February 10, 2010

It was a nice ride down the mountain (dirt roads) and along the river…

With interesting wash-outs to navigate…

CHIVA!

This cracked me up…
Willie’s Juice Mobile…powered by bicycle

I got onto some pretty neat back roads.

PEAJE

Fun Curvies…
Yup, that’s my road below..

Well this day I seemed to pass countless cows in  trucks…I nicknamed it “National Bring Your Cow to Market Day”

These were parked at a town square.

Ah. Someone told me about this sculpture…
That is looks real nice until you take a close look…

And see she is holding a man’s head. If I remember the legend correctly, she was a native woman who fell in love…The lover was jealous and killed her son, she went after him and beheaed him…and brought his head all over the country to show people her revenge…

I circled ’round for this pic…I want a place like this. Happy land.

So as I am rolling through the countryside, in Pitalito,I begin to see these roadside murals…done by Colombian artists. Chevere (cool)

Colombian biker chic…note the heels!

I haven’t talked about the women of Colombia yet…let me just say they are ALL MADE UP. And SILICONE RULES! And the guys are all a-ga-ga over Colombian women.

Yup, DEFINITELY “National Bring Your Cow to Market Day”

At last, my destination.

For the record, this was a depressing day in terms of road carnage: 2 dead dogs (one so gruesome I missed my turn to San Agustin and went 40 miles out of the way), a dead cow and my second dead horse seen.

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In town at the Hostal, I bump into Charles, who I met in El Salvador (he’s traveling with Ben, who I also met in El Salvador)

February 9, 2010

I woke up in the night to the sound of POURING rain. Torrential. Stupendous.

It was still pouring when I got up…Oofa. I did not want to stay another night in this dump, cheap as it was…

I walked to breakfast clinging to the sides of the buildings trying not to get wet. I wasted time. I watched the meat truck deliver several dead cows. I watched the dogs nonchalantly try to steal pieces of meat. I wondered why the cow’s head was just lying there on the sidewalk.  I wondered how long it would take before the meat went bad just hanging there. I wondered why there was a pile of cow skins on the sidewalk. I was too morbidly fascinated to take any pictures. Darn.

It got a little dryer around 10, so I decided to make a run for it.

(Turns out I was only 9 miles from my destination.)

!!

It was a beautiful ride.

Tierradentro is a place in Southern Colombia where unusual tombs have been discovered…turns out the practice, back in the day, was to not bury you once, but rather twice. First time, for 1-2 years, just enough time to rot the flesh off.  Then, when you were reduced to little more than compost, they placed your bones and all your riches in an urn, and placed you with a bunch of other in urns, well below the surface of the earth.   When the tomb was full, they covered all of you up and there you were.

But wait, the Spaniards came along, and so did the tomb raiders, and then  the practice became to  crack your urn, throw away your bones, and steal your treasures. If you are looking for any of your stuff you are missing in the afterlife, at least a goodly portion of it can be found in the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) in Bogota.

Funerary urns in the museum.

Ok, so the tourguide – cum – security guard tells me a tale.

The practice, still to this day, in the local indigenous culture, is for the man and woman to live together a whie before getting married. The point is to see if the female is fertile–and thus worthy of marriage. Wait, there’s more…

See the really tough and hard cow hide on this bed? It’s said that the woman truly loves you if she sleeps ont he bed with no complaint…

Ha! I told him Id never get married because I like a thick comfy mattress…

Well, I tour the museums, and then I am told its lunchtime. Come back in an hour…

OK, so I go and ecplore the lovely little town of San Andres a few km up the hill.

Outside the thatched cathedral was a fellow drying coffee beans…he was quite animated and gave me the full tour, even posing fr my pics…

I was told the best place to eat in town is the bamboo house…I took lots of pics because I was so impressed with the structure. (Sorry, Edward, I think I prefer this to the metal container we are talking about living in…)

After lunch, back down to the park, and the climb up the hillside to the tombs…

Local cows taqking the time to chew their cud and take in the  great view.

