Popayan to Ipiales

Sat 19th November

We were on the road by 8.30am this morning and once we had extricated ourselves from the traffic chaos in Popayan and found the main highway South, it was one road all the way to Ipiales.

It wasn't long before we were up in the mountains. The scenery was quite spectacular as we climbed to heights over 10000 ft.

The ride was a little over two hundred miles along roads that were occasionally good.....

.... usually peppered with potholes and some times completely broken up.

We had these views pretty much all day.

The long and winding road.

We had been advised not to stop along the road from Popayan to Ipiales as terrorists were active in that area. We did pause once or twice for a drink but not for very long, however, it still took us 9 hours to cover the 200 miles, an average of less than 25 mph! Is this a sign of things to come?

We eventually got to Ipiales around 5.50pm, too late to visit the cathedral at Las Lajos.