BOGOTA TO PANAMA JANUARY 2015

13/1/15

Sending the bike to Panama was very straightforward.  Everything was handled by Lyncargo . Apart from three hours getting clearance from customs for a 5 minute job the whole experience was very painless. Thank you to the various people who taught the customs officer how to use her computer.

 Once again I have been overawed by kindness people have shown me and special thanks go to " El Negro "

With El Negro

  Before travelling home a few days in Barranquilla was the order of the day.
     When faced with friendliness at every turn,  It's easy to forget how dangerous these places are. That is until you see someone with a gun held to their head being forced to hand over a mobile phone. In the middle of the day on a main road its certainly thought provoking.

 The food here in Barranquilla is excellent and I am amazed how the same staples as East Africa can be served so differently.

  Barranquilla is one of the major carnival sites in the world and I have seen the salsa and fandango first hand. You have to wonder how these places will be spoiled as tourism kicks in.

QUITO TO BOGOTA, AUGUST 2014

Quito to Bogota

I'm back, where was I?

 I guess I must have hit the wall and been lacking a bit of motivation caused by a couple of repairs.
  After due consideration I have reached the conclusion that there is no reason forcing me to continue other than my own stubbornness and the fact that I don't want to wonder what it would have been like to have finished. 

  2 days before going back to pick up my bike in Quito I recieved word that I needed to carry a new clutch with me and, as the two days were to be spent mainly sitting on a plane, this was a challenge to say the least.  I picked up the parts in Chicago at Countryside BMW and carried them with me.Sounds simple enough but i am now on the mailing list of twenty parts suppliers plus on arrival at Ecuadorian customs there was a debate as to whether parts for a motorcycle on temporary import papers are themselves temporary imports, all in spanish, (at least they were speaking spanish and I was doing my best Manuel impression , que ? )

      The nice customs supervisor took pity on me and I was soon on my way to deliver the clutch to Diego .

25/8/14

Away we go, riding through the centre of Quito trying to find my way out, complicated slightly by road closures due to an earthquake.
  I was a bit concerned because when I said I expected to reach Bogota in three days the guys from freedom tours had to dry their trousers.
Ecuador is a very beautiful country and has a lot to recommend it and even more that I haven't seen.The last night in Ecuador I tucked in to chinese food at my hotel in Tulcan

26/8/14

Up early and reach the border at Rumichaca/Ipiales with the whole day ahead and a certain amount of trepidation, well founded it turns out but not for the more obvious reasons.
I don't know what it is about officials in Ecuador but they process people when they have nothing better to do, they obviously have an agreement with Saudi Arabian immigration department for training.
Columbia is  a country ready to welcome visitors and the formalities were almost a pleasure , even down to being allowed in and riding 20 kms to the nearest town to buy insurance. I was soon on my way and apart from groups of fully armed soldiers every so often I wondered what all the fuss was about and  began thinking maybe I would manage in less than three days and was imagining my triumphant entrance into Bogota.
One thing that I discovered is that there are a lot of trucks on the road in Columbia, later on I was to discover an interesting fact about these trucks, namely that their fastest speed going around hairpin bends is slower than my absolute wobble speed, add to this the incline and the going was interesting to say the least. Today was without doubt the hardest days riding I have ever done , overtaking trucks and trailers through the tightest of gaps. When I found a hotel for the night I had to clean my underpants
Hotel with bike parked in the room 10 USD.There is a downside to not having many tourists and that is that you end up ordering food about which you have no clue, sometimes nice, sometimes different.

27/8/14

  Up early and on the road I discovered that there was no relief from the trucks and with the constant climbing and descending this was really really tough,  even a break to have a battle of wits with a policeman trying to solicit a bribe didn't lighten the load. The policeman obviously thought I was loco when I thanked him for saving me having to ride all the way to Bogota when he told me he was going to call a truck and a crane to take my bike away.
Eventually I arrived in Bogota in the rain, it was quite interesting discovering that my tyres do not grip very well in the rain, especially on smooth tar repairs.Another interesting thing is the way the rush hour traffic will happily run into you if you don't get out of the way, this is without doubt the worst traffic I have encountered. I chickened out at one stage and asked if I could wait on a garage forcourt till the traffic died down, they said I was welcome to wait but they were only open for another 4 hours.
 Eventually arrived at a hotel after 14 hrs of the hardest riding i have ever done.


28/8/14

BARRANQUILA AND CARTAGENA


  After the stress of Bogota this is like heaven. Of course I don't have to make a living here but I can't find anything bad about good weather, good food and music at every turn.
 The first hotel ( in Barranquilla ) was a bit basic,

People started arriving by surf board for breakfast, from where I have no idea.
 Just one night was enough and on to Cartagena.

 The centre of Cartagena came as a shock, the architecture was like being transported back in time, not at all rundown.

   I am only scratching the surface as I pass through but I have to say that Columbia is my favorite place so far, the problem will be when the tourism takes off and everywhere is made the same as everywhere else in the west