This was the deepest of the tombs…believe it or not,  I got vertigo and could not go down. It was supposedly the “best ” one too. Dang.

Back down the mountain…

Finished with my tour, I walk back up the street to “Ricos Jugos”, and order two fruit juices since I cannot decide between my two favorites–Lulo or Mora.

On the way  here I meet Marie-France and Brian, two moto travelers on an 1150 GSA. They’ve been on the road for a coule of years, and are full of great advice and good ideas. You can read their blog at www.2uprtw.com

Here we are getting to know each other and idly watching the juice place owner’s garndson play with his plastic bag…

She admonishes him when we laugh and say in English “you’d never see THAT in the United states”… (They’re from Canada)

We have dinner together that night. As it happens, my hotel room door opens into the dining room of the only eatery in town…it would have been hard to miss them!

xx

“Secure” parking at my hotel…

My humble hotel…

The next morning I ride up to the last of the tomb sites I will visit. (I opt out of the all-day hike up the other mountain)

February 8, 2010

Because of all the rain, I was concerned about the ride to Tierradentro and beyond…I knew it was many miles of dirt roads, and it haad been raining for days…Cata offered to let me leave my luggage at their house…whahoo! I love a light bike!

So I rearranged all my stuff, and off I went!

Cata’s Dad gave me directions to San Andres (Tierradentro)…I should be there in two hours…

Isn’t Colombia gorgeous?

CHIVA!

CHIVA!

CHIVA!

Um…I’m in Silvia,  and I have been riding for more than two hours…

The scenery is so spectacular, and  am having one of those magical riding days, so I really don’t care if I am lost…

But every once in a while the sky threatens…

Weird landscape…what the heck is it? At least it photographed well…
[3-22-10 update: These plants are Frailejón or Fraylejón. They are a high altitude plant native to Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. There are a variety of species. For the full Wikipedia brain dump, click here.

Thanks to Mauricio for telling me what they are. Fascinating!!]

I stop in front of this place to take some pics…it’s like heaven on earth. Well, Next thing I know thee farmer is coming out of the finca and downt he drive…I aam not threatened, rather, I dont want to bother him. SO I explain that I think where he llive is the most beautiful place on earth and I wanted to take some pics, and  I am sorry I have disturbed him…well he asks me the A#1 question of my trip, am I traveling alone? yes. He wishes me a great trip, says to take care of myself, shakes my hand, and heads back up the drive. Typical encounter with these wonderful people.

My road:

Oh yeah, I stop for gas in the middle of nowhere…there’s a store next to the gas station office…they sell…nothing that I need.

The fabulously elaborate and really hard to understand map of the area. I was confused… even more so after looking at the map.

CHIVA!

So I roll into a little town, and find a little hostel. It’s 8000 pesos for the night ($4.00) Why do I stay here? Because it’s 4:30, I am tires, I have no idea how close I am to Tierradentro, and the woman at the hostel has one ear and seems to have a hard time understanding me, and I her, and I am scared to go on as I have not seen another town for 3+ hours riding in the back roads of Colombia, and I DEFINITELY do not want to ride here after dark…

So I stop. It’s cheap, and although I am scared to take a shower,  it’s cheap.

Note to self: Do NOT get up in the middle of the night and turn on lights…you may be electrocuted.

Best to use the flashlight.

My solution? Go to bed so dang early (8 pm) it doesn’t matter how icky the hotel room is. It’s cheap.

<smile>

February 6 & 7

So the next day Cata and I met for breakfast…jugo de mora, juevos revueltos con perico, arroz and arepas. $2 each.

Popayan is a beautiful colonial town known for its whitewashed buildings.

Let’s take a tour…

My beautiful tourguide…

So back in Colomial timmes, Popayan had two bridges…one for the wealthy Spaniards, and another for the slaves. The one for the slaves was much lower and very often covered with water…

There’s a tiny replica of Popayan up on the bill aove the “real” town…kind of a tourist place…we went there too.

