RTW Trip on a Himalayan

[madbiker]

Day 131- 133 Part Two

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama

Day 132

I rose early and headed out to have a look at the beach as I had been unable to do so the previous evening due to it being dark and still raining heavily. I took a couple of photos of the beach and my hotel and then set off for my last stop in Costa Rica before getting back in to Panama.



I left Puntarenas at just before 8 o’clock in the morning and I took the road from Puntarenas to San Jose, road number 23 which turned out to be a toll road, however when I left it to take road number 24, the coastal road, I only had to pay 300 Colones (60 US Cents) for the short time that I was on it. I then rode South and when I reached the town of Jaco I got some spectacular views of the coastline.



Just after I joined road number 34, the main road to the border with Panama, I passed lots and lots of palm trees that were being obviously grown for something or other, I don’t know what the crop was but these plantations decorated the roadside for about 30 miles or more.



I continued South on the main road and I crossed a bridge over a river that was in full flood and a rich chocolate brown colour due to the heavy rain of the previous day washing the soil from the hills down it to it.



The previously clear blue skies were now starting to cloud over and I was keen to get to my accommodation for the evening before I got an other drenching, so I continued to ride South and about an hour away from my destination I encountered a police and border patrol check point, I was allowed to pass but they were stopping almost every vehicle on the Northbound side of the road and because of this a huge queue of vehicles had formed.



I reached my accommodation at 3 o’clock in the afternoon just as it started to rain. The place that I had booked was a small “Hospedaje”, which translates as Lodging, for 30 US Dollars for the night. I was one of the best places that I have stayed in so far.

 

[madbiker]

Day 131- 133 Part Two

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama

Day 133

I left my accommodation the following morning just after 10 o’clock and headed to the border with Panama at Paso Canoa which was about 30 miles away. I reached the border shortly before 11 o’clock but as Costa Rica and the rest of Central America are 1 hour behind Panama, it was nearly midday by Panamanian time.

I parked up at the Costa Rican immigration and customs building which is a couple of hundred yards away from the actual border and I then went across the road to pay my 9 US Dollars exit fee from Costa Rica. Then I went to immigration with my passport and exit fee receipt, and then my passport got the exit stamp put in it.



I then went to the customs to have my TIP cancelled, I was given a form to fill out with all the usual stuff, then I handed it back with my paper copy of my TIP. After a few minutes of bashing away on a keyboard the customs guy came out from behind the desk and went to look at my bike. On this occasion, no checking of numbers other than the registration number and that was it I was free to return to Panama.

I then parked up under the big canopy at the actual Panamanian Corsta Rican border and went to immigration.



There were no issues with my return to Panama and I got the entry stamp in my passport. Then I spoke to the customs guys who were standing under the canopy. They needed to see the permission to leave the country form that I had obtained from their colleagues in Panama city some 6 weeks previously. They scanned the form with a hand held device and shook their heads.

Apparently because of the length of time I had been out of the country I needed to get my bike sprayed with posion (fumigated) before I could be let back in to the country. So I went over to the fumigation window and paid my 4 US Dollars, the guy then came out and sprayed the bike with some toxic shit.



I then gave the customs guys with the hand held scanners my fumigation receipt and permission to leave Panama form which they retained and that me. All done, and then I rode back in to Panama.

I had arranged to visit some friends who were living in the town of Volcan which is very close to the border so I headed there. However, as I got in to the mountains on the way to where they were staying, a thunderstorm broke out. I sought refuge in a bus shelter from the torrential downpour which lasted for over an hour.



I waited till it was over and rode 5 miles further till another downpour had me hiding in a second bus shelter for about 30 minutes. Eventually I reached my destination where I stayed with my friends for a couple of nights before making the 300 mile long boring, speed trap infested, ride back to Panama city.

I arrived in Panama city early in the afternoon, thankfully dry as it had not rained during my ride, to bring this part of my RWT to a close until I head off to South America, hopefully at the end of this year.

 

[Turbofurball]

Well done, it sounds like it was quite a feat of endurance!

 

[madbiker]

Well done, it sounds like it was quite a feat of endurance!

Thanks, the real feats of endurance were negotiating all of the different issues at the borders. Nothing was ever the same, every border crossing was different despite being in the same countries.

