After my boat trip on the Pacific I have been taking it a little easier and slowing myself down a little. I stayed in Cali, Colombia for about 5 days before I headed to Bogota to meet up with Aisha. Bogota is a place I feel I could stay and hang for a while. There is something about the city that just feels nice. It could be the amazing people, the food, I dont know, whatever it is its nice.
I left Cali and slowly made my way to Bogota through the Mountains, exploring a cloud forest with palm trees some as high as 50 feet. I rode through a national parque with spectacular waterfalls and rough roads. I camped out on a farm and stayed with the family who took me in and fed me. I was so grateful, one of the kids was sick, and I noticed they weren’t wearing any socks. They next morning I gave two pairs of socks to the family, and gave each child a coin of where I head traveled, some sun glasses with no lens, and thought them some English. It was a great experience for me to see how the farmers live on these small fincas, growing there own food, I got to have freshly picked potatoes, potato soup, and milk still warm from the utters of the cows. I didn’t mind freezing my butt off sleeping in my tent because the next morning when I was the snowy capped mountains, gave the kids there gifts and saw how happy they were, made it worth it. The milk alone made it worth it. The next day I rode on a rough rode for several hours until I got to a nice paved road that would take me to Bogota where I would meet Aisha a few days later.
Once Aisha finally arrived, we didn’t waste anytime getting to the north of Colombia. She wanted the beach, so we took the long two day ride getting there. It was nice to have someone on the back of the bike, it can get pretty lonely at times. Our first destination was Taganga, a small fishing beach town off the Caribbean Coast. The water was so blue and clear, it was paradise for sure. We spent a couple days there wondering the beaches, visiting Playa Grande, eating and cooking fish. The Coast is a pretty busy part of Colombia, I believe it is where most the tourism is, I can understand why because it is so beautiful. After getting sick of hammocks and beer, we made our way to Tayrona National Parque but stopped about a quarter of the there. Clouds covered the area, and strong winds turned us around. We talked to a couple who said they were there for two days and it had not stopped raining, not wanting to get wet I suggested we make our way to Cartagena, Colombia. It is labeled as the most romantic city in all of Latin America. It was a very nice and beautiful place, right on the coast. We got to see many of its beaches, talked to some sailboat captains, and visited the Old Walled City. The Old City is very beautiful full of restaurants, and shops, the buildings have been restored to what I imagine to be there original state. It was a great city to visit with someone you love. Aisha and I ended our trip together on the beach of Playa Blanca about two hours south of Cartagena. A beautiful white sandy beach, the water and wind were rough so we walked to where it was calmer and swam. The next morning we started the dreadful two day ride back to Bogota, we had one day left to spend in Bogota, so we walked around the city all day, and had a great dinner at a local Italian Restuarante, where they made their own pasta. The next morning, everything happened very quickly, her cab came and she was gone, I was a little taken back, because at one moment I had somebody to finally share all these amazing things I am seeing and the next I am alone, I got kicked out of the room I was in because they had someone else lined up to take it. So instead of taking my time to leave Bogota, I left about an hour after she did.
Back on the road, Colombia never fails to amaze me. I made my way to La Plata. A small farming mountain town, where I stayed until I could cross into an Andean Mountain Pass the following morning. Before I left Bogota I asked around to get information on the route I was going to take. I wanted to head south directly from Bogota instead of crossing the same way I had twice now to get to Bogota. The route I had planned I was told had high Guerrilla activity, but I was confidant I wouldn’t have any problems and with the rumors that are spread around down here, I said I would make my decision once I got there, and in fact the route I planned was perfectly safe. After talking to several people in La Plata and being told it was a beautiful road, I felt confidant enough to take it. It was rainy at times but there were plenty of waterfalls, mountainous meadows, cliff faces, and spectacular views to take my mind off the rain.
Once I made it over the pass and back to the main road I stopped to get gas and food in a small town. As my bike was getting filled. I went inside a small market to see if they had food, they did indeed but not for the public, just fruit, candy and drinks, but they were making food for themselves and they offered me a plate for free. It was just a mother and her 20 year old son. I was delighted by the offer, hungry, and tired so I politely accepted. It was nice chatting with Daniel and his mother about Colombia, and the politics of their Country and why people think it is so dangerous, when in fact it is probably one of the safest countries in all of Latin America. We chatted for about an hour before before we exchanged emails and I was on my way. I would have stayed longer but I was pushing to the border that was still five hours or so away, and being one o’clock I new I was going to cross at night.
I finally arrived at the border with a little day light left and the crossing went very smoothly, I was in and out in about an hour. I made my way to Tulcan, where I got chicken soap with three chicken feet in it and stayed in a bed that must have been used several times because it smelled so bad I pulled everything off and slept in my sleeping bag.
Up early the next morning I headed to Quito, the ride was amazing, deeply cut mountainous valles and canyons. Some of the canyons were inhabited, others were so deep you couldn’t see all the way to the bottom from where the road was. It was sunny, the roads were nice, and I felt great. The roads were smooth twisty and very scenic. When I started to enter into Quito, Ecuador I saw another biker and honked until I caught his attention. We met and chatted quickly at a red light, he was passing through to some place south and I was going to stay in Quito because I had some time to kill before Brendan got here. We talked and then the light turned green and we separated, I pulled off to get to Amazonas Ave. and find a hostel but immediately got stopped by traffic. I road up on the sidewalk, cut some people off and headed south out of the city. I hate traffic and decided maybe I will go to the same place as Patrick from Ireland is going. Turns out he was trying to say Cuenca. We arrived here yesterday after riding though the worst weather I have seen yet. Cold, rainy, foggy weather all day, the rain has stopped now but it is cool and cloudy. Cuenca is an amazing place, I am thinking of talking to some schools here about getting a job teaching for a little while, save some money then continue, but we’ll see. Brendan gets here in two days and we are heading into Peru for 3 weeks should be a blast. I just hope the weather clears up.