And I tried an oblea for the first time…
two wafers, with arequipe(a sweet sugar cane derivitave) and marmelade in between…

Kind of like fried dough at the state fair…

In the afternoon we head back to the factory for lunch with Cata’s folks, then we’re off agai through downtown Popayan to see if any of the (all closed) churches are now open…

Check this picture out…two things to note:

1. Look at the delicate flowers being transported on this little motorbike…

2. It’s a BIG DEAL to turn 15 in the Latin countries….huge coming-of-age party.

Well its rainy and wet and a good think I decided to stay another day.

I actually end up staying another TWO days…I really like Catalina and her family. Cata and I are fast friends, she’s like the  sister of my heart…not by blood but by choice. Plus looking back I guess I needed some “girl time”. I really miss my good girlfriends back home.

Day two breakfast: Tamales!

back to the factory…it’s Sunday and we bring lunch to the guard and to the dog.

I really respect the Villegas family and their work ethic and their commitment to being nice to their employees (and dog!)

Colombia has a definite moto culture!

So we’re riding down the bock and I see this guy in a doorway. I LOVE HIS HAT! i am mesmerized by it. We back up, and I ask him if I can take a picture of the hat.  It’s a part of the culture of one of the provinces in Colombia…I dig it.

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Ok, now take a close look at the signs on the street…arrows each directions…how on EARTH do you know, as a tourist, which direction to go?

Lunch…arroz con pollo…rice with chicken.

A selection of “typical” sweets…

February 5, 2009

Well, as nice as Casablanca hostel is, I got a rotten night’s sleep…I am a light sleeper, and in a dorm room of 10 people…oofa.

I missed my 9:00 am appointment at Asturias Motos (if you need a mechanic in Cali, Colombia, definitely stop here: they service ALL brands!) due to a lack of sleep, but luckily when I showed up at 10:00 they took me right in, and Jorge surgicated my windshield mount (it had rattled loose somewhere along the way and was driving me N_U_T_S and I did not have a hex wrench with me to fix it).

I spent another good long time taking to Sory, who is just great. She (also a motorcycle traveler) gave me lots of ideas for other cool places to see in Colombia. Wheen I asked about the road to San Augustin, she immediately called a friend in Popayan (another Jorge, and also a motorcyclist) that she knows drives that road once a week…

Well, us all being motorcyclists, he said to her to give me his phone number, and when I got to the outskirts of Popayan to call him and they would meet me.

Now this is all very cool.

Sory arranges for one of the guys in the shop to lead me out of town on his little motorbike, and we say goodbye.

On the way out of town I see two horseback police. These are the nicest animals I have seen on my trip.

I’m off! I take a picture of this because its crazy…yes, i am in the fast lane, but it’s worse than a “jersey barrier” in the USA…shorter too!

Back on the panamericana another sugar cane train…

CHIVA!

I’m taking my time because it’s a short distance to Popayan…

I stop for a roadside brunch, I am getting caught up on my journal, and this German traveler (part of the crowd last night at Asturias) roars by…then turns around and we visit a bit.  He is also riding a DR650 (but not nearly as s-w-e-e-t as mine thanks to Twisted throttle and Cogent Dynamics   )

A close-up of the little devil critter on his front fender…

Well, as he is about to take off, along come my friends Bruno and Nathalie (from Valle de Corcora two days ago).  So the happy German unsuts, and we all visit and go over maps and take pics of each other…the folks running the restaurant probably think its a darned convention of moto-tourists!

Off they go on down the road…I am the last to pull out.

So I get to the appointed place in Popayan, and give a call. (Remember those cell-phones-on-an-a-chain? Mighty convenient when you need to place a quick call…cost me a whopping 20 cents instead of the $4 it cost me in Mexico when I had to call rube from a cabina…)

So Jorge’s daughter Catalina answers Jorge’s phone when I call…she’s a thirty-something Colombiana that has been living in London for the past 9 years, and is back in Popayan for a bit staying with the family and working in their wine operation. (Jorge thinks I need help with my Spanish / translation services because I had a hard time understanding him on the cell phone.)

