‎February ‎11, ‎2011

This morning we pull our bikes out of the parking lot across the street from our hotel and ride up to the top of the only nearby hill to "Cerro la Popa". Mass amounts of buses were there ferrying people to and from this monument, Michael felt uncomfortable leaving our bikes unattended so we took a few pics and left. We had heard of a "Mac" store in Bocagrande and headed for it. Just as we arrived the the peninsula, police pulled us over and informed us that every 2nd Friday of the month, motorcycles were banned from the roads.... They let us turn around and take our bikes back to the parking lot. After that, we returned to our hotel and Michael as has not been feeling well. For about 3 weeks, he has been having stomach cramps and well you get the drift. We decided to take him to a hospital and have him checked out. They were really good and checked him out fairly quickly, but wanted to do some tests. They asked us to wait for the test diagnoses. To make a long story longer, we ended up spending over 6 hours at a Colombian hospital and Michael was given prescriptions for 3 or 4 things, plus instructions what to eat. Better coming from them than me. Needless to say he is on a bland diet for a week. While I was waiting for Michael, a guy sits beside me and has a "Care" card in his hand. Turns out Danny is from Vancouver and been riding Colombia for the past 4 months. While he is waiting for a tetanus shot because he was attacked by dogs on the beach, we had a great conversation and plan to meet up in Santa Marta. We are heading there tomorrow and he is thinking a few days from now.

Castillo San Felipe De Barajas

‎February ‎10, ‎2011

This morning we walked over to the "Castillo San Felipe De Barajas" and took their tour. Very interesting that the construction of this fortress was started in 1657 and had about 7 stages to it over a period of 200 years. It protected Cartagena from other countries taking over the Spanish lands in South America and was subjected to pirate attacks and sieges. Form its vantage point we were able to have a good view of the city and in particular, old Cartagena with its walls around for its protection.

Only entrance to the castle could be burnt quickly, in case of siege.

One of the many underground tunnels, note their height,

People must have been very short back then.

After our tour of the castle, we made our way to old town centro and walked its streets as well. Beautiful Spanish architecture with the many balconies that overhang the streets below. Some building have been renovated back to their former glory days and others are yet to have face-lifts. All adds to the ambiance of this wonderful city. After over 5 hours of walking we head back to our hotel for a well deserved shower in tepid water that comes out of the one and only shower tap. Refreshing after being in 93 degree heat and equally as much humidity. After relaxing under our ceiling fan, we head out looking for a dinner venue.

 Entrance to "El Centro"

"

Catholic Church

Narrow streets with overhanging balconies

‎February ‎9, ‎2011

Today we ride to Cartagena, about 175kms from here. Along the seashore for a while before turning inland. The road is in poorer shape as it is a troncial road instead of the main highway. Instead of topes (speed bumps) it has gravel, broken pavement and large potholes the size of small motorcycles to help keep our speed to a minimum roll.

Midway through our journey to Cartagena, we are navigating through a small town and are behind a normal size local motorcycle (100cc) which is behind a cargo truck. Trucks, buses and many cars always come to a complete stop before going over a topes, as this one in front of us also did. We don't know whether the motorcycle in front of us had no brakes or the driver was daydreaming, but he almost ran into the back of this truck. In the last split second, he had his feet out swerving around and because he couldn't stop went to the left and attempted to go around the truck. He couldn't see the huge semi coming in the other direction towards the topes, but when he came out from behind the truck and saw the other truck, he to scoot across the far left hand side of the road. Well, he didn't make it. The oncoming semi locked up his brakes but hit the biker and the bike went right underneath the bumper, pushing the bike onto its side. The biker, trying to get away jumped from the bike but his foot was caught under the left side. As we watched this all unfold, the truck's front right tire came to rest mid section on top of this small motorcycle's side. Plastic parts had flown everywhere like plastic confetti and we saw the rider getting up without a shoe or maybe a foot, as we rode past. There was not much we could do for the guy because of our Spanish and many people were there and running to the guy's aid, so we carried on. Just goes to show, wrong place wrong time, it can happen at anytime. Reminds us that we have to be aware and careful on this trip of ours.

Rode into Cartagena and the GPS takes us through a construction zone and we detour off this area and into some barrios (neighbourhoods). Gravel roads, single lane, at first I thought what did I get myself into and then as we watched people watching us, I was not intimidated. Their expressions were friendly. Got back on track and found the hostel we were looking for. This hostel helps people get boat charters to Panama. They were full but suggested another down the street a block. Ended up here and had to park our bikes in a parking garage for $12,000cop per day for both bikes ($6can). Went back to the first hostel and talked to a boat captain of the next leaving boat. He would not take our bikes because his boat was too small and told us that if any other boat chose to take our bikes, it would be like dipping our bikes into the ocean because the seawater would get into everything. We told him that we have reservations with the Stahlratte and his said that was our best choice, they do a great job and the boat is the biggest, we won't have a problem with the Stahlratte. So, we will have to suffer with traveling up the coast and visiting more resort towns and beaches, before our boat trip to Panama on the 26th of February.

‎February ‎8, ‎2011

Sat around the pool today, caught up my blogs and posted them. Answered emails and had a few cervezas. Michael caught some rays and attempted his blogs. For the most part just a nice day off. Very few people at the resort and anyone there kept to themselves.

