Fotos VII

For the first time in four months I’m wearing shoes, jeans, a long sleeve flannel, and a jacket.  At 8,600 feet elevation, the air is crisp up here.  The final day of riding into town went well.  Wilson’s route proved to be beautiful and kept us off the dirty freeway as long as possible.  We crossed through a lot of lush farm fields among the pine forests before dropping into the city.  It smelled like home; I hope the terrain continues on this course for many months to come.

Alex and I worked our way towards the old town tourist district through the city of 8 million until we finally stumbled across the Cranky Croc hostel which has a good name for it in the motorcycle community.  The hostel is pretty comfy, but the highlights are the other motorcyclists we’ve met.  Adam is an Israeli riding an outrageous BMW HP2.  It’s by far the best bike we’ve seen on the road; barely heavier than ours but 1200cc’s of terror.  Adam has been on the road for two and a half years.  He’s done Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and now South America.  He tackles North America next and after that Australia.  He has a year and a half left.  He is a wealth of information and he has this adventure down to a science.  He even ran into Charlie and Andy last week in Medellin and had a blast with them too.  It’s a shame he’s going north; I’ve learned a lot from him in a short time.

Brian is a thirty year old Eagle Scout from Colorado riding a Kawasaki KLR 650.  He started a year ago and worked his way down to Panama just like we did.  Since then he has gone all the way down to Ushuaia and then back around through Brazil.  He’s on the final days of his journey right now.  He and his bike ship to Miami this week and from there he will ride it home and start working again.  Brian isn’t going back to your typical grind though; he’s a wine importer/exporter in Vail.  Also, I got a very nice facebook message from someone name Gage the other day.  I lost your information before I could respond Gage, but thanks for the kind words.  To everybody else leaving comments, I really appreciate it.

Kristi gets in tonight and Alex is obviously excited.  I’m pretty pumped too.  She’s bringing a care package from home consisting of new underwear, two new shirts, a pair of swim trunks, an extra pair of light pants, clutch and throttle cables, brake pads, and extra earplugs.  The excitement is reminiscent of Christmas at six years old.  I’d love to stay around and hang out a couple days while she settles in, but tomorrow morning I am making a move for Cali to meet up with Charlie and Andy.  With Alex and Kristi setting off on their own adventure, I need to do the same.  I’ve finally got a few pictures put together worth showing.  Enjoy.

Back in Cartagena when I was thrilled to be on the Colombian coast.

Alex immediately after the truck hit him.  This picture is one of my favorites of the trip because of the background people. The guy in the blue shirt over his shoulders was the truck driver.  I also love the muchacho holding the bird cage.

Here's the culprit.  You can see on the black bar across the grill where Al put a dent on the right side.  Also just under the right tow hook on the bumper is where Al's tire rubbed.

This is the fishing village of Taganga.  One last look at the Caribbean.

Me and Nicolas hanging out at the pool in Barranquilla.  He was a bit of a mooch, but a great guy to have around given his expertise.

Just as we started ascending into the Colombian mountains on the way to Bogota.

It is hard to capture their reach, but these mountains were magnificent.