Well I am delighted.  Catalina hops in her little bug and leads me to their house. What do I need? How can she help? What can she do?

We end up chatting for over an hour, she helps me find a hotel that she approves of (not in the Lonely planet book, and not in the red light district)

I quickly bring my things to my room, change into street clothes, and then she takes me to the  fabrica, wine factory, that her parents run.  her Mom makes me tinto (coffee)…and laughs at me for taking pics of c-o-f-f-e-e (which they will eventually get used to–me taking pics of everything!!!)

Goddess Bless Colombia, because this is the way coffee SHOULD be…

Strong coffee…warm milk…and a bowl to mix them to your own personal satisfaction…

The final product:

Cata’s Mom gives me a tour of her garden…the fabrica has been in the family a couple of generations…

An outdoor oven (like I saw a coupe of days ago) where they cook their Turkeys at Christmas…

A tour of the fabrica:

I love how they leave a candle it for Mother Mary…

After the tour of the fabrica, Cata and I go out to dinner. We order a jugo, a fresh juice, and I decide to expand my palate and try the Lulo. But I keep asking what Lulo is…how does it translate, and nobody can help me. Cata, great girl that she is, asks the waiter to bring me one, and a knife. Meet Lulo…my (new) favorite fruit…

Dinner is this rad combination of sumptuous veggies over maduro, fried mature bananas (sweet). OMG, I am in heaven! Colombia has the BEST food! (Little do I know but Catalina and I will take the culinary tour of Popayan and Colombia for the next several days…)

I am now exhausted, well fed, and ready for bed. Cata invites me to stay for another day and she wil take the day off from work and give me a personal tour of Popayan…I’m IN!

February 4, 2010

Back out the Valley road back to the Panamericana.

Nice pass on the double yellow…

PEAJE.

The road was hot and flat and pretty straight. I rode through miles and miles of sugar cane fields.

Then I see this sign…I understand “tren” (train) but canero? i am puzzled…

Until I see this.

That’s right, folks. Count ‘em, FOUR semis full of sugar cane being bpulled by a single tractor. How do they steer such beasts?

Well they re downright FUN to pass…just take my advice and go fast enough so one does not pass YOU! With so many articulations they are wobbly beasts!

A cut sugarcane field…hence the “tren”. This one’s just been cut. They burn these fields afterwards–and most often they are right beside the road. I’ve been warned to be really careful when they are burning.

Next I get passed by this guy…I have to pass him again to make sure I saw that right…”Prohibited to transport women and children”…

Next I get passed by a 950 KTM Adventure.  He rides alongside making a variety of hand signals which I do not understand, and then I finally get it when he pulls ahead and pulls off the road. I do, too…

…and I meet Ricardo Rocco, owner of Escuela de Motos in Quito.  He’s headed into Cali, knows the town, knows some people there, and agrees to let me follow him. Where he’s going is just a couple blocks from the Cassablanca hostel I’ve been recommended to.

We arrive at Asturias Motors. Hs friends Sory Con and Jorge run Asturias, a repair chop for all makes and models of motorcycles. The place is bustling–it’s obvious they do a whopping businesss and know their stuff. They also have a shop next door that sells parts and gear for riders–an ideal combination.

On my way to the bathroom I take a tour of the bikes in the shop and fall in love with this one…they don’t import them into the UUSA so I can only dream of riding a Tenere in foreign lands…

Sory and Jorge checking out my bike. They ask if I have anything that needs fixing.

Well the pplace is a people-and-bike- magnet with the enigmatic owners and their riding buddies, all the travelers they help, locals whose bikes they service. Plus, Sory and Jorge are world travelers themselves, so theyy just attract cool motorcyclists. The crowd out front grows.

