In an effort to not repeat riding in the dark, I decided on a real early departure from Cartagena. Actually the return trip was not as bad; however, seeing the section of road approaching Cartagena in the daylight was an eye opener. I had traveled this section of road in the dark and I was amazed that I had been able to make it without any major incident. The potholes on the road were huge. I was just lucky.
Not wanting to waste time, I was only stopping for fuel. I did not take many photos although there many beautiful sights along the way. I only encountered one check point. It was still a long day but I managed to travel the return trip in 10.5 hours.
I witnessed something that a motorcyclist never wants to see. That is the crash of a motorcycle with another vehicle. It happened as I came over the crest of a hill, just past a military check point. I noticed a store/restaurant at the top of the hill and I was looking to my right searching for signs of a gas pump. As I turned my attention back to the road, out of the corner of my eye I saw the flash as a minivan quickly pulled into the parking lot of the store. The driver of the van never saw the oncoming motorcycle which was driven by an older man on a 125cc motorcycle. The motorcycle hit the van at full throttle broad side. I immediately pulled over and the military guys from the check point came running over to help. One of the military guys stopped a farmer in a small pickup. They loaded the motorcyclist onto the pickup and took off. Everything occurred in a matter of five minutes or less. The motorcyclist was wearing a helmet which seemed to be pretty old. He had cuts from the broken glass. Some of the people in the van seemed to have cuts as well.
In most of these countries the roads are narrow and heavily traveled; therefore, when an accident like this occurs it is cleared fast or traffic just pushes past the accident.
After that bit of excitement I pushed on to travel the last 150 miles which were the most beautiful because they were up in the mountains. I was extra careful on this section of road because the road was heavily traveled and Lorries often moved into your lane while cornering curves. I was prepared to make quick decisions as to which way I was going to head in order to avoid hitting oncoming traffic. To add a little more stress, heavy fog rolled in, slowing traffic even more. All in all I still made good time and arrived at the hostel safely.