It was a really nice Christmas eve with Carlos and Lucy’s brother Juan’s family. They opened a few presents that they gave each other and then we had a really nice meal with the prepared turkey, several different kinds of bread and a nice salad. One interesting thing was served before the meal and it was a small pastry cup filled with I couldn’t imagine what. It didn’t taste sweet like I thought it would but a little stringy and to me it didn’t have much taste. It turns out that it was filled with egg plant. Everyone seemed to really love them but I think a person might have to develop a taste for them. It wasn’t that it tasted bad, it is just that I was expecting something sweet. I have this problem all the time when I go into bakery stores and choose something that looks like an apple turnover and it will have some kind of meat filling. They are good but what a shock when you are expecting something sweet. Everyone had such a good time and I was really pleased to be invited to be there with them. I was very surprised when Carlos and Lucy gave me a gift of a really nice t-shirt with a typical Colombian hat on it and from South America. Juan’s family gave me a really nice shirt too and I was really pleased that they thought to include me in their Christmas. I sure am humbled in that I didn’t even think of giving them a gift.
Clothing in Bogota is always long pants and shoes. At this elevation shorts and sandals or flip flops just don’t cut it. I was wearing my big heavy boots on all our walks until I finally got out my good running sandals and I don’t care if I am the only one in Bogota wearing sandals, they are more comfortable than big boots for walking around. Down at lower elevations shorts and sandals/filp flops are just what everyone wears. It must be nice to have only one set of clothes and not winter and summer clothes. Lucy was complaining about the weather in Montana and I remember when she was there for Anna’s wedding to her brother, it was 114 degrees that day. I can imagine now how much of a shock it must have been to someone from down here.
This morning Carlos and Lucy took their car and drove out to the edge of town and I followed behind. The traffic was light and I sure would never have found my way out of town without their breaking trail. It was amazing how the city just stopped and the farmland and grazing land started. It was just wonderful to be out in the country again after being in the city so long. The grass is green and everything is wonderful. Bogota is around 6 thousand feet I think and it was chilly in the morning. I even had to stop and put on a long underwear shirt as I was really cold with just a light shirt and short sleeve undershirt. I guess I should have looked at the map that Carlos scanned and printed out for me that gives the elevation changes along the road. The road started going down and it got warmer as I went down. The map gives the average temperature for each place and it is directly related to the elevation. The temperature doesn’t change around here with the seasons, it is the same all year round. The temperature can change five degrees or so but that is about it. I went past Ibague and finally stopped in the town of Cjamarca as there were all kinds of police and military guys hanging around and I figured it would be a safe town to hang out for the night in. it was only about two o’clock and in Cjamarca as I figured that Armenia would be another two hours at least and I might want to go on to the next town after that as it was going to be a big town. I would much rather spend the night in medium size towns rather than the big ones.
It is Sunday and Christmas and the town is packed with people. It is hard to day if this is normal Sunday or if it is just the holiday. They don’t get a Monday day off down here for an extra day for Christmas. They celebrate Christmas on the day before. I may have mentioned this before but when I said to carlos that someone had stolen the baby Jesus, he said that the baby wasn’t put in the manger until Christmas eve at midnight as that is when the baby was born. I had never heard of that before.
I found a little hotel called the Nevado on the main street and got a nice little room that doesn’t seem to be very noisy. There is a restaurant combined so that will be nice for supper. I took a walk down town and was taken with all the little four-wheel drive outfits that seem to be some sort of country taxi system. They must be using them on the back roads around here as there are regular car taxis and busses but these things look like they go where it is rough. I haven’t the slightest idea what they are but they seem to have diesel engines and they load them up. Some of them have ‘Carpati’ on the side.
Cabs X
I went to the restaurant for supper and when the girl came to take my order I asked for a menu but there evidently isn’t a menu. I pointed to my mouth and I guess she got the message because soon a big bowl of potato soup arrived as well as a plate with some unidentifiable items. I ate the little thin tough steak, the rice, beans and fried banana, but I left something big white and tasteless (yucca root?) as well as some red stuff all chopped up on a leaf of some kind. It was a good meal and it only cost about four bucks.
