Ecuador

We got away from Pasto before 8:00 am on Saturday to be at the border near Ipiales before it got too busy. The main highways in Colombia are generally very good and we had a nice ride to Ipiales with more beautiful mountain scenery. The border crossing was a breeze and free; a nice change from Central America. Both sides took us about an hour or so and everybody seemed quite friendly and relaxed. We met a helicopter pilot from Kimberly, BC who works for Abitibi. He's working in Peru but was on holidays with his two daughters and his wife. They were traveling by bus and loaded down with back packs. Once across the border we tried to find a side road that parallels the Pan American Highway but it was too confusing to get on to and we ended up back on the main road. The country changes drastically with the changes in elevation. We started out in lush green hillsides and passed through a very arid section that reminded me of the Similkameen Valley near Keremeos. We spent last night at a great small hotel in Otavalo, Ecuador. It was cloudy and cool when we got here yesterday with a few rain showers so it was a nice change.

Ecuador just south of the Colombia border.

More arid area north of Ibarra

They looked prettier from a distance.

The lush farmland was only about an hour ride from here.

At a food stall in the market.

It always smells so good in the markets. Besides the food cooking there is lots of fresh fruit, veggies, spices and herbs.

Otavalo is dominated by Cerro Imbabura. It's a volcano that looms over the town. It's a good reason to be religious. If it ever gets active it won't be a good thing for the town. Otavalo is famous for its market and Saturday is market day. It was very busy in town. There are a lot of Indigenous people here who wear their traditional clothing in the normal course of life. That goes for both men and women. Also, most of the guys have long hair tied back in a ponytail.. It's really cool to see. I had heard or read somewhere that they don't like to have their picture taken. I guess if people keep walking up and taking your picture because you're so short (some of the people here are about 4 feet tall) or your clothes are different it would get a little annoying. I also read they think the photo takes away a part of them but I don't know about that. Anyways, I kept the camera in my  pocket most of the time but there was an older man selling puppies and I thought it would be okay to take a picture of a dog. Nope. The man, who was picking up the puppy, turned away from me and said "no photos". So that was that. We also spoke to a woman from Belgium who was taking a scenic picture with a cow in it and some guy got really mad at her. She said she gave him some money to quiet him down. Hmmm...maybe that's it.

I was a bit surprised at the huge number of tourists here. It's only a short distance from Quito and buses come up here for the day. There's lots of Europeans and Canadians and Americans. Even in our small hotel we met people from Vancouver and Victoria. It's been quite a while since we've seen this many tourists.
We met a local guy in a bar last night who spoke very little English but we had a good time talking to him. I'm pretty sure he invited us to his place for a party tonight. He was trying to explain that we weren't considered Gringos here. I think the term is a little more derogatory around here. Again, the people are quite friendly.Well, except for the picture thing.
Today we went for a long walk to see a nice waterfall and a lake near town. It felt good to stretch the legs a bit although we probably got a bit too much sun. Speaking of that, the sun is almost directly overhead now. We are only a few kilometers north of the Equator so that will be another milestone for us. I was showing someone on Google Maps last night where we started our trip from and I had the map panned out to show North and South America. The cursor for our location was almost on the Equator and that's when it dawned on me just how far we've come.
We also met some guys from Boston today who are here doing some mountaineering. It sounded like they were on an organized tour and had taken a day off. They had rented motorcycles in Quito and come up to Otavalo for the day. They'll be climbing to as high as 20,000 feet so were doing progressively higher mountains every few days in order to acclimatize. Neil had a good chat with them because they were in the contracting and building supply business.

On our way to the waterfall, Cascada de Peguche

Here it is. It's very popular. Even with the locals.

At the top of the waterfall someone had carved a tunnel to get past the cliff.

On the trail to the waterfall.

Neil sneaked a picture of me drinking rum in the bar last night.

A view of Otavalo from near the highpoint of our hike.

See how small his shadow is?

Cerro Imbabura

I bought some shirts from this guy in the market and he wanted me to try on a mask.

Not too sure what we're doing this afternoon but it sounds like there's a movie or something at our hotel so that might be interesting.
Oh yeah, I'm feeling a little pressure now that I see Ross Campbell is following the blog. So I'm trying to work on my spelling, punctuation and grammar and stuff. Dammit.
Anyways, I think that's all for now.
Hasta luego.

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.

