24 January 2018 – This morning I got up and choked down an
apple and a Snickers candy bar. I’m always nervous on travel days. I walked
over to the secure parking building and collected my motorcycle. I wasn’t sure
if there would be anyone there to let me out of the lot, but I didn’t have any
problems. I rode it over to the front of
the hotel and parked it. I went inside, put on my Aerostitch riding suit, made my
usual three trips with baggage and loaded my bike. I went in and got the
cleaning lady to inspect the room and refrigerator to make everything was on
the up and up. She gave me the all clear sign and I was off.
I get to my motorcycle and Carlos is waiting for me. We
talked a little, took some parting pictures. The older lady who cooked dinner
for me came by to say goodbye. She liked me. So, I gave her a hug. I knew she
liked me from the first time she saw me. She was always being extra nice. Carlos
told me, if I run into a situation where I needed an interpreter to give him a
call and he’d glad to help me out. I thanked him and I was off.
My whole day was now in Blanche’s skilled navigating hands.
I rode some really nice four lane highway and then the usual mountain roads. I
got into Popayan and drove to Hotel Boutique Confort Suites that I had picked
out. Two people had to help me find it. I went to check in and they said they
were booked up. My heart sank again. What do I do now? Fortunately, one of the
receptionists could speak English. He mentioned that they had an apartment I
could rent at the same price as a room in the hotel. I went and looked at it. A
beautiful apartment. It was nice. It was on the 8th floor. Secure motorcycle
parking was two blocks away. I was too far away from my motorcycle and a lot of
hassle with my bags being on the 8th floor of the building. I declined and
decided to go to another hotel that he recommended about 5/8 Mile / 1 Kilometer
away.
Hotel St Martin was more expensive but it had secure parking in the
basement of the hotel and good wi-fi and I wasn’t moving any more today. One of
the porters from the hotel met me in the basement with a cart / truck to help
me move all my baggage. I unloaded my bike, locked and covered it up. We headed
to the room and the porter carried in all my baggage. I thanked him for all his
work and tipped him. He did a lot of work for me. I was more than ready to go to
bed.
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