And grows.

And grows. It’s fun to be yakking with all these motorcycle people, many of which are going over maps with me, giving me ideas of where to go, things I cannot miss over the next few days.

Well finally the crowd dissipated, an ricardo and I packed up. Ricardo gave me his business card and invited me to Quito….luckily for me offering to meet me outside the City and escort me in (yeah! I hate cities–I always get so lost).  He led me to my hostal,  where I got the last bunk in a dorm room of 10 people for $9 I think. There were two other motorcycle travelers in the room–that was kind of cool. But I did not sleep well at all, too many people in too small a space. Plus everyone was partying til the wee hours.

February 3, 2010

I had a great time in Manizales with Adolfo. It was fun to walk around together, and nice to get to know him a bit (finally! we’d been so busy we did not have much time to talk until yesterday)

Today he wanted to visit a friend in Periera…we decided to ride together to Periera, but I was undecided about what to do… Adolfo had three weeks to toodle around Colombia and Ecuador, and I needed to head south if I was going to beat the Penguins to Tierra del Fuego.

Off we went back down the mountain…

PEAJE.

PEAJE.

There is a crazy moto-culture here…they are like swarming gnats everywhere you go. They have about the same flight patterns as gnats too–you really have to be careful!

Downtown Periera, where we wait to meet Adolfo’s friend.

I am invited to stay, I toy with the idea., but in the end I feel the need to keep moving so I shove off.

But not before  going to the town square and seeing the famous “Bolivar Desnudo” — the only nude sculpture of Bolivar (riding a horse–ouch!)

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I am off, and alone again.

I go get gas, and do a little deferred maintenance: chain lube, tire pressure, etc. make sure I am good to go.

It actually feelt quite good to be riding solo again..I like. I like. Adolfo did spoil me, but I’d adjusted to doing everything MY way, and I don’t know. It was really nice to have company, and it was also nice to be alone again.

I rode for a little over two hours and stopped for lunch just north of Armenia…

I had a plate of yummy bananas…

and this stew concoction that was a highlight of my trip so far!

while having lunch, I whipped out the Lonely Planet book and read about this cool little Valley–Valle de Corcora. It sounded like a cool place to go, and since I was now riding solo, I could choose to change directions again. I did.

And I was treated to the most spectacular little valley / nature preserve / wildest was palm landscape you’d ever want to visit. I was in heaven.

Thescenery just took my breath away.

Milk day!

I rode to the end of the dirt road (well, as far as I wanted to go on it…)

There are all sorts of tourtic opportunities…Jeep rides, horseback rides way up into the Valley, etc.

I opted for a coffee at this place instead.

And while I was pouring over my maps retying to make myself move on when I really did nto FEEL like it, Bruno comes up and says hello.

Bruno and his wife Nathalie are on their honeymoon…they are Brazilian, living in Switzerland, married almost a year ago, and now are traveling 6+ months around South America on this little motorcycle. (Wait ’til youu see it PACKED in a few days…)

Theya are absolutely lovely, and we communicate in a variety of Spanish, Portugese, English and German. It works, and they tell me about the incredible finca they are staying at…and offer to lead me there.

The road is a little rough Bruno says…

Well, it was pure hell on a heavily loaded bike, and at one point Bruno had to PUSH me & bike up a rocky incline over the river (the other one we forded) .

Luckily Nathalie opened all the gates.

Well we finally get there and I tell him I am not leaving. I mean, that  he has to ride with me back out to the main road because with my overloaded bike I do not have the guts to  do it solo. He laughs (I’m serious!)

Then the mikman comes.

Bruno tells the farmer his wife needs a job (I do not understand until I take the pic)

These wee ones are chained out front of our rooms. (Not especially clean but the view is to-die-for!!!)

So here’s my view from my room.

Worth $15.00/night including breakfast?

