Today, I got routed all over the place and onto other roads that were shut down so people could rollerblade, walk, etc. The next thing I knew I was headed up some Bario streets in the small town of El Cabuyal which is Northeast of Medellin.
Specifically El Presidio area trying to get to the highway 60. The barrios are neighborhoods way up the mountainside and the roads and sidewalks are SUPER STEEP. Also, to make matters worse it raining quite well and each roads was a fast moving river.
It was so crazy and I couldn't believe I was riding almost straight up, the hill was soooo steep. I tried to keep the Revs up and even in first gear I started slowing down and down and it got to the point where it was going to stall. I gave it gas and the rear wheel started spinning and that was all she wrote. The bike went over on the left and I fell down and started sliding down the road and picking up speed. The bike stayed because the kickstand gouged into the road and it held it. I on the other hand was surfing down the street. I must have gone at least 30-40' before I stopped.
I could hardly stand up and trying to walk up was very difficult, but I managed to claw myself back to the bike and try to assess the situation. I'm looking at the bike wondering how the heck am I'm going to get UP or DOWN the hill. It took me about 3 times to get the bike upright and a bicyclist was pushing his bike up the hill and he stopped to help me.
I had managed to get the bike up on one side of the center stand and didn't want to let it over to the other foot as I thought it would continue to fall and make matters worse. He helped keep it upright as I moved the bike so it was pointing uphill and on both feet of the center stand.
Cars were coming up and down and I was semi blocking the single lane road. Using the Google translator he said let's try to get it to a spot where cars can get by. So the plan was to fire it up. Keep it in 1st and we'd push it off the stand and I'd try to walk/run it up the hill until I could find a place to pull over. I tell you I couldn't even breath because of the altitude. I went a little and stop, a little more and stop and continued until I found a semi level spot where I stopped to catch my breath.
My head was throbbing and my leg was killing me. and I thought I should find a medical place to get checked out.
The bicyclist told me to turn around and go back down. I looked at the map and was like, shit dude, I'm super close to highway 60. He said he would follow me and that the road would get even MORE steep and then NO ROAD and just muddy, swampy and it was nasty rocky as well with huge dips and muddy river flowing down with all the rain but I managed to get through all the way to the 60 road.
The photos are of a tame area of the muddy part. At times it was a muddy river. I'm so mad that I did not get a photo with him. I will remember his face forever though.
Where I entered 60 it was like a freeway, vehicles were ripping up and down and I had to get across and head up. The rain was terrible and finally I got to the cut off to Guadape. I had a MASSIVE headache, my leg was killing me from something that happened during the fall and traffic was horrendous. Backed up on the highway for days. I followed a motorcyclist for a while and we weaved though and around the cars for many kilometers before I just pulled over and stopped to check my helmet to see if I had scratches on it and it was totally fine.
I just wasn't feeling the love so I turned around and headed towards the town of RioNegro
then on to Llano Grande and Don Diego before heading back to Medellin. Traffic was horrendous this entire trip and rain as well. I was in the clouds coming into Medellin and got turned around a few times. I looked up the Teknik shop and they were closed so I just headed for the barn.
What a day. I have 304 Km on the bike now and have only used half a tank of gas, that's amazing . That's a good total for 2 days.
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