made their way into the major waterway, spreading across a wide area of Colombia. They are a big problem, they are invasive and do a lot of damage, but are endangered, and the babies are trafficked a lot. They are a complicated problem. Pablo’s estate has been turned into a theme park and zoo. A zoo we don’t want to pay to visit because Pablo’s original house is no longer there. The map shows a dirt road that winds around the outside of the property and our guess is we can find some wildlife there, so off we go. We see no hippos on the way in, but we find capybaras! They are huge! Our binoculars are coming in handy today. The longer we look, the more capybaras we see relaxing in the bushes across the lake. On our way out we spot a weird shape in another lake and pull over to investigate. IT’S DRUG HIPPOS!! We found them! A group of five hanging out in the lake. Planning to see wildlife is a good way to set yourself up for disappointment, but this was the only wildlife we wanted to see, and we did it! This is also the only time we have seen wildlife so far, despite all the signs along the highway.
Speaking of the highway, once we are back on pavement we get pulled over. We get pulled over a lot in Colombia. We don’t understand why, but it’s a multi-daily occurrence. We show our passports and Colombia insurance, and they send us on our way. Originally we were headed to Medellín, but an internet friend gave us a hot tip about his friend’s BBQ restaurant, El Chuzzo Grill, so we turn around and head off towards Bogota. The traffic feels like big city traffic, and keeps us from making it to our first camp sport before they close for the night. We over shoot our second choice, so end up most of the way up a long hill, at a funny resort type place where we are the only people there.
In the morning we head back down the hill for water. There is a rumor that the tap water is drinkable in big cities in Colombia, but that sounds like a good way to ruin our water system. Because of this, there are no graphons for sale, so we have to hunt for gallon jugs to fill our tank. After we take care of our important water task, its onward to El Chuzzo Grill to try the food. We are in the Colombian Andes, so we get to drive up and over 9000ft on our way. As we pull up, a wall of water falls from the sky, flooding the street. We hop-scotch our way inside to meet the owner and his family. Our internet friend calls us on FaceTime to say hi, give us some food recommendations, and let us know he is paying for our lunch! Nachos arrive, followed by ribs, a crazy burger and delicious French fries. Full to the brim, it’s time for us to hit the road again. In Bogota traffic is the real deal, we spend two hours going thirteen miles to our hotel. Berne is feeling under the weather, so it’s time to stay indoors.
Late check out in the morning gives Berne some extra rest, which he needs. Our route winds through the countryside, up to 8000ft today and back down to 1100ft. The tollbooths are constant, along with the brake squealing. KoKo is starting to develop a cough now, hopefully it doesn’t get any worse.
Our day starts with an off-road adventure to get us to the Tatacoa Desert. We drive miles of “babies heads (softball sized rocks)” that make the cracked sheet metal around the cab scream. It turns out the desert is a 23 mile loop through a landscape that looks like a tiny Utah, including some serious mud. We do the first quarter of the loop a second time so we can camp along the edge of a small canyon. The night is clear and cool and full of stars.
KoKo is sick now. Fun fact, cough drops are like gummy candy, and don’t survive well in hot climates. Leaving the desert, we find a river ferry to take us back to the highway. KoKo loves the river ferry. Today we make it up over 10,500ft along a crazy winding mountain road. In Armenia we find a pharmacy, and buy all kinds of cold and flu medicine to try and patch KoKo back up. And ramen. Soup fixes so many things. We find a camp spot in town, a property with a large yard and so, so many dogs to spend the night.
KoKo is very sick now, low fever, bad cough and chills. That means it’s time to find another hotel. We locate a Marriott, our favorite, and head into Cali to see if we fit in their parking. We usually pick Marriott’s because that is where we have a lot of points, and titanium status, almost the highest status you can have. This is why we get the good perks of late checkout, better rooms, and, up to this point, special concessions for parking the truck. This Marriot is NOT impressed when we pull into their check-in/unloading area absolutely covered in mud. They quickly usher us to the parking garage, which we do not fit in. After a lot of back and forth, they finally agree to let us check in before driving down the block to an offsite paid parking lot. Not the service we are used to. Once Berne checks us in, the hotel staff is suddenly extremely accommodating, and manages to find us secure, on-site, free parking for the night. Go titanium status. We also start getting organized for our next trip back to the Bay Area in a week. That right, we are heading back again for some work and some friend time before the holidays. But for tonight, we try to get some rest, and cross all our fingers that KoKo will be feeling better in the morning.
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