A Morning at The Plaza – 27 January 2018

27 January 2018 – I got up, took a shower and went to breakfast. Oh no, it wasn’t a continental breakfast. You had to order everything you wanted. I was stuck. The ordering started out pretty clunky. Then the waiter asked another individual who he knew spoke some English to help. I was able to order what is called breakfast typical. I ate the breakfast but was still hungry. I texted Mary saying it was a tough breakfast. She said, why don’t you ask for Huevos Ranchos and see if you can get it. Sure enough, they cooked up Huevos Ranchos which filled me up for the day. I left the breakfast area.

I grabbed my Spot personal locator beacon and walk the city square / plaza and fired it up. While I was waiting for Spot to send a text a lady and her daughter sat down on bench under the trees. They had brought rice to feed the pigeons. When the pigeons saw them they immediately flew and walked over to them. They knew them personally. The little girl threw out handfuls of rice to them which they gladly ate. I’m guessing they don’t know that feeding birds rice is bad for them. The pigeons didn’t care. My phone dinged so I knew Spot had sent me a text saying it had found a satellite, and I was off to the hotel to load my motorcycle and get out of Pasto.

I grabbed all my computer stuff etc. and headed to secure parking. I had the receptionist get security to open the door on the secure parking in the basement of the hotel. Security offered to carry more of my baggage and but requested that they didn’t help. I went down to parking and security followed. When he saw what I was doing and knew I wasn’t a threat, he just walked off. He had better things to do than watch me load my bike. When I was done there, I drove my bike to the front door again where I finished loading it. From across the street, a woman and a couple of kids ages 10+ watched me and wanted to know everything about my motorcycle. I told them what I could and they left. I went upstairs for the last time, had the cleaning lady check the room out and gave me the all clear sign. I checked out and departed for Ipiales. The woman who was watching me load my motorcycle had disappeared. So off I went.

Blanche immediately tried to bully into a shorter route but I would be bullied. I backtracked myself out of town to the Y in the road which takes me to Ipiales. It was starting to mist out and I was thinking the worst. You know, it never did rain though. I went through a tunnel which had to have been a 1 mile / 1.62 Kilometers long. I think it is the longest tunnel I have ever driven through. It was a Saturday, and the police / policia were out on the hunt. I saw three different places where the policia had cars pulled over. As I was minding my manners, it was an uneventful ride to Ipiales.

I stopped before entering the town to find my hotel. I checked Blanche for hotels and received a totally blank page. I was looking for Hotel Nubes Verdes. So, I slowly started driving into town. I didn’t drive 5/8 of a Mile / 1 Kilometer and there was the hotel. What a streak of luck!  I found it with no thanks to Blanche.  I checked in and a room was available. My kind of hotel: $15, secure parking and good wi-fi.

At the hotel, I met a guy from Quito, Ecuador who could speak some English. We talked some about South America and then parted ways. I put my Spot out to mark my location. In the secure parking area, I checked the adjustment on my rear chain and oiled it. At 5:00 o’clock I went to restaurant and ordered supper. They had all the choices on the door so ordering was pretty easy. The hot soup took the chill out of my bones. I then went to my room to refresh my memory on all the paper work I would need for the border. I think it was in the high 50’s Fahrenheit / high 10’s Celsius. Man, it was cold. I also believe the elevation was 9850 feet / 3000 meters. That’s getting right up there. I went to bed.

Settling in – 26 January 2018

26 January 2018 – This morning I ate a hearty continental breakfast, loaded my bike, had the cleaning lady check the room, and checked out of the hotel. I didn’t get some kind of paper from reception to clear out of the secure parking area. Security had to call and get clearance to let me out of the secure parking area. It was a simple route out of the city but I must have missed a turn and Blanche took me over hill and dale. Even the people on the sidewalks were wondering what heck is that guy doing in this neighborhood. After many U-turns I finally got on the correct road out of the city heading toward Pasto.

I drove the route I planned right into Pasto. The hotel I selected was relative easy to find on paper but when the driving was over I was right downtown amongst heavy car traffic and pedestrians. Everybody was walking home from work. I drove up on the sidewalk and parked in front of the hotel door. I received a lot of strange looks from many inquisitive onlookers. I went upstairs and checked in. They weren’t booked up which was good. 

The hotel's name was Hotel Loft. It looked like an old warehouse renovated into a hotel. I had to carry all my baggage up to the 3th floor. The hotel staff were laughing about all my stuff. They even laughed more when I slipped on one of the steps.  But the hotel was nice. Everything worked nicely along with hot water. I planned my route out of the city and went shopping that night. It was kind of interesting looking around the town. Tomorrow will be a short trip to the border town of Ipiales. 

