When I Almost Died In Colombia

Accidents while travelling abroad are not something new to me but there is one accident in particular that I dont think i will ever forget.

During our mountain biking trip in the outskirts of Medellin I decided to take a break from riding and do the upcoming hill in the support vehicle that had been following us for the entire day. Now looking back at this, I probably should have not been lazy and riden up the hill but come on we are mountain biking and the fun part is going downhill.

At this point while my travel partner and the other rider went up the decently steep hill myself and one of the guides decided to relax and enjoy the scenery before catching up to them at the top of the hill. I do need to say the scenery in this mountainous region outside fo Medellin is just breathetaking and I could sit out here for hours just enjoying myself.

The drive to meet the other riders started without a hitch, just getting to know our guide and driver a little more until all of a sudden BOOM! Out of nowhere we hear a loud BOOM and BANG with sparks flying around the windows of the van. At first I was unsure what exactly was happening and even our driver tried to move the van but even more sparks started flying.

Now is when our guide realized the bikes on the roof rack had hit the low lying power lines and we where stuck here. The situation was honestly pretty darn scary since we where in a metal van, with a metal roof rack and metal bikes wrapped around live wires that sparked anytime we moved the van in the slightest.

At this point the guide was able to help open the sliding door on my side and gave me the signal to jump out of the van and run away FAST!

After all three of us exited the van some locals from the house next to the road came out to see what happened. Apparently the power lines went to their house and they had just lost power.

According to the locals the energy company had been working on lines earlier that morning which probably caused the lines to swag down lower than usual since this is the same route the tour company takes multiple times a week.

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This is when we truly started to see the damage the power lines had done to the bikes and van. One of the bikes had wrapped the power line around the handle bar and the live power lines had pretty much soldered the bike and the power lines together. After trying to hit the bike with a stick to shake them loose we realized that was not going to happen.

Luckily one of the locals who lived in the house which was either brave or crazy climbed up on the van to unload the other bikes. He then with gloves on started to untangle and break loose the bike handle bars from the power lines. This was one of the craziest things I had seen this trip since this shirtless “BRO” just climbed on a van to untangle live power lines from some bikes.

This is still one of the craziest things that has happened to me while abroad at least the craziest that didnt involve alcohol, but those stories are for another day.

If you are in Medellin check out my main article on how I fell in love with the City of Eternal Spring!

And if you are interested in a great mountain biking trip besides the crazy power line accident check out my article on 3000m Descent Tour Company!

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