Day 111 - Oh what a night!

I'm very happy to report we've all beat whatever bug had us down for the last couple days.

Oops, I was kinda out of it the past couple of days and forgot to post this whack video I shot out the front of the hotel in Bosconia. A Panamanian group was busking. Just listen to the rhythms -- it sounds like home. It was a call-and-response bit with the lead being sung by a very senior woman made up in her Carnaval finery.

We rode straight and fast from Bosconia right up to the coast.
In Ciénaga, where the road branches North East to Santa Marta, we took the Western route to Barranquilla.

The town is built on the edge of a saltwater swamp right along the coast. The road only shows on some of my maps. The marshy plains is sadly, home to a sprawling collection of shacks and ramshackle homes. This is the most distressing looking slum I have seen yet on this trip.

We made into into Barranquilla in the early afternoon. You know the time of day when the sun is at it's maximum intensity. When it's so hot that if you even think of moving a muscle, you start to sweat.

That is my favourite kind of weather. And, of course, Tim's worst nightmare. Ahhh..we can't win 'em all :)

We had trouble connecting with May, and so ended up NOT heading to one of the hotels she suggested.

We had stopped at on a side street after determining the GPS was determined to guide us to a 0-star "hotel".

Alongside of us pulls us a pair of cops, riding in their usual style, 2-up on a 125cc Honda.

Our helper

The cops ask me what we're looking for and I say a decent hotel.

They discuss it for a minute then tell us to follow them. I wish I had remembered to turn on the video for the next 10 minutes. These cops led us through their city -- down 1-way streets, through 2 clearly marked illegal left-turns, and finally riding on the sidewalk for the entire final block before finishing at ... wait for it... the Hotel Canadienese.


Tim and I smiled. Troy, the Aussie of the group, had more ammunition for his Canadian Conspiracy story he is building..

Turns out the hotel is not really that good. The furniture is not structurally sound (don't ask how we know --- trust us, this), the windows onto the main street below are paper thin (all the better to hear every single car horn in a 12-block radius).

We resolved to find a new motel in the morning. Troy was ready to checkout less than an hour after we unpacked.

Dinner

We took a taxi to the restaurant where we had agreed to meet May. The ride to la Cueva was supposed to cost $4,000 COP, but the freakishly large taxi driver (did I mention they all drive a Chevy product that is so small it makes a Nissan Micra look like a Hummer?) wanted more.

We resisted the urge to bargain our way into paying more.

The restaurant is one with a lot of history. Between our first round of drinks, and the arrival of the meal, we were led into a small theatre in the back to watch a short film on the it's origins.

Essentially since the 1940's the place has functioned as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The great Gabriel Garcia Marquez was perhaps the most notable of Colombian writers to spend copious amounts of time there, essentially liming with his peeps. In his Noble Laureate work, "100 Years of Solitude" he even immortalizes some of his La Cueva compañeros.

The dinner was lovely.

We took another taxi to Rueda de Cumbia to check out the preamble to Barranquilla Carnaval.

This was true, true Carnival -- instantly recognizable to any Trini. The street was filled with thousands of people. In the middle of the intersection, a truck was parked with musicians playing some jumping beats on African drums accompanied by other percussive instruments.

Every time the band struck up a new tune, the crowd danced round and round the truck in a thickly knotted circle of feverish bodies.

This is my element.

Your boy put down one set ah wine on them bonita Colombian mujhers, and I'm happy to report, represented T&T properly.

Tim and Troy did their part to rep Canada and Australia. Their results were pretty much ad expected :)

We left that joint after just an hour, and headed for our final destination for the night - La Troja salsa bar.

This is a historic spot in Colombian salsa history, and such is being preserved just as it has been since the 50's, even though the entire neighborhood around it gentrifies.

There are only 2 whorehouses left on the street.

Here we basically partied till out butts fell off. For those who know me, that probably sounds like a 10-minute affair. In reality we kept at it until about 2 AM.

The crowd took a shine to us. The DJ even played Sparrow's "Mr. Walker" as a dedication to yours truly.

At some point in the night, the Carnaval spirit crept into the proceedings, and we let loose with powder flying everywhere.

Ahh.. Once again, a good time was had by all :)

Many photos still to come in from the other cameras present. Be sure to check my Flickr Photostream for the additional pics in the next day or so.