 

[madbiker]

Getting Ready For South America

So the time had come for me to stop loitering about Panama City like a bad smell and get myself and the bike to Colombia to start the South American part of my trip. It is now turning Summer in South America and I wanted to reach Tierra Del Fuego during the good weather window between the start of January and the end of March so it was time to get my arse in gear and get things moving.

I engaged the services of The Overland Embassy, a business based here in Panama city, to arrange the shipping of my bike from Panama to Colombia. However as my bike is registered in Panama I again had to go through the process of obtaining all of the necessary documents from the local council, the National Customs service, The National Transport Authority, and finaly the police, before I would be allowed to leave Panama with my bike.
I set about trying to get all of the documents that I needed and everything was going well until I was informed that the National Customs Service document, which I had obtained a few days earlier, had a wrong number on it. I then had to run about like a blue arsed fly trying to get a replacement form with the correct number on it with only 3 working days to go before my planned departure date.

Once I got the replacment form, I shot over to the police (who also had not noticed the wrong number) so that they did not put the wrong number on the form that they were preparing for me using all of the other forms that I had previously obtained from all of the other bureaucrats. I waited at the police office for three hours and when I was given the form, luckily, the correct details were on it. The police then just took my replacement form from me and ripped the incorrect one up, no big deal for them thank goodness.

Then because the bike was going to Colombia by air I had to get another form from a customs broker to say that even although I had bought the bike in cash one year earlier there was no money owed on the bike. I even had to send the customs broker a copy of my original purchase invoce for the bike, you know so that I could make his job easier for him and to make sure that he didn’t have to work too hard to get his fee for producing the form. Thankfully the Overland Embassy staff attened to this for me. And the cost for this form which was essentially just a credit check on thee bike I hear you ask? That will be $180 thank you very much.

So in total, the Panamainian Government in all its different guises, took over $230 from me just so that I could leave the country with my own bike on which I owe no money. Whoever said that Government is there to look after you was obviously on some form of hallucinogenic or clinically insane!
Eventually the world conspired to have everything fall in to place so that on Tuesday 12th of November I took my bike to the offices of The Overland Embassy where I found myself in the company of six other bikers who were also heading for Colombia. Three Finnish guys on three bikes, a Swedish couple on two bikes, and an American guy. As we all waited for all the paperwork to be checked and completed I took a few pictures.



So at about ten thirty in the morning after all of the paperwork had been done we all left in a convoy and headed for the airport. However, we only got about four hundred yards away from the office when some idiot ran out of fuel! That’s right it was me!

The shipping company had requested that the bike should have less than one quarter of a tank of pertol when put on to the cargo flight and I had obviously been over zealous in draining the excess petrol from my own fuel tank. So everyone else had to wait for about ten minutes until another member of The Overland Embassy staff arrived with a can of petrol to get me going again. What a dickhead!

So after that bit of embarrasment I rode with the others to the cargo terminal of Tocumen airport where we all waited to get the bikes signed out of Panama. Alejandro from The Overland Embassy took care of all of that for everyone and soon we rode the short distance to the warehouse of the actual air freight company where out bikes would be taken from us and flown to Colombia. Again I took some picture whilst I was standing around waiting for the bikes to be processed.



However, to get the bikes ready for shipping we all had to go in to the warehouse one at a time and remove all of our luggage from our respective bikes to have it passed through the X-Ray machine. Once this had been done we had to repack the bike and then leave it in a corner of the warehouse. At this point I should mention that the three Finnish guys had all booked flights to Colombia for later that afternoon. Alejandro from The Overland Embassy had told us that these three guys would be the first to be processed as that made sense. Right?

Well the warehouse staff took one of the Finnish guys first and then guess what? Yes that’s right they then wanted the Panamanian bike (my bike) next despite the fact that I was the only one of the group not flying out to Colombia that day. That then set the tone for the next six hours of my life. At one point Alejandro had to leave with the three Finnish guys so that they did not miss their mid afternoon flight and when he returned the warehouse staff were just about finished with the seventh and final bike.

One of the guys sending his bike to Colombia was a guy from L.A. in the USA and I gave him one of my cheap Panamanian cigars to smoke as we all waited for our own turn to get our bike processed. As he was waiting to take his bike in for processing he stuck his still lit cigar in between his bike headlight and the wire mesh guard. I thought that the colour the cigar blended well with the colour of his home made fiberglass nose fairing!



