road conditions Colombia and west Venezuela
 

How are the road conditions in Colombia and west Venezuela?
We heard of mudslides gallore and many blocked roads.
Our rough route for the next six (?) weeks: Cartagena to Venezuela (border crossing at: Maicao). Maracaibo - maybe Coro - Sierra Nevada de Merida / Merida City.
Back to Colombia at Cucuta.
Colombia: going south on the east: Bucaramanga - Bogota - Cali - Copayan - San Augustin.


Greetings from Cartagena


Panny

Usually the areas around Maracaibo are very dry but of course form now the rain season start. Rain as usual in the afternoon , hard sometimes but always the sun come up after 30 mints of heavy downpour.
The good thing is the low lands are very hot from Maracaibo all the way to Barinas, except climbing to Merida which is 'paramo' and kind of fresh this time of the year.
Try not to get the East part pf the Maracaibo gulf, this is one f the heavy thunderstorm areas and rain. Barinas way and Merida form there are better option.

Always check country weather on

Maracaibo, Venezuela Forecast : Weather Underground

RIGHT NOW IS TERRIBLE BUT IN A FEW DAYS WILL IMPROVE.

There has been a lot of rain here the last days and a few places the roads has been partly washed away in small sections. But if you traveling on the main roads then they get fixed very fast. Usually if there's a problem its always open in one direction and you might have to wait 30 minutes or an hour. And especially on the bike you can pass easily.

The road from Bogota to Cali is an big main road over the mountain pass (the road is call la linia). All the cargo that arrives to Bogota are transported on this road from Buenaventura, so there's a lot of trucks. Awesome scenery though. That road is good!

From Popayan to San Agustin its approx 6 hours of dirt going back across the middle mountain range in Colombia. If it rains its quite demanding because of mud and clay. Only alternative is going straight down from Bogota in the Magdalena valley - a perfect tarmac road!

There are lots of road closures right now in Colombia. 16 major highways as of last night including the main road from Bogotá to Medellin. Also the route from Cúcuta through Pamplona over the Berlin pass to Bucaramanga was closed as well but I don't know if it's open now or not.

Last week I rode Bogotá, south to San Augustin, Ibagué, Armenia, Pereira, Manizales to Parque de Los Nevados via a knee deep mud route, then left the park on another muddy route with deep water crossings through some Guerrilla territory into Murillo then another alternate routing involving more mud and washed out dirt roads back to Bogotá. In addition I was stuck between two landslides for a day on the Ruta del Café between Ibagué and Armenia.

If you have camping gear it's not a big deal though. Watch your fuel because trying to get around landslides can involve some pretty big detours and extensive dirt/mud road excursions. You can always find a way around if you are willing to look for it and ride some mud and rocks. This is where a GPS With good maps was invaluable.

Make sure you have rain gear because it has been pissing down rain every day for three weeks and at 3000 to 4000 meters it tends to be a bit cold.

To get the latest closures and alternate routings dial #767 from a Colombian phone and they can give you up to date info. In addition ask the police at any checkpoint near where you want to go. The Colombian cops are friendly and professional and are not corrupt generally speaking so don't worry about stopping and asking them questions.

However all this is assuming you can speak and understand enough Spanish. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can.

TOTAL: 15

Vince my friend don't scary the people. The road from Manizales to Murillo is not guerrilla territory and hasn't been for a long time.

I take clients across that pass all the time - awesome ride, but yes muddy when wetjeiger

And just a correction the route between Ibague and Armenia is not the Ruta de cafe - it called "La Linia" and its the main mountain pass for all traffiv coming form the coffee region, Cali and the Pacific coast to Bogota, so heavy traffic and many accidents on that route. They'll finish a tunnel that will cut off approx 300 meters of the pass, due to be finish 2016!

Cheers
Mike

Ah yes, La Linea, thats it, sorry about the mix up. Thats a great ride when youre not stuck between 2 landslides all day, LOL!

Beleive me, I'm not trying to scare anyone Mike, just relaying what the Police in Murillo told me. Like I said, it was a big surprise to me as well. Maybe the cops were just trying to "scare the gringo" which didnt work BTW.

The mud on the route from Manizales to the park was interesting as well. You take your clients through this kind of stuff? LOL!

http://crashmaster.smugmug.com/No-Fu...p1010534-L.jpg


i had lots of fun on this route from Manizales, lots of mud, rocks and water. Its a way better route even if the pavement route was open.

http://crashmaster.smugmug.com/No-Fu...p1010548-L.jpg

Thanks a lot for your answers!

We´ve spent a few ours over the map (and drank a bit more then a few beers, while doing this).
Took us some time to find most of the closed roads (special thanx to Mike for the great overview (email one!).

Is there ANY non blocked paved road between Bogota and Medellin left?

Is this unusual heavy rain, you experience right now?
Looks like it rains for weeks now.
If this goes on, it seems to be unimportant, if we have all the good motorcycle routes on our list. Seems to be likely, that sooner or later we just want to get out of this ****ing rain! Right or wrong?
Any hope for the rain to stop or at least to become bearable?

Panny

up to date overview of blocked roads
 

Hi guys,

here´s a link to a up to date overview of blocked roads:

http://www.policia.gov.co/portal/pag...0DE%20VIAS.pdf

cheers

Panny

Here are some photos from a normal day between Manizales and Murillo:
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...l/IMG_1306.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...l/IMG_1173.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...l/DSC01542.jpg

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...l/DSC01536.jpg

Last I checked for an all pavement route, Bogota-Ibague-Armenia-Medellin. Of course I havent called the number in a few days so that route could be closed as well. Call #767. Tell them your point of departure and destination and they will give you a route.

Hi Mike, actually the road in your pics, from the park to Murillo was in decent shape, even with all the rain, just a little mud and clay. The fun route with mud, rocks and water was from Manizales to near the park entrance. Its a great dirt route that totally bypasses the pavement. The pavement route was closed anyway, thats how I wound up on the muddy route. The guys at the park entrance were very surprised to see me as they had not had any visitors in days because of all the landslides.

OK, here are the details with the cops in Murillo. I pulled into Murillo after dark. The cops i talked to were very surprised to see me and told me not to continue because of problems with Guerrilla at night. Then they told me not to stay too long in Murillo, also because of Guerrilla. They advised me to leave early the next morning. Like I said, I dont know what the real threat was, because I didnt have any issues at all and the police were my only source of information. Just relaying what the cops told me along the way.

Meanwhile we made it with some detours and patience through Venezuelas mountains and to Bogota.

Here are two good online-pages, where you can check for blocked roads in Columbia:

Portal INVÍAS - Colombia
klick on "viajero seguro" on the left and then you can choose in the new window down right your start- and destination city.
You get back a map with red-flags.

This one is a table, you can download:
Policía Nacional de Colombia.

cheers

Panny