It was soooooooooo peaceful here.  Bruno and Nathalie went back into town (I asked them to bring me dinner–no WAY was I riding down that driveway again until i had to leave!) I couldn;t really work, I just sat on my bed and looked at the amazing view. AND took som pictures for you to enjoy.

Ah, breakfast the next day. How delightful that they serve you a WHOLE BOWL of coffee! I saw the kitchen and refused to eat the breakfast (snuck it to the dogs) but I figured tthe coffee wouldn’t hurt me…

I was sad to leave. Beautiful, eh?

I stopped in the little town of Solento and took some pics…

This one’s for Adolfo…

Then a little further down the valley I stopped for breakfast.

Well, I was as enchanted with these folks as they were with me…I tried jugo de panela ( sightly processed sugar cane hot drink) for the first time, ate some rice and empanadas and had another coffee for $1.50 PLUS I got a tour of the kitchen.

What a great way to start the day. Super nice folks.

February 2, 2010

Adolfo was leaving the next morning as well. We were both headed south, and frankly I was REALLY unsettled now. I was happy to be riding with him.

We met up with a friend of his, Pedro, for breakfast, and let me tell you this is the sweetest guy in the world. So helpful, SO sweet, SO adoring of is wife, I was expecting him to sprout wings and fly off like an angel. After breakfast he gave me his card and invited me back to Medellin–he would be happy to give me a really good tour. Thanks Pedro!

Pedro (L) and Adolfo (R) at breakfast

Breakfast!

Fried bananas (Yum)

Fried Eggs (Greasy)

Fried Pork Rind (Uck)

Lime

Sausage

Luckily this wasn’t my breakfast

Back on the road, now heading South.

Yes, this is a car passing Adolfo on a double yellow. You’ll see lots of these pics

Adolfo passing on a double yellow…

Adolfo’s breakfast didn’t sit too well. I photographed these cicada shells while he ran off into the woods.

Burning is the typical way to get ride of stuff down here…

Roads are pretty well marked…

We stopped for fresh fruit juices–dang! but it was hot!

It was a busy little place where we stopped…I was lucky to get a snapshop of a typically overloaded bike ridden by locals…

I love CHIVA!

The curvy, twisty, GREAT road up to Manizales (somewhere around 9000 feet)

Rooftop view of Manizales (from Adolfo’s luxury hotel–I was at the dump down the street)

Between our hotels there was this a-m-a-z-i-n-g-l-y- steep road . We were told there are many many accidents on it every day.

Beginning of our walking tour…

This is a curious thing here in Colombia (and a very handy one). I guess cell phones are very expensive, so there are  people everywhere, actually, that sell minutos. Look closely at the picture–here the vendor has a whole bunch of phones attached to them by chains–so no one makes off with their phone…

This work of art is suspended about the main square in front of the municipa building.

Statue of Bolivar (liberator and uniter of northern South America (Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador). He was referred to as the Condor, and in this sculpture the mask has been taken off and he wears the head of a condor. This is in the main squre in front of the municipal building.

I had no idea why Adolfo kept asking everyone where the municipal building is, but when we got there I understood: he wanted to see the architecture. Gosh, we just don’t have the same sense of style in the USA…

We were, after all, in Colombia. Where else would they have maids serving coffee inside the municipal offices?!?

Portraits of all the past mayors of Manizales–they were actually quite proud to have 4 women among them!

Look at the details on the STEPS!

The first mayor’s chair and telephone.

Look closely at the bottom left corner of the desk.

Ah. Young men in uniform. Adolfo told me I was not supposed to take a picture, but I asked. They were gracious enouh to let me.

We continued our walk around town…I spotted ths sculpture.

Quick stop for Alisa breakfast (Adolfo was served breakfast at his posh hotel). Jugo de something and empanadas.

minutos!

Being a tourist is hard work…here’s my afternoon tinto (coffee) and sweet…

Inside one of the churches I noticed these graves… I guess we do this in the USA but I don;t know. I was stumped–the size ws so small. Adolfo explained that they are for families that are cremated–whole bodies do not fin inside those small squares.