Pizza in Columbia – 25 January 2018

25 January 2018 – I decided I needed to stay another day. I needed to plan a route to Pasto and find a hotel. I also went shopping for food and an ATM. That night after I had all my work done I needed to get something to eat. As I was driving my motorcycle into the basement parking I noticed a pizza place. I actually could smell the pizza in my room. I went down to the pizza shop to try my hand at ordering a pizza. Fortunately, they had a menu which I could partially read and with the help of my cell phone I translated a little more. I ordered two quarters of a pizza. One quarter was a pineapple pizza and the other quarter was a sausage pizza. I ate the pineapple in the pizza shop and the other in my room. For whatever its worth…..if you’re thinking the pizza was exactly like the pizza you would purchase at Domino’s Pizza you’d be wrong. It was more like a thin crust pizza. The cheese was not nearly as heavy / thick and pineapple / sausage was sparser. But after a diet of bread, peanut butter, and Snickers bars, you know that pizza tasted really good. I went to bed with a full stomach.

On the Road Again – 24 January 2018

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. 

One Hungry Gringo – 23 January 2018

23 January 2018 – Much as I was not looking forward to sitting in the room all day and typing, when I woke I decided I better get caught up with my blog. I worked on my blog all day. About 4:00 p.m. I received a text from Carlos. He asked if I was ok because I hadn’t left town yet. I told him I had to get my blog updated. I was way behind. I signed the text One Hungry Gringo. In less than 5 minutes, there he was at my door, asking what I wanted to eat, my very own fairy godfather! What a great guy! I said I would love a repeat of the same food he ordered for me at the same restaurant where I ate yesterday.  So, off he went. We agreed to meet in the morning again when I was leaving. I finished my supper and went back to my room to put some finishing touches on my blog.

As I was wrapping up, my computer selected all my work and deleted it. I turned blue and about passed out. I had one hope it wasn’t all lost: the go back button. I’m talking 2000+ words. I pushed the go back button. Eureka! It all came back. I breathed a sign of relief. I had to get myself organized to leave in the morning. Get all the electronic stuff, motorcycle paper work, my food, water, and candy bars put back in their plastic bags. With everything bagged up I was ready to leave in the morning.

Adventures with Carlos – 22 January 2018

22 January 2018 – When I got to the appointed place at 8:30 in the morning, I didn’t see Carlos standing by his house where I was supposed to meet him, so I walked over to the grocery store and bought some apples, candy bars, bread and a roll of paper towels. I will use the paper towels when I change my oil. I walked back to the hotel and Carlos was outside his house. I went over and talked with him about the plan for the day. I put my food in my room and then Carlos and I took his motorcycle over to the Yamaha dealer. I purchased 3 quarts / liters of Yamaha 20w-50 oil.

We went back to Carlos’ house and then to a business called Taller Welding where I will change my oil. We borrowed an oil drain pan from the next door gas station. I went and got my motorcycle out of secure parking. I let it run and warm up for a while before I drove it over to welding workshop. The welding shop owner is more like a Mister Fix It. I know he repairs a lot of motorcycle exhaust systems. I don’t believe he does electrical work though.

I set about changing my oil. Carlos repaired one of my hose clamps that was broken on my lower tube that holds my spare inner tubes. I think they finally brazed on the adjusting screw end and then Carlos re-installed the clamp. I finished up by putting in a new oil filter and put all my tools back in their appropriate saddle bag. I had Carlos take a few pictures of me changing oil. I took few pictures of the shop where I changed oil and the guys talking while I was changing oil. The guy that owns the shop put together a homemade shear. It was two plow shares bolted together with a 6 foot / 2-meter long handle.

I suspect the cutting edges of these two plow shares were flame hardened or at least one of the edges was. If you know anything about plow shares they have to be able to engage a buried rock and not break or bend. They also have to be very wear resistant. So, I’m guessing they’re manufactured out of medium to high carbon steel. Very heat treatable with an oxygen / acetylene torch. He had an oxygen / acetylene torch that he used pellets (Calcium Carbide) and water to create his acetylene. I’d heard about that process of making acetylene but had never seen it. You know, after seeing that I had to check out that process on You Tube. Pretty interesting stuff. The shear works pretty much like a pair of scissors. I thought that was pretty clever of the guy. I gave a tip and the remainder of the roll of paper towels to the welder for allowing me to change my oil. I then put my bike back into the secure parking building.