Still Goin' Toco...

Day 110 Muy Enfermo

Yesterday was another big riding day. The road has finally dropped down out of the mountains onto a wide, hot plain.

The road is straight, arrow-straight at times, and filled with transport trucks and long-distance busses. All of that adds up to some very fast, if not interesting, riding.

Fast riding, that is until we hit another 2 traffic jams each 2.5 kms long. In each case the cause was a washed out bridge.

It looks like this will continue to be a daily problem for all cars and trucks traveling Ruta 45 to and from the costa.

Once again, thankfully, motorcycles are allowed to creep right up the front of the traffic jam, and so avoid any lengthy wait. We were delayed for perhaps 30 minutes, whereas the for the truck drivers, that's probably a good 4 hours spent in that one line.

We stopped for lunch a small truck stop. We were instantly swarmed by a bunch of local kids looking for money, food and just plain curious about the travelers.







We ended the night a little further up the road at the Hotel Ejecutivo, in Bosconia.

Here's a picture of little Juan Camillo and his Mom. She works at the small take away restaurant next to the hotel.






We're all sick right now. Around dinner time, Troy's stomach was too bloated and upset to eat. A few hours later he had feverish chills, and was throwing up.

Around 3:00 AM both Tim and I began throwing up as well. We all had diarrhea.

I'll spare you the photos..

All of us are too sore, weak and tired to even consider riding today

So, we have to stay one extra day in this little truck stop along this dusty highway.

Still Goin' Toco...

Location:Carrera 3 13,Bosconia,Colombia

Day 105 - Into Colombia

Inner courtyard of Cranky Croc

It only feels like we've been in Colombia for a month, instead of 5 days. I'd say that's because of the casual and comforting environment of The Cranky Croc hostel. Despite it being an unheated building in a city where it's cold enough for people to wear winter jackets, scarves, hats and gloves... I rate it highly.

Oh yeah, and the small issue of the tp needing to be thrown in the trash instead of the flushed down the bowl...

Otherwise the place is great. The owner Andy, does a wonderful representing the legendary Aussie hospitality.

Plus the man cooks up a great barbie on Friday nights. 

Now that's a barbie!

For the equivalent of $6 US we had bread, salad and about 4 kinds of meat, including some juicy ribeye steaks. Yum.

In Bogota they have entire streets of vendors selling a single product. For instance, the optical shops are all along Carrera 19. Near Avendia Caracas and Calle 15 is the moto district.

This place is magical! I think there must be literally hundreds of vendors selling any, and everything to do with bikes.

From helmets to shocks, custom decals to rain gear, just about everything is here.

Top original, with new

Everything that is, except for handlebar risers for a 2008 KLR 650 (Troy's bike).

However, he was able to get his centre stand straightened (a casualty of the flight from Panama). They also installed the offroad footrests he's been carry in his luggage since San Diego, California.

I found a suitable bolt for my rear top rack to replace the one that while rising back from the airport the other night.

Plus I got a little strip of sunblock with some custom text added to my face-shield. Luger who did the work at Calcomanias LA 17 (Calle 17 No 14-20 C.C. Megacentro) was excellent. He's a perfectionist, and so made sure the finished product came out exactly as requested. If you're ever in Bogota and in need of custom graphics for your vehicle, drop by and tell 'em Darren sent ya...

Also, you can check his buddy Willi in the shop next door selling some very nice LED lighting systems, for bikes and other vehicles.

We thought we'd leave early on Saturday and head north. That plan hit a snag when we couldn't find the house of a guy Troy wanted to purchase a drift cam from.

If you've ever driven in Bogota, you'll remember how insane their street numbering schemes can be. The address we were looking for was on Calle 67, No 97-41

Not a problem finding Calle 67. Well "no problem" is quite relative. More accurately i should say, "No problem that can't be solved by consulting 3 GPS devices, asking 10 locals for directions, and driving around for 45 minutes.  

So we found the street. But this No 97-41 business sunk us. No one we talked to in the neighborhood could figure out where that could be. :(

So, no DriftCam for Troy.

Finally heading out of town we discovered a really cool feature of Colombian highways -- motorcycles pay no tolls! We even have our own special lane, 2 feet wide to bypass the toll collectors. Now how cool is that?!

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...