Oh my god, I am in Bogota!!!
Well, lets see if I can remember just what all happened. They boys got in fairly early in the morning or rather late as the sun was coming up at around six o’clock. The plan the night before was to get out of the hostel by eight and make an hour and a half run to the airport where we would ship or bikes. Well, it got rather late but considering they only got a couple of hours sleep I thought that a little after nine wasn’t that bad. We charged off and only had to ask directions maybe a half a dozen times. The airport is way the hell out of town but through many little grubby towns and some interesting stretches of pavement hell and crooked roads. Nothing seems to make any sense traffic wise and the boys just ride like hell through it. It scared the shit out of me roaring down between two rows of traffic and weaving in and out the best I could to not hit anyone. Sometimes we passed on the dirt on the right, and you get the picture? Now add that, balls out throttle at 5 to 6 grand, to full on, squealing brakes. I was really happy to finally end up at the airport, but then as usual we ended up at the wrong one and made a big circle to get back to the freight terminal. We asked at two different air cargo places and the news was not good. They had several emergency freight deals and we would not be able to get our bikes shipped out until Tuesday or Wednesday. The deal on shipping my bike to Ecuador was that they would have to ship the bike to Bogotá and it would wait there until there was enough freight to make it feasible to send a load of freight to Ecuador. The cost of the flight for the bike only was $650 plus any other little fees that they could think up. They checked on a the price to fly me to Ecuador and that was $450. So it looked like it would be around $1200 and then I wouldn’t know when my bike would finally get there. Not sounding good to me.
The other possibility was to fly the bikes (all three) to Bogotá and I would take off from there. The price that they quoted for the bikes was $450 each but by lumping them all together we could get the pallet of bikes shipped for $800 or only $266 each. That sounded good so we set to work taking off windshields and mirrors, disconnecting batteries and in general getting them ready for who knows what kind of treatment and lashing to get them loaded on a big pallet and flown to Bogotá.
The next step was to get the dang thing paid for. There is nothing like quick efficient customer service. We hung out at the freight desk for maybe three quarters of an hour and then were told to go to the office and pay. Well, we went to the office and the guys talked and talked and finally sat down to wait. It looked like a good time to take a nap to me so I stretched out across the waiting room floor and went to sleep with people walking by and stepping over me. I didn’t give a shit I needed a nap. When I woke up I saw Sacha logged out on the floor too while Evan was doing his best to sleep in a chair. I read a magazine (pretty quick as it was all in Spanish and about cargo freight) and then I decided to see if I could make anything happen. The girl at the desk was nice looking and I went up and tried to make some conversation, which was tough as she didn’t speak any English. I did end up taking her picture and that seemed to please her and I think she finally thought that she would help get us out of the dang office. We smiled and she did get the paper work sent on up to the desk and I woke the boys up and we got the dang thing paid for with my cash and their credit cards. I tried to explain to the boys about getting our bikes checked out of Panama and having our passports stamped that we got them out, but they were still sort of rummy after the last couple of days with about 4 hours sleep. From what I have read, it is very important to get all that paper work done but I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.
Sack-outs X
biles in air freight X
We did finally get a cab to take us to the main airport after much dickering with cabbies that wanted to rip off the gringos. Sacha and I parked ourselves looking after the gear while Evan went searching for tickets for us to get to Bogotá. He came back after a little bit with the news that there were no seats available to bogota until maybe the 24th, Christmas eve. OH, FUCK!!!!! Or bikes were in air freight and not available to us and we would have to stay in Panama City for a week and a half living in what was a hell hole of a hostel. Oh, it didn’t look good for us boys. While we were sitting there considering suicide or ???, one of the airline girls came running up to Evan and said that she thought that she could get us tickets!!! She was a good-looking one too and I guess she took a liking to Evan as he is a charmer for sure. It took almost an hour but we finally got tickets and they were only $244 which was a lot better that the first quote that was something over four hundred bucks.
The boys hadn’t any thing to eat all day as they didn’t get breakfast and we had no lunch. We did have time to get some overpriced food in the airport before the plane left. Our flight was to Caregena or something like that on the north coast of Colombia and then on to Bogotá from there. When we got to that town we had to disembark and go to the luggage area and get our luggage and take them through customs and to be checked. It was a mess but we finally got it done and they herded us back on the same damn plane for the flight to Bogotá. When we landed in Bogotá we had to go to an atm machine and get some Colombian pesos as I guess dollars don’t work here. I took out 300,000 pesos which is supposed to be a hundred bucks I guess. Damn it is hard to keep constantly changing money and trying to figure out the value of what you have.
We took a cab from the airport to town. The conversation with the cab driver was all in Spanish but the guys were looking for a really cheap place that they read about in the lonely planet guide book. The cabbie had lot of ideas and tried to steer us away from dangerous placed I think. We charged around a half ass looking place and after stopping at maybe four or five places that were full, we found a rat hole place for the three of us in one tiny little room with three beds. The guys were all head up to go out on the town last night and took a quick shower and headed out. It was about eleven o’clock by then and I stretched not quite all the way out in the little bed and went to sleep on one of the hardest beds I have ever slept on. I was bushed so even though it was cold and my feet stuck out, I slept fairly well.
Hotel X
The boys have never come in yet and I am somewhat worried about them. I read so much negative stuff about Bogotá and the do’s and don’ts that I cant help thinking that something bad has happened to them. It is almost ten o’clock and they still have not shown up. I went about a block to a main street downtown and walked some this morning. I found a little café and had eggs and bread with a cup of coffee that had milk put in it. I have to remember to ask for negra café.