I also took a picture of a board fixed to the outside of the warehouse on which previous bikers had stuck their own particular stickers that they had printed for their own particular adventures.



Then it was off to drop the American guy and the Swedish couple at the airport to catch their flights to Bogota and for me it was back to Panama city to meet up with some friends for my last night in Panama for a while before heading off to Bogota in Colombia the following day.

 

[jadorff]

Interesting story trust your trip goes well

 

[Wintrup]

Funny, I was wondering what had happened to you during the week and here you are. That quite common with me, either I'll be thinking of someone I haven't heard from in a long while and they phone or vice versa.

My Himalayan has gone, but I have a read here from time to time to see how the 450 is turning out.

That's a real interesting fairing that chap has made. Looks like something you'd make out of papier mache as a kid.

I look forward to reading about the next phase of your journey.

 

[madbiker]

Funny, I was wondering what had happened to you during the week and here you are. That quite common with me, either I'll be thinking of someone I haven't heard from in a long while and they phone or vice versa.

My Himalayan has gone, but I have a read here from time to time to see how the 450 is turning out.

That's a real interesting fairing that chap has made. Looks like something you'd make out of papier mache as a kid.

I look forward to reading about the next phase of your journey.

Thanks Wintrup. Hopefully I can keep it entertaining.

 

[Seabass707]

Great to see your photos and hear about your trip.

 

[Robert]

I was wondering where you were, good to see you're ok.
Second thing I was wondering was why you didn't ride to Colombia and then I remembered about the Darien Gap. Flying is probably easier....

Good luck on the next stages!

 

[madbiker]

I was wondering where you were, good to see you're ok.
Second thing I was wondering was why you didn't ride to Colombia and then I remembered about the Darien Gap. Flying is probably easier....

Good luck on the next stages!

Thanks.

 

[madbiker]

Thought that it was time to change my profile picute with one of my latest Himalayan. Here is the original pticute that was taken on the road between Bogota and Medellin.

 

[madbiker]

Days 134- 135

Bogota to Medellin

Day 134

I left my hotel Bogota at around seven o’clock in the morning, it was sunny and quite cool but at least it was not raining. I had just about reached the West side of the city when the traffic ground to a halt. For the next hour and a half I slowly filtered throught the stationary traffic trying to get on to the road to Medellin. Beacuse of the huge number of people in Colombia that use bikes as their everyday transport, even the filtering bikes were backed up for miles. Along with the other bikers I swapped lanes trying to get in to one that had a clear gap but every time one opened up all of the other bikers quickly filled up all of the available space between the lanes of stationry cars, buses, and lorries.

Eventually I got on to road number 50 signposted for Medellin and about a mile or so on to it I discovered the reason for the traffic jam, an accident between a lorry and a car at the entrance of a petrol station was blocking the nearside lane. Once clear of the traffic chaos I headed out of Bogota in the direction of Medellin. However after only about a couple of miles of riding I got flagged down by the pollice for a roadside check.

I got off of the bike and one of the cops told me to lift up my arms and he then patted me down obviously looking for a gun. Once satisfied that I was unarmed he then asked for documents which I then gave him. He asked me where I was going and I told him that I was going to Medellin and after a minute or so he returned my documents, shook my hand, and bade me a good journey.

As I previously mentioned Bogota is quite high up so I spent the next couple of hours descending the mountains. On occassions I had to ride through some clouds as I rode downhill but it was not particularly cold as the lower I got the warmer it became.

Most of the main roads in this part of Colombia are of the dual carriageway type and most of them are toll roads however, they are free for bikes as they all have a small narrow lane at the side of the toll stations allowing bikes to pass without going through the barriers. After a couple of hours of riding through scenery much like that of the Central Ammerican countires that I had previously ridden through, I reached a town by the name of Honda where I stopped for a coffee at a small bakery. I paid 5,000 Colombian pesos for two cups of coffee which just over 1 US Dollar.



By the time that I had finished my coffees and cigar it was around noon and it had become quite warm and sunny. I then rode on North on to road number 45 for a short distance where I turned off at the town of La Dorada and on to road number 56 again in the direction of Medellin. As I rode along this rode I saw a couple of hotels at the side of the road and I called in at one to enquire about the price.

