This morning we made an early start on retracing our steps along the slow road back to Paletara. The weather was better but the road was not. About 60 miles in all back to Paletara, the last 40 over dirt and the total trip took 5 1/2 hours. Lots of low range over big pot holes. There was more traffic on the road today almost all of it trucks carrying cattle or sacks of something. One truck driver stopped to warn us that there were guerillas on the road - at least that's what we think he said. But we had no problems.

Back at Paletara we had lunch and then continued back to Popayan and the Pan Am highway, with the hope of making a camping spot near Patia that we had heard about, positioning us to cross the border into Ecuador tomorrow.

The Pan Am south was another twisting mountain road as it climbed out of steep river valleys and then descended into another.

We arrived on the north side of Patia at about 6:30 with the night beginning to set in and got some advice and directions from the members of a national police road block. A further 20 kilometers south was Parador Turistica Patia a big swimming complex where we stayed for the night. However we almost missed it as by the time we got there night had arrived in full, Bernie drove past it and only Nina's good spotting noticed the unlit sight.

As we prepared and ate dinner we planned an early start tomorrow to cross the border by early afternoon in the hope of getting to Otavalo for the night.