June 24th, 2013 Monday

woke up packed went downstairs with my coffee cup and got a refill.  Then i packed, went across the street to the other hotel so the lady could unlock my moto from the room it was locked in next to the street.  This was downtown Medellin, so I was blocking the sidewalk while loading my moto.   So i hurried and in the process forgot to look at my map before I left wifi range.  So i took off, got lost really bad and it was Monday morning rush hour traffic, and it's just a complicated city to drive in of 2.5 million people, so 30km, yes 30km later I was on my way out of town.  The mountains came quickly, and the ride was simply amazing...you can't come close to understanding the experience with a camera.  So I had reset my odometer knowing I had 425km to get to Cali...well there is a song, by LL Cool J I remember from junior high school.  It goes  "Going back to Cali, Cali, Cali, I'm going back to Cali..huh, I don't think so!". Is how the lyrics went I think.  And that's exactly what happened.  Right at 100km my bike began to wobble in the back really bad and I was in winding mountain curves and just before this happened at times I was hitting 100km/hr. I pulLed over at this restaurant hotel and asked a guy to spin the tire and sure enough I had a problem...13 broken spokes!, yes, 13 of 24 were broken.  I could go nowhere and I was stuck there in the middle of nowhere.  The lady at the front desk had no suggestions and I was 10 miles from anywhere.  So I decided to eat lunch, yes eat lunch that's what I do when I'm depressed...eat.  But I had the best meal ever.  Catfish head soup for the first time too! And it was good. I booked a room for 15000 pesos or 7.50$ Then I worked to see if it was possible to remove some front wheel spokes to the back wheel...no chance, you gotta remove the rubber tire.  So  I struck up a conversation with a guy eating and he decided to help me out...thank goodness.  He tried to help me get the back tire off so we could carry it on his scooter into the next town, 9km away...no chance, no tools.  So we took off and went to the moto taller(shop) and a guy showed up and my friend shook my hand i thanked him and he left, then me and the mechanic got on his moto and went to the hotel to take the tire off.  5 minutes later we were headed back to town with the tire.  Then we stopped at the tire shop and removed the tube and tire, wrapped the rim in paper and took off 25km to the next town.  The nicest people ever were there.  We actually went to a bicycle shop where a little old man said he would have it done in 1 hour for 14000pesos or 7$.. Thats with all of the broken spokes replaced with new ones and tuning.  I felt like I was back in my Baytown in 1982 at Delgado's bicycle shop.  So alvaro took me to change $40.00 at a grocery store for 1800 per dollar.  Then we went back and watched the old man finish working and talked to him and a cycler.  Then we went back to the tire shop, put the tire back on the rim $5000 pesos, then rode back to the hotel and Alvaro finished the job and even adjusted the breaks and tightened the chain 40,000 pesos.  In all it was a great day, and I got to meet all kinds of new people and experience the lives of the Colombian people, it was worth the $34.50 it cost me to fix the moto.  Plus the hotel turned out to be really cool.  It's on a river bank with rushing rapids surrounded by mountains.  But I gotta move on, Tomorrow...I really am going to Cali!  Lord willing.

Photos are of:

 My hotel in Medellin

Views of the mountains 75km outside of Medellin

The kitchen at the hotel

My lunch with fish head soup b4 abd after

 Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

The cook

My room

The tire shop

The moto repair shop 

Cartagena to Medellin June 19th thru 23rd, 2013

June 19th thru 23rd, 2013

So on the 19th after saying our good byes to the parking lot attendant we found a hotel in bocagrande for 70k and we split it, it was like a dorm room one block from the main beach in Cartagena.  Stayed there one night.  Then the next day the 20th Tony decided to take a couch surfing offer for 15k pesos a night and he invited me, but I had talked the lady at the front desk into giving me a smaller room for 35k a night.  Then Tony and I parted ways, and I just hung out at the beach, and walked around to get to know the place, also took several rides thru the city.  The beach was nice, they sell everything from crabs, oysters, drinks, nick nacks anything you want which can get very expensive.  The next day the 21st I headed to Fatima a clinic in Historic Centro to get my Yellow fever shot.  Tony said he paid $30, but at this clinic it was free.  Then it was early enough I decided to ride towards Medellin and get started on my way to Ecuador.  That first night I made it 175km to Sincelejo and found a room with the most hilarious family, we talked for an hour.  The guy at first didn't understand my spanish, so I made fun of him and his wife laughed, then he did too and we finally started communicating and I told them my whole adventure story which every one wants to know how I got to Colombia, and they get a kick out of it, and I like telling it.  I went across the street and the same thing happened the lady didn't understand me at first but they always smile when they say they don't understand which tells me they can't believe I can speak spanish.  The meal ended with 6 people crowded around me as I told my story and showed photos. The food was great and a lot of it for 5$ I had a huge skirt steak, menudo, which they call mondango and a drink.  Then I went to bed no a/c but didn't need it.  Wifi was good.  Shower was weak. The next day the 22nd,  I had my usual oatmeal with banana and instant coffee on my electric burner and pot in the room.  I said my goodbyes, which is always hard, but I knew I had many miles ahead of me, because I was going to drive 471 km through mountains, fog, winding roads sometimes unpaved and under construction.  This was further than my previous record of 365km by a lot.  The riding really wears your body down after 10 hours.  By 7am I was getting it.  80-90km per hour sometimes 95, but rarely.  After 115km of riding I stopped for a snack, and a gas.  Then I headed another 100km and stopped for lunch.  Met a nice lady with some really tasty chicken soup.  Told her my story then headed out again.  Everytime I see a "minutos" sign I have to stop...it is pure freshly cut and squeezed orange juice for .50 cents.  I also took several photos of interesting roadside things like dried whole armadillo meat, rodent meat, and bagre (catfish).  Then around 350km the road got really mountainous and I was very high up.  There had been road construction and one stop where 50 or more 18 wheelers and cars were stopped, but they let me pass through and go through all the construction.  I was all alone on the road, then suddenly I drove into this thick cloud and I was all wet, and the road was wet and slick I didn't realise I still had my sunglasses on, then the road turned sharp I tried to stop, but no chance.  I laid the bike down and went airborn and slammed into a ditch right across my diaphragm and knew I was hurt.  Several people saw it and ran over, but They tried to roll me over, but I couldn't breathe and needed to stay on my side.  Eventually I could breath again.  The bike was not hurt.  I went to a house and washed all the blood off my knees and legs, and couldnt bend my left middle finger, but had a lot of pain in my stomach where i took most of the impact against he concrete.  All in all after twenty minutes and some very nice people I was on my way again, with bloody knees.  I learned to wear pants the hard way, but I had decided it was too hot to wear them, but in the mountains it was freezing.  So I stopped at a tienda (little store) cause I saw they had coffee, and it was a great decision.  They were so friendly, and we talked for an hour.  The people, the mountains, the cities, are ao nice here.  I didn't want to leave tjat little store, I could have stayed there forever I think.  Such a beautiful place.  Then I headed to Medellin and saw hang gliding on the mountain side for 50$. Which I would have done if I wasn't in pain already.  A couple on a Yamaha 650 that had been taking photos of me finally caught up with me there and we talked a while.  They both spoke English and wanted photos.  Then I made it to this crazy city.  The hotel is cheap and secure 15$ a night.  Had dinner on the balcony for $3 then went to bed.  Gonna rest up here and recover one more day.  My knee's are swollen, my left hand middle finger is black and blue and swolen may have broke it, my knees are all scraped up, see photo,  and my Back hurts...bummer.