As I was wrapping up securing my motorcycle I asked Carlos if he and his wife would be interested in going out for dinner. I wanted to thank him for all his help during the day. He had to check with his wife before he made any commitments. So I asked Carlos if he would order dinner for me in a restaurant near the hotel. He ordered a typical dinner which was really good. I went back to my hotel room and worked on my route out of Armenia to Popayan. You always have to keep Blanche tuned up. You can never leave her to her own devices.

Carlos got back to me and said 7:00 p.m. would be a good time to go out for dinner. I said it worked for me. Carlos, his wife Sadie and I hooked up a little after 7:00 p.m. and went to nice restaurant to eat. He talked about his early life in Armenia, his life in London, England and his wife Sadie. Sadie worked in child care. The earlier years. I talked about my early life and more about my travels. The food and camaraderie was great.  We walked back to the hotel and called it a night. On the way back to the hotel I told Sadie when I filled my gas tank it cost me $17 USD / $50,000 Columbian Pesos. She about passed out. She didn’t know I had a 10 Gallon / 37 Liter gas tank.

I am planning to leave in the morning.

Mountain Traffic – 21 January 2018

21 January 2018 – As usual, it time to get up and get mobilized. I went downstairs and ate an early breakfast to take the edge off of what could turn out to be a long day. I went back upstairs after breakfast and got my first load of stuff going to my motorcycle. I had my blue card with me and had the receptionist check it that read correctly before I checked in with the behind-the-glass Security Person. The blue credit card sized card allowed me to park for free while I stayed at the Marriott. I called it my Get My Motorcycle Out of Jail Free card. You cannot get anything out of that 3 level parking ramp unless you pay or you have a get out of jail free card. So the Security Person ran my card and it came up good. I now can get out.

I put my laptop and all my paperwork into my top box and saddle bags. I put Blanche back into her docking station and fired up my motorcycle. I gave her a few minutes to warm up and then drove up two ramps to get out of the 3 level sub-terrain parking garage. I stopped at the gates and inserted my blue card. The card reader spit my card out like she didn’t like it. I tried it four different ways and none of them worked. I tried the card in the 2nd lane and that card reader didn’t like any better. So I hike back to the Security Person behind the glass. He wasn’t in his office. I get in touch with another Security Person and he gets in touch with the Security Person behind the glass. He comes flying back to his office and reruns my blue Get Out of Jail Free card. Apparently it read incorrectly and he retyped in the correct code. I walked back to the -1 level parking garage and inserted the card. It worked perfectly and I was able to drive up the ramp and out of the building.

I had the receptionist inform the Security People that I would be parking my motorcycle near the reception area so I could load my bags. When I showed up, everybody was all smiles so I knew the receptionist informed them of my situation. Had they not been warned they’d be all over me like piranha fish. I was loading up and leaving and I didn’t need that. Even the guy from the restaurant couldn’t resist coming to look at my motorcycle. I got everything loaded up. Blanche was a little slow to wake up today, being so close to the buildings. She couldn’t find any satellites. I received a lot of well wishes as I left and by the time I turned on to street she was calculating the route.

To get out of town, I had to drive back to the airport to hook a U-Turn and then drive down the other side of the six-lane highway. She followed my programming to a T. She got me out of the metropolitan area of Bogota like a champ. Once I was in the suburbs thought, she got lost in a roundabout. All she wanted to do was go around and around the roundabout. It had me stumped for a while. She took me to the right road but then wanted to turn around and go back to the roundabout. Anyway, I manually went to the next way point and continued on my way.

I stopped on the way out of the city to get some gas. Something I’ve been noticing is that the Spanish is a little different down here. It’s kind of like the difference between American English and British or the Queen’s English. We understand it but it’s a little different. The Central American and South American people are aware of this difference also. Getting back to buying the gas: I want the guy to fill my gas tank. Of course, we can’t communicate so he does his best and puts in $10,000 Pesos worth of gas. I kept motioning for him to put in more gas. Well the pump shut off at $10,000 Pesos. I asked if I could put more gas in, and he motioned yes go ahead. So, I pumped in almost $50,000 Pesos / $17.00 USD into my tank and the guy could not believe I could put that much gas into my motorcycle. It’s a 10 gallon tank that I replaced the original, smaller gas tank with. I paid him and was off.

