![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20121222_142918.jpg\" "\\"20121222_142918\\"")
<\/a>requires driving over two gigantic speed bumps at each end of the town where you literally have to come to a complete stop and then slowly get back up to 60km and then slow back down for the next town. \u00a0We are not in a hurry so the slow pace is good for us. \u00a0We were also worried about driving Expedition Vehicle – would it be too slow? too big? too long? \u00a0We can now definitively say that we are not by any stretch the slowest, biggest, or longest vehicle on the road. We left Arjona around noon and drove (slightly uphill) the next<\/p>\n day until about 4pm when we camped (I mean overnight parked – here camping means tents and fires) in a big field on the edge of a town. The field had a small market and a restaurant at the town end. \u00a0We tossed a frisbee for a few hours for the dogs and went to sleep early. The next day, we left by 8am. \u00a0This part of the drive was the start of the Andes. \u00a0The highway is two lanes and we continued to ascend. \u00a0The\u00a0scenery was beautiful. \u00a0Photos do not capture how beautiful it is here. One thing about Team DeCorso is that ALWAYS at the most dramatic moment possible, at the pinnacle of the worst part of whatever we are doing, SOMETHING will go wrong. \u00a0And the drive to\u00a0Medell\u00edn was no different. The drive to\u00a0Medell\u00edn from the coast is a little less than 400 miles. \u00a0It is supposed to take… Continue reading The Highway to Medellin<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[348,206],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colombia","tag-colombia","tag-pan-american-highway","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebluevan.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a> We ascended for 7 hours. \u00a0More or less straight up and variety of grades, generally around 10% but as steep as 15%. \u00a0Steeper than we have ever seen in the US. \u00a0We kept thinking we had reached the top but we still have not reached the top here in Santa Rosa de Osos. \u00a0Houses are built right on the side of the road, on stilts over the cliff below and landslides have caused piles of rocks in the road making it one lane in some places. \u00a0And on this road are gigantic vehicles: first class\u00a0buses, \u00a0car carrier trucks, cement trucks, <\/a>container trucks, trucks filled with cows, a semi truck filled with scrap metal as well as motorcycles and donkeys and children. The van was close to overheating (we had this happen in Death Valley). \u00a0Jack ran out and poured some water on the radiator. \u00a0We continued to drive because we could not really stop. \u00a0There are no shoulders. \u00a0Or parking lots. \u00a0Or anything really. The road got steeper and steeper and we entered the clouds and visibility reduced to about 10 feet and we came to a place where the\u00a0road\u00a0had washed out and it was one lane and very steep, like a grade of 17% for 200 ft, and buses and trucks going in both directions were queued up to shoot the gap. \u00a0 \u00a0We are stopped <\/a>on a steep hill on the side of a cliff with trucks and buses all\u00a0around\u00a0us waiting for our turn and when it came – the van would not move. \u00a0Like it would not drive forward. \u00a0We had to back down the steep hill to a more or less flat spot (around buses and trucks and children) and then Mark had to figure out what was wrong. \u00a0It was a tense 10 minutes. What was wrong? \u00a0We needed more transmission fluid. \u00a0Mark fixed it and we headed on our way. \u00a0We had to stop once more to let the van cool down a bit but the road was flat and wider and there was a great view.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n
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