The hotel was nice enough but nothing special and the woman at the reception told me that it was 160,000 pesos for the night. That’s about 36 USD. I decided to pass and I stopped a short distance later in the small town of Doradal for another coffee break. A quick searh on the phone and I found an entire apartment in the town for the night for 72,000, that’s about just over 16 USD. It even had secure parking for the bike which was a bonus.



Day 135

The next morning I got up at around seven o’clock and it was hammering it down with rain as it had done all through the night. As it was only just over one hundred miles from Doradal to Medellin and as I did not have to check out untill eleven o’clock I decided to wait until the rain had eased off. Once on the move at around ten thrity I stopped at a petrol station in the town to top up. Petrol is sold in Colombia in US gallons and it costs anywhere between 15,000 and 16,000 pesos a gallon and that works out at about at about 85 to 90 US Cents per liter.

The rain had stopped by this time and after riding for only about five miles or so in the direction of Medellin I encountered a huge queue of stationarly traffic, mostly lorries. Naturally I rode to the front of the queue where I found lots of other bikes parked at the head of the queue. I parked up and saw that there had been a landslide causing some trees to fall across the road, one of which had caused two lorries to slide off of the road and in to the roadside ditch. The second lorry was loaded with hay bales and one of the trees was resting on top of the hay bales. Naturally I took some photos of the carnage.



I then stood and watched as the workmen cut the trees with chainsaws to get them off of the lorry, then I watched the tow truck pull the nearest lorry out of the ditch. Then it was more cutting of trees and then a bulldozer cleared a path through the mud and cut trees so that the tow truck could get to the other lorry and pull it from the ditch. Once that was clear another three trees that were hanging over the road had to be felled and then all of the debris and soil that had washed down on to the road had to be cleared.



Eventually about three hours after I had parked up the road was re-opened and I was on my way. It was like the Whacky Races for the first couple of miles. Naturally a large queue had built up on the other side of the landslide so as all of the people riding bikes swarmed away as fast as they could inevitably they met bikers coming the other way who were trying to get to the front of their queue. It was carnage, luckily there were no collisions, only lots of near misses.

For about an hour afterwards on more than several occassions I rounded a bend or was approaching a bend only to be presented with a lorry being overtaken mid bend by another lorry obviously trying to make up the time lost due to the road closure.

I know that riding towards two large lorries side by side approahching me on the bike at speed and taking up almost the whole road is quite a dangerous situation. However as I now encounter such situations on a regular basis it just somehow seems normal to just move over to the nearside of the road and let them get on with it as they pass me.

Eventually at about four thirty in the afternoon I reached the city of Medellin which sits in a sort of a bowl created by a natural hollow in the mountains surrounding the city on all sides. The descent down in to the city was spectacular as the road that I was on snaked down the mountainside but just as I got down to the same level as the city a huge thunderstorm broke out and I got drenched again.

I eventually found my way to my hotel which was a very basic but clean place for around 10 USD a night and I got secure parking for the bike in a place directly across the road for just under 3 USD per night.



My plan is to stay in Medellin for about a week and then to move North to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast.

 

[madbiker]

Days 136 - 137

Medellin to Cartagena

Day 136

set off from Medellin at around seven o’clock in the morning, it was overcast and it looked as if it was about to rain but I had high hopes of staying dry once I had gotten out of the city and I was heading in the direcection of the Caribbean coast. I had a brief entanglement with the morning rush hour traffic but as I was heading out of the city rather than in to it I managed to avoid the worst of the traffic chaos. I eventually found the correct road, the Autopista al Mar 1, and I headed up in to the mountains to the North of the city and within a half an hour I was clear of Medellin.

As the road ascended it got a little cooler but the rain stayed away and then suddenly I was over the summit and on the descent heading generlly North West for the town of Turbo which I had planned to stop in for the evening. The town of Turbo was where, in the pre Covid era, people use to find small boats that would take them and their vehicle around the Darrien Gap by way of a two day sea voyage from there to the port of Colon in Panama.

However like many other things in this world the lack of trade caused by the enforced lockdowns and all of the other associated bullshit put the boats out of business leaving travellers with vehicles who wish to travel between Panama and Colombia with only two options, air freight and container ship.

Now this is where I must have another little rant because funnily enough airlines and container ships are all owned by giant corporations and not small independent businesses. It is strange is it not how the Covid bullshit never affected the financial interests of big corporations whilst simultaneously ensuring the removal of any competition for their businesses? Rant over.

