Mark and Neil Trekin' South: Good to be on the bike again.

Bogota is a very large city. Including the metropolitan area, it has a population of about 8.5 million people. I can't even fathom that. The population of the whole of Canada is about 33 million. So here we are, two small town boys trying to find their way out of town after a local led us to a hotel in the dark in one of the largest cities in South America. I still think we could have used a map. However we did it and once out of town we stopped to pick up a Colombian highway guide at a toll booth. When we stopped at the toll booth we parked right beside a motorcycle policeman. Did I mention we didn't have insurance yet? Right. Well, when we picked up the bikes we weren't sure about the need for insurance. The people at the airport, including a policeman, told us it wasn't necessary if we were in the country for less than 14 days. The latest advice from the motorcycle websites said don't go without insurance.There were reports of riders having their bikes impounded and having to pay US$200 fines. Also, not all the police are honest, and a lack of insurance could lead to unfavorable negotiations. The trouble was, you can't buy insurance at the airport and it was going to get dark soon. So, screw it. We're leaving and we'll deal with it tomorrow.
Where was I? Oh yeah, at the toll booth there was a police office with a bunch of cops inside. I always figured the best defense is a good offense. So I strolled in to their office and asked for some advice on which roads were safe to travel. I got some good advice and they had a good laugh at my Spanish. They didn't ask about insurance or paperwork so it was a win/win. We left there and rode through some beautiful rolling hills and some plains areas to the city of Ibague. From there the road made a long, steady and very steep climb to cross a mountain pass at about 3200 meters above sea level. It was an awesome ride on a very steep winding road. It would have been a lot better if there wasn't an almost unbroken line of trucks climbing the same hill. I think it took 3 hours to go the 98 kilometers to Armenia. Much of the time we were in first gear just waiting for a chance to pass. On some of the hairpins the uphill and downhill trucks had to take turns because there wasn't enough room for them to take the corner at the same time. I did a lot of stuff I thought I'd never do on a bike but sometimes you just have to get stuff done. We must have passed at least two hundred trucks, probably more. And about 50 police. After our unpleasant experience with the police in Honduras I was feeling a little nervous about getting checked and not having insurance.
While we were climbing over the pass it was amazing to see all the farming in the hills. It would be a bit like driving up the Fraser Canyon and seeing farms from the river to the very tops of the mountains. Except the mountains are a bit higher. We saw a number of farmers with burros and horses loaded down with produce and bags of coffee.The farmers still use burros and horses a lot. That's probably because nothing else can make it up and down those hills.
We pulled into Armenia and stopped to ask where we could find a hotel. People here love to help and within a few minutes we had a small crowd around us. The lady I was talking to went to her neighbors window and yelled for her to come out and help. Apparently she could speak English but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. If she had her teeth in it would have helped. However they were trying to help us and we eventually got the general idea of which way to go. We ended up staying at a very nice new hotel in a very nice part of Armenia. As usual, we found it totally by chance. We were looking for another place that some other person recommended when we saw this place. I went and knocked on the door and the lady who let me in toured me around the whole hotel. She was obviously very proud of her hotel. I was afraid to ask the price because it was so nice. It was five star and Neil and I would each have to take a room. As it turned out it wasn't too far out of our price range and we were tired so we took it. I'm a little surprised she did such a good sell job on us. We must be quite a site after a days ride. Our faces are usually pretty dirty, we're soaked with sweat and probably not just a little stinky. In spite of that we got first rate service. We were given cold glasses of juice while we signed in. Ingley, the hotel keeper, had a young fellow lead us to the parking lot for the bikes at the hospital down the street. George was a super nice kid. He took an interest in us and kept asking questions we couldn't answer without a lot of sign language. Eventually he got his laptop out so we could use Google to translate. I showed him the Helifor website because he wanted to know what I flew (when you register at a hotel in Colombia you must state your occupation). He thought that was cool.
In the morning during breakfast I asked about the location in town of an insurance office. They made a few calls and eventually it was decided it would be best for us take a taxi. While we got ready to go another young man showed up. His name was Jhonatan. His family was part owner in the hotel and he could speak English. He was there to offer his help. I explained our insurance predicament and he offered to drive us in his sisters car, which he still had to arrange to borrow. He was very helpful and managed to get us exactly what we needed. The insurance agent was a great help as well. As it turns out, Jhonatan spent 7 months in Vancouver learning English. He just happened to be in Armenia visiting family. He is going to school near Bogota. It was a lucky break for us. It's also another story showing how nice the Colombian people are. A real pleasure for us.
That day we left Armenia around 11:00 and had a very relaxing ride on good highways to Popayan. It's a very cool old town and we stayed in a very old hotel. It's amazing to see what kind of influence the Church played in the history of these towns. There is usually a church that dominates the town square and at least two other major churches in the town. The church doors are always open and there are almost always people in them praying.
Today we had an awesome ride through the mountains and managed to take lots of pictures. It was hard not to. Every time I thought I had enough photos for a while we would go around another corner only to stop again. It became a bit of a game with the truck drivers because we must have passed some of them 4 times or more due to all our photo stops. We were into the hotel early this afternoon and had a good walk around town here in Pasto. I'm sorry to say this will be our last night in Colombia as we head for Ecuador tomorrow.
Colombia is a very beautiful country populated by very generous and friendly people. I'm pretty sure I'm coming back.