Between Bogota and Ibague

Discussing hotels in Armenia

Left to right: Jhonatan, Sandra,  and Ingley. I'm sorry I didn't get the name for the lady on the right but she helped make breakfast. Thank you!

South of Armenia

On the road between Cali and Armenia.

Very old but comfortable

Our Popayan neighbourhood

Town square in Popayan

Always busy around 5 pm

Another church. Popayan

Countryside near Rosas, Colombia

Neil knows who to make friends with.

Street artist in Pasto

More of busy streets at 5 pm

The churches are amazing

Picture taken from the sidewalk. Not sure what they were but they sure smelled good.

 See you in Ecuador.

Bogota and South America

So we had to suck it up and fly the bikes to Bogota, Columbia. It's amazing how easy it was once we figured out what to do. Girag Air Cargo gives you a waybill, you give them US$900, and Presto! Your bikes are headed for a new continent. All we had to do was take off the mirrors and windshields and we were done. That night we stayed in Panama and booked our flights to Bogota. We couldn't seem to find the cheap flights everybody else was talking about. We figured it was their high season.
Sunday morning we were at the airport early only to find out we had standby tickets. And the plane was full. Awesome. However the airline people were very good and got us on a later flight that made a stop in Medellin and got into Bogota around 2 or 3 o'clock. Our hotel was in the older part of the city and was an interesting place to walk around. We managed to get some comida tipico at a hole in the wall restaurant. It was great. That's basically one pound of assorted meats grilled on a wood fire with a bit of guacamole, some baked potatoes and a bun thingy. Oh...and a beer. Okay..two. Did I say it was good?
We ended up killing another day in Bogota because the plane carrying our bikes broke down. There are probably worse places to be stuck. We also spent a bit of time figuring out a time-line for the rest of our trip and decided to cancel the Cartagena detour. It would cost us over a week and we're already feeling a little rushed. Too bad. I might just have to do a little field trip back there with my sweetie someday soon.
Just before lunch today (Tuesday) we got word that our bikes were ready to be picked up. We met two more American bikers when we were getting our motos out of Columbia Customs. They also were picking up their bikes and doing much the same trip as us. We had a nice chat with them while we picked up and readied our bikes. However we decided to go our separate ways after getting gas at about 4:00 pm.
Neil and I decided to get out of Bogota that night and go to Soacha. It's just outside of Bogota and on the way to Cali. It is quite a populated area but there are only a couple of Auto (read romance) Hotels. We stopped at a service station to ask if there were any hotels in town. This was one of those things that seem so inconsequential at the time. It proved to be a lucky stop. The shop owner's son jumps on his moto and leads us into town to make a few inquiries about rooms. He has no luck so he leads us back to the gas station. Now I'm thinking we have to go to the Auto Hotel because it's getting dark. The son and his Dad get on Google Translator to tell me the auto hotels are full of bugs and dirty and it's not safe there for us. The son offers to be our guide and lead us, again on his bike, back into Bogota to find a hotel. He says it'll only be half an hour. I'm sure it'll be an hour. And he doesn't want anything for it. So off we go in rush hour traffic headed for downtown Bogota. It takes an hour and 20 minutes and it's dark long before we're done. In the meantime this kid is talking on his cell and asking cab drivers and pedestrians about hotels. He even picks up his girlfriend on the way. The best part is when he tells two cops on bikes to get lost because they try to pull over Neil and get a donation. They were not happy when they left. Ha!
Somehow they find us a hotel and when we say goodbye he tells me "that's how we do it in Columbia". Or something along those lines.
I feel stupid because I can't remember his name. They were VERY nice people.

When you get standby tickets you get to take a picture of your plane leaving.

Our first hotel in Bogota. The one with the cab in front. It was really nice inside.

Somewhere between the airport and downtown Bogota.

In the Historic area of Bogota with Monserrate in the background.

We had people trying to sell us emeralds on the street. Take it easy girls!

They still use burros to get it done downtown.

A 400 year old church on the right side of this building was very beautiful inside. No pics allowed though.

More street vendors.

Crowded street market.

Now this is a hole in the wall. This was the whole shop.

Bogota rush hour.

Yup, really. Right in rush hour.

Neil doing someone a favour. We were getting our bikes from the warehouse at the Bogota Airport and helped out someone else.

Getting ready to hit the road.

Ciao for now.