All along the route I was on, heading out of Bogota, there were hundreds of bicycle riders. Just hundreds of them. I remember that one other Sunday I left a big city early in the morning, and the route I was taking had hundreds of bicycles on it too. So, I’m guessing Sunday is the day when the bicyclists get out and ride. Although it looked like they had check points. It could have been some type of competition. Once I broke free of the bicyclists, I eventually ended up on a nice four lane highway. Another little slice of heaven. I was driving 50 Mph / 80 Kph, and may have eventually reached 60 Mph / 90 Kph. But like all good things that must come to an end, so did my four-lane highway.

I started into the mountains with some pretty nice roads with very little traffic. I only had 60 Miles / 100 Kilometers to go to get to my destination for the day. How bad could it get? Why did you have to ask? The truck traffic started out light and continued to build throughout the afternoon. Everybody’s in a hurry. Some trucks are slower than others. Chances to pass are few: 1 or 2 vehicles in 3 Miles / 5 Kilometers. Car and truck drivers are all gnashing and gnawing on their steering wheels just waiting for an opening to pass. I thought one semi-truck was going to pass a slower semi-truck but all he did was pull up along side me and then force me off on the shoulder. That really ticked me off. Basically, what he said, was move over or I’ll run you over. He had his moment but what he didn’t know was I will have mine.

The traffic up and down these two mountains was just tooth and nail. The oncoming car and truck traffic was just as bad. Bumper to bumper traffic. Eventually my traffic came to a dead stop, and I mean dead. Nothing was moving for probably 2 Miles / 3 Kilometers. I waited two or three minutes and I pulled out and drove down the oncoming car lane. Anytime a car or truck was coming at me, I would pull into an open spot in the stopped traffic. You remember the truck that forced me on to the shoulder of the road? Well I passed him up in about 15 vehicles. I should have flipped him the bird but I’m sure he had bigger problems to deal with. I continued driving in the oncoming traffic lane until I arrived at a stalled vehicle. Any vehicle driving 15 Mph / 25 Kph was leading a parade of cars 3 miles / 5 Kilometers long. Some people get so stressed they pull off in any opening just to get out of the rat race. If you get out of the rat race though, you lose your spot and then you start at the end of the line. I know the stress.

I made it over the two mountains and was finally driving into the city I wanted to stay the night in. Man, I was happy about that. The rat race was almost over, or so I thought. Guess what? Road construction on the bottom of the mountain. One lane traffic with a flagman. The road and dust was horrible. I know the traffic was backed up five miles. People were out of their cars talking and taking potty breaks all over the place. I started slowly passing people up like I did before. I just coasting down the mountain in the oncoming car lane. Other smaller motorcycles were driving 30 Mph / 48 Kph past me, diving in and out of the cars. My big heavy Kwakasaki doesn’t do that well. So, I take it nice and easy. I couldn’t get away from anybody with my motorcycle if they got mad at me. It’s too big and top heavy. As I’m going down the mountain cars and trucks are beginning to move and then stop. When they moved I’d get in line with the moving traffic. When it stopped I pulled out and just kept passing till I got into the moving traffic that didn’t stop. Once I got thru the congestion and road construction I started looking for a hotel. I was struggling with that. All the hotels seemed to be downtown with no secure parking. While I was downtown looking around, a young lad and his girlfriend were drooling over my motorcycle so I asked them if they knew a hotel I could stay in. They said they did and offered to show me where it was. They drove to one and showed me another, but they didn’t look like they had secure parking so I kept looking.

Finally I found a nice hotel and they have offsite secure parking about 100 yards / 100 meters away. I unloaded my bike and a Good Samaritan showed me the secure parking spot. The old guy unlocked the gate and I drove in. I found out later the building is under construction by the same people who own the hotel I will stay in. So, the old guy was acting a little weird about something. I didn’t know what he wanted. Enter Carlos: he asks if he can help. He speaks English…can you imagine that. Just out the blue somebody can speak English. To make a long story short I gave the old guy a tip. I then sat down with Carlos and his friends for about an hour or so and we talked about my travels and what they did. There was a lot of laughing and yucking it up. I’m not sure what it was all about. Somebody bought me a Coca-Cola and when I offered to pay they told me not to worry about it. So, I thank them for that. I told them my butt was sore from riding motorcycle all day and I needed to go to bed. Carlos told me that if I needed anything to let him know and he would try to help me out. I asked him if he knew where I can change my oil. He said he would help me with that. We agreed to meet at 8:30 in the morning pick up some oil and find a place where I could change it. I went back to the hotel and crashed. What a hell of day.