Adolfo’s Euro hotel.

Colombians are crazy about bullfighting. Here’s the Plaza de Toros in Manizales.

January 31, 2010

We walked to the train station

Which is the public transport system. For $1 we rode all the way to where the the MetroCable connect and took the cable cars up up and above the city.

Medellin was promoting cleanliness, and let me tell you: It is the cleanest City I have every been in, and I am usually a harsh critic of cities. It is DEFINITELY cleaner than NY City–we could learn a lot from these folks!!!

Medellin is the former drug capital of Colombia, but it seemed pretty tranquilo from my vantage point. Other travelers reported having a really good time there.

My buddy Adolfo and I.

Our hosts Jose and Patricia.

The cable cars DO take you over the poorest sections of the City…but the views are s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r!

A mural I saw from above.  I’m always enchanted by murals.

Well, I’ll be honest. Things got weird. Basically we aborted the tour and went to got something to eat.

I decided to leave Medellin the next day.

January 29, 2010

I admit I had a rough start to traveling in Colombia.

I thoroughly enjoyed Central America, and had had the thought just before crossing over “why not just spend the second half of my trip touring back up to the USA–save South America for another trip, and this way I”ll have my way cool Twisted Bike back in the States for riding this summer…”

It was also a big leap intellectually and physically–I mean, in South America is so faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar, and not so easy to turn around and just go home. Plus I confess to a certain excitement AND trepidation as I cross a border and head off into another unknown. (Every country has it’s own accent, customs, driving tempo, foods, people, moods, etc. It takes some adjustment to the new rules of travel every time you cross a border.)

Plus I was (am!) missing Edward.

Compound all this with my well-meaning Latin friends who gave the the thorough primer on all the ways in which I could be drugged, kidnapped, robbed, extorted, and generally be taken advantage of, all the roads to watch out for, all the areas where the guerillas lay waiting to capture gringas like me, well, lets just say I was SPOOKED!

I decided to ride the first few days with Adolfo, and follow his agenda. We left Bogota with no sightseeing whatsoever, and headed straight to Medellin.

As soon as we got out of Bogota, we stopped roadside for lunch.

Pollo (chicken), boiled yucca, fried plantain (maduro) and papas (potatoes).

The road from Bogota to Medellin is a gorgeous one. It is also a heavily trafficked one, and I learned very quickly that driving in Colombia is a whole another experience. I am grateful for the “warm up” I got in central America, because, oh my Gosh, the driving in Colombia is d-a-n-g-e-r-o-u-s. In other countries it was sort-of acknowledged that motorcycles had the right to pass first, being lighter and faster.  n Colombia, it’s every-person-for-himself and you will start passing a car or truck, only to find out that someone is already passing YOU! You have to use all your senses and I have long since stopped wearing earplugs while riding. I find I need all my senses completely on alert. I’m about two weeks behind on the blog, but you’ll see I’ve taken some pretty interesting traffic pics…

Anyway, this country is G-E-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.

Ah, adios chicken buses, hellooooooooo CHIVA!

I LOVE CHIVA!

Adolfo and I stop for gas, and next door is a fruit stand. This friendly fellow with one leg lets me try a fruit called “mangostino”. It’s the shape of a tangerine, color of a beet, with fruit like a pomegranate, that tastes like heaven. I bought a bag full! (Yeah, and after eating a whole bag full had some interesting results the next morning!)

A little further on we asked local policemen where to find the nearest hotel–it was getting  dark, and it was clear we would not make it to Medellin that night. They directed us to the Mar y Mar hotel…which was not actually a hotel at all but rather an “auto hotel”, where they rent rooms by the hour…

So, my first night in an ‘auto hotel’. Sola. Adolfo was right–they are clean, convenient, and remarkably discreet. The best part is there is a private garage for your moto.