12-26-05
The breakfast I had this morning at the restaurant was just as weird as last
night. No menu and they just served me. I got first a big bowl of potato
soup with a hunk of rubbery tough meat in it. I ate the soup even if it was
rather odd to eat hot soup for breakfast. They then served a platter with
fried banana, rice, little things that look like biscuits but are made from
corn, cold scrambled eggs with stuff in them and a medium size bowl of café
(?). I aint sure what the café was supposed to be but I guess it had lots
of milk in it. I checked out everyone else in the restaurant and they were
eating the same thing. They just held the bowl up and drank out of it that
way. It was like a big tea cup with no handle.
I headed up the pass to La Linea which is about 3,500 meters or over 10,000
feet from Cajamarca which is about 6000 feet. What a beautiful ride. The
small farms on the hills are really beautiful, as they all seem to be
growing something different.
When I was in town I was standing on a corner when a guy and gal pulled up
on a little bike and the girl got off and walked away. The bike was loaded
down with stuff tied on all over it. It was just a small bike I think it was
a Suzuki and it had 115cc on the side. The guy got off and I tried to talk
with him but not much got said other than I let him know I was a moto man.
Well, almost to the top of the hill I saw him parked along side the road. I
stopped and I guess his bike finally gave out under that load. The day
before he said that there were no problems with the bike. He was a big guy
and the girl average so with the gear and all, that bike was overloaded for
flat land. I got a photo of him taking off for the hotel. It turned out that
he stayed in the same hotel I did but he got to park his moto in the hotel
lobby and I parked just down the street in a big lock up parking garage.
The farms that grew crops gave out to grazing land at the top of the pass
and there were lots of cows grazing. This is a really beautiful road and it
was in great shape. I got a chance to look around unlike all the countries
up north where you have to watch the road constantly. The bike is running
well and still has lots of power at these elevations. I need that power too
to pass those big trucks on those curvy mountain roads. There often isn’t
much time to pass and that bike can really take off and pass quickly. I took
this photo near the top and coming down showing the road as well at the
clouds. It was cool to be above the clouds.
I had put on a long underwear top in the morning and I was dressed about
right for the trip over the top. It got a lot warmer on the other side and
as I got lower the farms got going again. The variety of crops that they
grow is amazing. I really loved the farms and marvel at how they can manage
farming on the hillsides like they do. I am a flat land farmer and
mechanized as well while these guys do it all by hand and pack it out on
their backs too.
The valley floor crops are almost all sugar cane while the hills and
mountains are more tree crops, corn, and some trellis crops. It is actually
hard for me to say what is growing out there. When I went in a store in
Bogota the fruit section had maybe twenty different kinds of fruit and I
couldn’t identify many of them other than apples (from Washington) and
some plumbs. I really should have bought one of each kind and tried them
all. They sure did look weird though with little bumps and odd shapes.
I finally climbed out of the valley and made it to Popayan which is about
six thousand feet again. it seems like a nice altitude around here
temperature wise. The hotel I found is really nice. My room has a really
nice bed and the bath has a shower with one handle but an electric heater on
the showerhead. if you ever get down here and find on of these thing in the
shower you have to know how to use it. If you turn the water on full, the
water will be cold, so just turn the water on a little bit and you will have
hot or at least warm water. The sink water is cold at there is no hot water
heater. It has to be quick and much easier that having a hot water system
for a hotel.
I stopped at what looked like a good restaurant around noon as there were
quite a few cars parked out front. It was the same thing, no menu. I just
made the shoveling motion to my mouth and the guy laughed and pretty soon I
had a plate of food before me. It was a big hunk of chicken with rice,
beans, those little corn biscuit things, a fried banana slice, some salad
stuff (I don’t eat the salad stuff) and a piece of yucca root, oh and some
sort of juice. wow, they sure know how to feed a hungry biker down here. I
figured it cost about three bucks.
This is a little bigger town than I really like to stay in but it wasn’t
that hard to find a place to live, but it will be fun trying to find my way
out and back on the road to Quito. That is one thing I really liked about
riding with Dan and Bonnie, as Dan had an unbelievable sense of direction in
towns. I guess his being a fireman and droving a cement truck, had trained
him to know where he was in a city. I was totally lost but he knew exactly
where we were and how to get out.
Lets see, I went through an area that was rather poor and I think most of
the people worked in the farm fields. Most of the people there were black.
There is a significant part of the population in parts of the country that
are Afro-Colombian. I remember Carlos saying that there is not
discrimination here. there are areas where there are a lot of poor
afro-Colombians.