‎February ‎7, ‎2011

Lazy day, Michael is using the pool and sunbathing, I am continuing to set up this new computer and install more updates (at one point there was 31 updates to have installed) no wonder why I like MAC so much more. Got all the Garmin map installer programs loaded and so happens that OpenMapSourse emailed that my maps for Colombia, Central America and Mexico are ready for download. Perfect! Now I have to learn to install them with a windows unit. Done!! We won't be driving blind anymore, just with one eye closed. Maps aren't perfect. When I got the GPS to route to Cartagena which is 110kms as the crow flies, it wants to send me back in the opposite direction for a total of 1694kms. Go figure? Oh well, we will deal with it and hope not to get lost too often.

February ‎6, ‎2011

On the road again. Same old highland, river valley twisties with remnants of the earlier torrentials. Good and bad road surface, then we started to descend into the coastal area. The temperature and humidity rises, more and more small towns, all of which have speed and school zones to drive through. Both the towns and school zones have topes (speed bumps) of differing degrees. Some are large and long, some are small and then the multiple small bumps, and these happen every 10 or so kilometers. Since arriving in Ecuador, the population has increased so much that towns are very frequent now and daily mileage has decreased from 500-600kms down to 250-300kms. But,, we ended up riding 400kms and arrived in the small town of Covenas just before dark. Were directed to a seaside resort and made a mistake. Stopped at a timeshare and asked the price. Little more than we wanted to spend, so we checked out a few more, including a cockroach hospidaje and decided to splurge. Got a 3 bedroom suite at a beautiful resort for $75can a night.

‎‎February ‎5, ‎2011

Rode to Medellin. This city is 2.5 million. Traffic is horrendous and my GPS maps are non existent. I requested maps from "OpenSourseMaps"  a few days ago and have heard nothing. Now with no computer, I can't receive or install them even if they come. After stopping in Medellin and getting accosted by a beggar while trying to get directions, we decide to carry on and find a much smaller town. Just before dark, we arrive in Santa Rosa, north of Medellin and after a drive around town, find a nice hotel with a wedding in preparation. After settling in, we go for our usual walk around the central plaza and adjacent streets. We find a shop selling a laptop Dell. Its too big and expensive, but a clerk asks to help us and we ask about a smaller notebook computer. Just so happens she has 1 and its on sale. Ended up buying a new Samsung 320gb with 2gs of ram. Spent the rest of the night installing, updating and setting up this new machine.

‎February ‎4, ‎2011

We were informed this house is 220 years old, with beautiful wool on the floors, ceilings and railings. Oscar and Diego were very nice, but coffee was the instant Nescafe. We mention that coffee is not good and we need some real coffee so Oscar and Diego show us to the best coffee shop in town, where we invite them to join us. Later we share photos and videos and install the new chain on my bike. In mid afternoon a thundershower develops and we are happy to be undercover and dry. In the process of doing maintenance on my computer because it has been operating very slowly, I find out that it needs a disk repair. This requires the original disk which is at home, so I check out the internet and a program is recommended that doesn't require the original disk. Well, after using this the computer won't start. Its $%^&&**! Maybe I can get it repaired in Medellin? After doing a lot of thinking, I don't want to loose the information on the computer and letting a Spanish speaking tech work on it could be disastrous because the inability to communicate my wants and desires.

Found it interesting how they carry half a hog from the truck to the shop.
Notice the hog's head to the left of the butcher

 Beautiful church

‎February ‎3, ‎2011

Up early and on the road to Salento and the Plantation Hostel. The roads are the same as the last 4 days in the highlands, rolling mountains, twisty roads with good and bad areas needing more maintenance. In the highlands the temperature remains in the 16-22­ degree range. After needing directions numerous times, we finally find Salento and the Plantation Hostel. Its under renovations and looks like they are long overdue. They offer us a small room, no bathroom and it yells at me "bedbugs" so we decline and go look for another place. After checking out 3 more places, we find this hotel that just opened 3 months ago and negotiate down from $140,000p to $80,000p ($40can) including breakfast.

Beautiful bird hanging around with its partner

 Great garden area

‎February ‎2, ‎2011

On the road late, the road twists and turns through beautiful valleys. I'm at home in the mountains, turns and green vegetation. The road surface goes from new pavement to broken and signs of last month's torrential rains are evident in many areas. The Panamerican Highway is the countries major link to the outside and the government needs to keep the thousands of trucks, buses and freight moving. Heard that Popayan was a nice town so stopped their for the night. Nice hotel, but the centrals are all starting to look the same.

 Huge Valley

‎February ‎1, ‎2011

Spent the day in Pasto. While Michael was updating his blog, I went for a walk into town to find a chain and few other parts for our bikes. Armed with a basic map that Patrice gave me, I willingly set out and headed uphill. After a bout an hour, I was in the right area but got bad directions from some local cops. Eventually, I hailed a taxi who had to get gas and put in 3 liters just as his engine stalled. At my motorcycle shop destination, I find all closed for ciesta. After wondering around for an hour they finally open and no one stocks a 525 chain. Sent around to more shops, finally I find 1 that will do the job. 3pm, I'm back and Michael is finished his blog. We go for lunch and a 2 hour walk. Nice clean town.

 Not an uncommon site

Pasto is a busy, modern, little town 

Parking lot