Colombia: El Cucoy > Chita > Paz de Rio

Jan 2026 |

This ride was my most challenging thus far on my Pan-America ride, combining 4000m elevation, a section of horrible road, 2 bike drops, and rebels in the area.

Section 1: El Cucoy > Chita

An epic ride. My first experience in the paramo ecosystem with its odd plants that look like they are from another planet. The road is unpaved, single track, hard-packed, not dusty, some mud. There were very few vehicles along the way. It's rough but easy to ride, with a big climb out of El Cucoy, then a plateau, followed by a long descent on the other side to Chita.

Ride: 46 km / 2.5 hours

Section 2: Chita > Jerico

This section was gnarly. In Chita, I met a local ADV rider on a Himalayan; he had just arrived coming the other way. He said the road was bad, he had dropped his bike, and that he had ridden through a checkpoint at Jerico and was advised not to proceed. The fact he was there, in one piece, led me to believe I could do it too -- and I had no choice! There was no checkpoint coming out of Chita. But there was a reality check pretty fast as the road got really ugly: a nastly-looking canyon, steep, washed-out tracks filled with rocks, single-track road, with a long drop to the bottom of the canyon. Pretty quickly, my front tire skidded, and I nearly dropped my bike. Soon after, I dropped it; a bus stopped, and multiple people helped me lift it. Not far down the road, I came into a steep climb and serious loose rock, and blamo, dropped again. This time, a guy on a 125cc with no tire treads stopped and helped me. He offered to ride my bike out of the section -- but after he sat on my Tenere, he shook his head and got off (which felt like a minor triumph for me, weirdly). After what seemed like forever of shitty road, I climbed out the valley, into Jerico.

Ride: 28 km / 2 hours

Section 3: Jerico > Paz de Rio

Soon, I was back on decent paved road -- heavenly. I worked out that Paz de Rio was the next major town, 90 minutes away, so I kept riding. This took me into a wild coal mining area, where guys were riding completely blackface. This area has many dump trucks full of coal, and a constant shower of dust and lumps -- I got nailed by a big one, right on the nose.

I stopped in Paz del Rio. It's not a tourist town, but I did have a fun stay as the only gringo around, perhaps for a long time. Interesting aside: my room was above a noisy street. So I put in earplugs and turned on the background noise on my iPhone, set to static. At 1:30 am, the manager banged on my door, asked me to "turn off the shower"...

Ride: 50 km / 2 hours