I am seeing a lot of horse drawn carts here. I saw a very few in Bogota but
as I got out of the city I see more and more. Mostly they are used for cargo
transport and here a lot of them are used for farm produce transport. One
horse only hooked to a little ten foot, four wheel wagon. I wouldn’t say
they have the right of way but everyone seems to give them room.
Horse cart X
Supper was at a chicken place and no menu again. I made my shoveling to the
mouth move and he got the picture. Pollo (chicken) it was, with rice, beans,
a couple of corn biscuits and potato soup.
12-27-05
I tried the same restaurant for breakfast but the only thing they had for
breakfast was chicken so he pointed me down the street and I got a helping
of scrambled eggs, rice and fried banana with a cup of milk coffee. Dang I
still haven’t got the black coffee thing down yet. I asked for tinto,
which is supposed to be the word, but she said no tinto so I went with the
café. Good enough for me. On the way out of town I passed this little
ferris wheel which looked like a cool deal. The guy just stopped to chat
with a woman and his two little dogs got out that were riding on one of the
seats.
Ferris wheel X
The road today was just beautiful again. I crossed some high mountains and
had some outstanding views of some really deep canyons. It was almost like
looking down into the grand canyon only it was green and there were people
living there and farming there.
Hillside X
Some of the little farms were on better ground and were just show pieces.
Ridge top farm X
Road goes into tunnel and when you go in that tunnel it is pitch black.
Tunnel X
I had to stop and take a photo of these guys just coming up out of a canyon
with a pack string of horses that were loaded down with boxes of fruit that
were harvested down there someplace.
Packin X
I was going through a small town when I spotted this guy hauling a pig
behind his motorcycle. I real hog man I guess you would say.
Pig-hauler X
I caught up with a couple of police guys riding down the road and I just
felt it was a good idea to follow them and not pass. It was sort of like
having a police escort. I did finally pass them as they stopped to talk with
another policeman. Not much further the road was closed and they showed up
to make sure no one went on by. They were actually really nice guys and they
were interested in my bike as I was in theirs. They were riding Yamaha
650’s and they ride two up, or at least these guys were. I could keep up
with them easily enough but they really crank right along on those bikes.
Cop’n guns X
It wasn’t too far from where the road was closed to the city of Pasto
where I found a nice room in a hotel right downtown. It had started to rain
and I needed a place right away. I met a couple of biker’s back where the
road was closed. They were from Medellin, Colombia and were headed to
Ecuador and the coast for a few days. I stopped on the outskirts of Pasto
and waited for them to come along and when they did I asked if they knew
where the hotels were. They pointed to one really fancy one and said they
were going to stay there. I asked how much and one guy said he thought a
hundred or so. Yikes, I am a twenty to twenty five guy so I rode on and
found this nice hotel. It even has warm water but no toilet seat like a lot
of the hotels I have stayed in. I wonder why they don’t have toilet seats?
I can’t imagine people stealing them. Oh yah, you have to put used toilet
paper in a little wastebasket and not down the toilet when you go south of
the US border.
12-28-05
it was a beautiful ride to the border over some really nice mountains. The
farms on them were very nice. I met the bikers again along the road where
they stopped to take a photo of a water fall. One of them took my camera and
took a photo of me.
Rex X
It didn’t take too long to get to the border but the border was terrible.
I stood in the Colombian border to check out for tow and a half hours and an
hour and a half in the Ecuador line to check in. I asked some guys where I
would get my moto checked into Ecuador and I was given a little guy that had
me hang around for a while and then he got on my motorcycle with me and we
rode to town about three or four kilometers. How weird to have a guy sitting
on top of my pack on the back of the bike. We went into the town and I would
never have found the customs office without him for sure. The girl who wrote
out my stuff was very nice and it only took a half hour or so to get through
that office. With papers in hand I went back to the bike and one of the
inspectors who looked at my bike pointed me in the direction of Quito. It
turns out it is through the middle of the town of Tulcan. It was about three
o’clock then and I decided to get a hotel for the night as I think the
next town is a long ways away and I don’t want to ride at night. I found a
nice hotel downtown and there is a parking lot for the bike. The room is ten
bucks, oh, I had to change back into US money here. the room is much nicer
than the last one as it has a toilet seat as well as a much bigger in size.
I think it will be much quieter too.