Photos are of:

My hotel room in Cartagena near the playa

Photos around Cartagena and of Centro touristico (4 photos)

Armadillo meat

Rodent and deer meat

Minutos juice stand

 Kid juggling fire and swords at the traffic light

Bagre "catfish" for sale

Small town near a river bridge

Road where the construction began right before my accident

Fog on the road 

After the wreck my friend who gave me 3 free cups of coffee

 Waterfall and beautiful views

The hang gliding place, where I want to return maybe

A guy from Colombia and his wife saw my Mexico plates and asked about my trip so we took a photo.  Very friendly people in Colombia.

Medellin finally, and views from the balcony in my hotel restaurant

My location on mapquest.

Day six Customs for the motorcycles June 18th, 2013

 Tuesday June 18th, 2013

 So I woke up and took a taxi and we met back at the dock where we got our motorcycles brought to us on a dinghy, yes a dinghy.  This part of the process we did not witness, because they loaded them on the opposite side of the boat where we couldn't see.  The one of the crew sat on the motorcycle inside the dinghy and motored them to the pier.  One by one after tying the dinghy to the pier we lifted them by hand onto the dock.  Then we rode to the customs office a few blocks away.  There we met a german guy, which I am assuming he was our shipping agent, because he definitely knew what he was doing and all our stuff was done while we waited an hour or two, and we paid nothing.  Then we had to go get insurance, which became an issue because the office we were told to go to didn't offer the temporal seguro or temporary insurance, so we went to the other office across town and their computers were down, and they told us to come back in two and a half hours at 2pm and they would be up.  Then she told us to try the other office, which I didn't realize was the office we had just come from.  So we drove there and realized it was the same office so we decided to call the captain since we had some time to kill to see if we could get our bags, which we did, back in the dinghy, back to the boat,bags in the dinghy, back tothe pier.  Loaded our bikes then headed to the insurance again.  Around 4:00pm we all had our insurance and we were completely legal.  The insurance prices were all different based on personal criteria and the moto size, but mine was around 20.00$ or 40,000 pesos, the harley 1400 and the klr 650's were around 25.00 each.  This was our only fee at customs.  Woohoo!  Then we decided to go eat, and followed steve and judy on the Harley, which was quite the sight, with all five bikes together and the extremely loud Harley leading the pack and all our saddle bags and backpacks stacked up, with american plates...we were all american, exept my plates are Yucatan Mexico.  Then we ate after riding around looking for a while, then we said our goodbyes and headed to our respective hostels.  There was a different guy at the hostel and he wouldn't let me park inside, which the girl who had said I could was not there, so I refused to park outside and told Tony I was leaving, but he decided to leave too. So we found public parking inside the walls of the Central district where thousands of tourists visit, and all the hostals and restaurants are.  The guy at the parking garage said he would help us find a place.  So we parked and we looked ata a couple of hostals, a guys house, an expensive hotel, etc, but couldn't agree on any one.  So the guy said we could sleep in the SUV parked on the lot and he assured us it would be okay.  So I was all about a cheap room, and it was getting late and I don't drive at night.  Then we left walking, and used the internet at "the balcon" a few blocks away, and got to know the owner from Spain and his girlfried from Brighton England, and they told us about how they met and started the business.  Very nice people.  Then we headed back to our "suv", but it had been hit by another car so they had to leave is what the guy said, so I told Tony I was leaving then the guy says you can sleep in a tent.  So I was so tired I just said whatever and put up the tent that the guy let me borrow and tony had his tent, and I had a sleeping bag, and slept great.  Except for the overly friendly dog and stray cats.  In the morning the guy brought us half an orange each and a cup of coffee.  Also a bucket of fresh water. Turned out not to be too bad. So I tipped the guy 5000 pesos in the morning.

Photos are of:

In the dinghy Ludwig in front, neils on the moto and juan driving

4 photos of loading the bike to the pier

The german guy at the customs office (our shipping agent)

The first insurance office

The second insurance office where we actually got our insurance

Us riding around looking for this restaurant

Our view from "el balcon" restaurant

Horse and buggy

The parking lot where we camped