Day 102 - Bogota Liming

Well, there had to be some reason that so many people come to visit Bogota. I didn't get any sense of it my first 2 days here, but today was quite different.

We spent a large part of the morning trying to source some rear tires for the KLRs. We'll have to go tomorrow to actually see what's available. Our tire of choice (well, Troy's tire of choice), the Avon Gripster, is only available on a 1-week special order for a whopping $COP 375,000 (pesos) ~ $200 USD.

And that's per tire.

So clearly, that's not going to happen.

It looks like we may end up with some Pirelli's. That will have to wait for when we visit the shop.

Just before noon, a new friend that Troy made last night at the pub, May, showed up at the hostel with her friend Elkin. They're both originally from Barranquilla, but Elkin has since moved to Bogota, and May is just visiting here for the long weekend.

Tim, Troy, Elkin, May and myself spent the rest of the day wandering about Bogota. We didn't go to any of the official tourist sites, but simply walked around checking out the city.

We had a lovely lunch at a small restaurant. The soup starter was hearty and excellent, though with a touch too much coriander for my tastes. The rest of the crew had no such complaints however.

We all (except for Tim -- he's hyper-allergic and has a very restricted diet) ordered the local speciality "Bandeja Paisa". It's a full lunch plate with white rice, a fried egg, baked beans, fried plantain, ground beef, and a dumpling-like thing I couldn't handle :)  Excellent overall.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering about snapping pictures. There's quite a strong tradition of graffiti in this city. Enjoy some of the pics.. more have been uploaded to my Flickr photostream -- just check the narrow column to the right of this text.

We found a guitar shop and Elkin tested their handiwork.

The verdict? Too 'tinny'

This is bar. Who sits up there?

Elkin testing some guitars. The man can play!

Hi!

 In the evening, Troy and I rode Elkin and May back to Elkin's place where we chilled for a bit. Troy got a chance to play on some excellent guitars.

I can't believe I didn't take a pic. The man had a perma-grim plastered on the whole time we were there :)


We were also introduced to some great music from their home city.

Then we took May to the airport to catch her flight back to Barranquilla. I have never in my life seen such grid-lock. Maybe my friends living in LA are used to it, but last night was ridiculous. It took us well over 90 minutes to do a 20 minute trip.

We did manage to get her on flight just in the nick of time though.

Word to city planners in Bogota and elsewhere -- do NOT rip up ALL of the highways AND major roads at the SAME time. It's just plain dumb!

Temp fix

Coming home from the airport, my right rear pannier broke loose. Troy was behind me, noticed and frantically signalled to me to pull over. The main support bolt that runs through the bike's existing luggage rack is broken, so I'm not sure how this thing is ever going to carry much load again. A quick application of some tie down straps got us back on the road temporarily. I'll deal with a proper fix tomorrow...