You can order food, drinks, and toiletries and they will be delivered into this cubby…you just leave your money in there, and no need for embarassment or discretion. Brilliant! (This is breakfast–but you know me, I had to TALK to the lady through the cubby. Sick of bending through the window, I went outside into the courtyard, then followed her back to see the kitchen, where they explained to me how Arepas are made…

I did not have WiFi here but since I awoke very early I decided to write an article on my first experience in an auto hotel…I’ll post a link to it here and in another entry when it gets published…

Mar y Mar hotel was in La Dorada, which was pretty flat and agricultural.

Well here’s a cool thing about Colombia: their roads are really super and while they are smattered with Piajes, motorcycles do not pay. Instead, there’s a lane to the far tight that is for motos only. The brilliant thing is that they have all sorts of shapes and sizes and lengths…so its a fun obstacle course trying to get your motorcycle through this narrow passage while holding your breath that you don’t slip up and catch a pannier on the concrete barriers on either side of the lane.

Lots of road construction going on…but just like all the other countries so far, legal or not, the custom is for motorcycles skip to the front of the line.

No, he’s not a bad rider, rather we’re getting into the groove of passing on the double yellow. Goddess help me when I return to the states as I’ve picked up a few ‘local’ habits south of the border…

OK, here we stop for a drink and have a bit of fun. By now (day 2 riding in Colombia January 30, 2010 La Dorada to Medellin) we have passed through quite a number of military checks, every time being waved right through because  we look like foreigners I assume. A few times we’ve asked why all t he military and every time the answer is the same: guerilleros (guerillas). Here we ask again, and they just say “it’s always like that here”. REALLY? I find the unemotional answers from several different people interesting.  I am not so sure, given MY background, that I could every really just accept guerillas as a way of life.  But throughout my trip I find just that: people are open to talking about is, the changes the country has gone through with the current President, Uribe, taking a bold stand on the guerillas and essentially beating them back to the borders.  Anyway, I am getting ahead of my story.

Here, TANKS!

Now at this point I am still too new in Colombia to feel free to take open pics of the military (especially since Adolfo is EX-military and is always telling me I shouldn;t be doing things–like taking pics inside the airports and such…) Sneaky pic between the gas pumps…

Sneaky pic from far away…

Sneaky pic from over teh shoulder…

hey it’s kinda fun to have someone to ride with after so much time alone…

Getting bolder with the pics (even though I take it when his back is turned…)

Oofa, a HUGE city! Set in a bowl in between the mountains…

It’s crazy traffic…

At a stoplight this duo wave like mad at me… I signal if I can take their picture and they agree. Happy Kids!

After stopping several times to ask directions, Adolfo just  decides to hire a cab to lead us to his friend’s house. Try trying to keep up with a bike trying to keep up with a taxi! Quite the ride…

We get to Jose and Patricia’s house in a really nice section of Medellin,  and they invite me to stay with them. Patricia has to go to work soon (she’s a nurse) but she’s off tomorrow and we’ll do a city tour together. Chevere (or, “cool” as they say here in Colombia).

Even though they live in a private community with a guard, and an iron fence out front, they still suggest I cover the bike  on their patio. OK. So I pull out the cover for only the second time of my trip.

Adolfo and I order another chicken-in-a-box (not as good as Bogota), eat, and visit a bit.

I need to change some money, and I also need to buy a road map of Colombia, so I ask if tehre is a place I can walk to…after a great deal of strategy, finagling, etc. Patricia arranges for her daughter to come over and take me to the mall (ugh! second one of my trip and I NEVER go to the mall in the US!). They bunde me up with the daughter, give me all sorts of advice about how to get the money without having anyone rob me, and we’re off in a taxi.

I am truly grateful, but all this adds to my un-ease of being in Colombia. Soldiers with tanks, military checks every 20-30 miles, don’t eat anything a stranger gives you, don’t walk around the nice neighborhoods as a gringa by yourself. Oofa.

SPOOKED.