I then descended steeply on the other side of the mountain on twisty roads for about twenty miles and then I continued to descend, less steeply but on equally twisty roads, along a gorge that went on for a further thirty miles or so. At this time my odometer registered 7000 miles. Then it was more climbing up the side of another mountain but as I got near to the summit I spotted a petrol station beside a roadside restaurant in a small village so I pulled in to refuel and once done, I took the opportunity to have some breakfast and a coffee. The place where I ate at had an outdoor balcony at the rear which gave a great view of the valley that I had just ridden up.



Once on the move again the sun came out and it got warmer as I rode over the next summit and then down the other side. Near to the town of Santa Fe de Antioquia I crossed a bridge over a wide river and as I stopped to take a photo and I could feel the bridge bouncing up and down as a large truck passed my stationary bike.



Around lunchtime I reached the town of Turbo and it was a total shit hole, so much so I did not even take the time to stop for a photo. I quickly got out of the town and pushed on further up the coast. I stopped at a small place called Punta de Piedra where I managed to get the bike down close to the sea shore in between some shacks. I took a couple of photos and then quickly left the town as although it was a slightly less shittier place than Turbo, it was not by much.


Then I set about looking for somewhere to stay for the night but as the phone signal along the coastline was not great I had to revert to just stopping in towns and having a look around. The first place that I tried was the town of Necocli and although I found a hotel on the beach it was closed. To be honest the whole town was full of shacks and it had mainly dirt roads so I was kind of glad that the hotel was closed.

Then in the town of San Juan De Uraba I found a cheap hotel for 50,000 pesos, about 11 USD for the night. Unfortunately the hotel did not have a secure parking place for the bike but the staff told me that the bike would be okay parked overnight in the street in front of the hotel as the nightshift staff would watch it for me.

Once unpacked I walked down to the beach which was about a mile away from the town and I found a small bar and restaurant perched on the edge of a small bluff overlooking the beach. I sat and had a local beer and a cigar as I looked out over the water and watched the sun set over the very South of Panama which was to my left. Very tranquil it was too.



Once I had watched the sun go down I headed back in to town for something to eat. There was not much choice so I opted for a burger and two coffees for 18,000 Pesos which is about 4 USD. The town was like many others that I had passed through, filled with lots of people running around on mostly snmall bikes in various states of disrepair, the lights on which seemed to be optional, even in the dark.

 

[madbiker]

Days 136 - 137

Medellin to Cartagena

Day 137

The next day it was sunny and warm and as I prepared to leave I decided to take a photo of the hotel that I had stayed in the previous evening. As I took the photo a guy on a bike rode past and as you can see the guy was engrossed in reading something on his moblile phone whilst riding. This is a common occurrence in this part of the world and nothing about how people ride or drive here surprises me now.



Further up the coast in the town of Arboletes I saw a building that was in the final stages of construction which was obviously going to be some kind of themed tourist resort hotel, it looked like a small Disneyland castle and I thoght that it looked very out of place in this part of the world. A little further on from the Disney castle the road ran along the edge of the sea for a bit and because it was so scenic I had to stop and take a couple of photos.



An hours or so later I reached the main town of Monteria which was very busy, full of traffic jams, and roadworks. Whilst I was stuck in one of the traffic jams I took a photo of the queue of bikes that had filtered between the vehicles, there were so many bikes in the queue that we were all backed up for a considerable distance from the red traffic light.



It took me a while to get out of the town but once on the road North to Cartagena the traffic disappeared and the road became much quieter and more enjoyable. By the time that I was about an hour or so away from Cartagena I saw some heavy black clouds over the road ahead of me in the distance so I pulled off the road and sat in a small roadside restaurant for a coffee and a cigar. However, the owner was grilling some meat over a fire so I couldn’t resist and I had to have some. I had two coffees, a bottle of water, and a plate of grilled beef for 24,000 pesos which was about just over 5 USD.

By the time I had finished my after lunch cigar and coffees the thunderstorm had passed but before setting off on the bike again I decided to use the facilities. The toilet was very clean however it had a very unusual method for flushing away whatver was deposited in it. I just had to take a photo of what I saw.



Yes that is correct, I had to use the old builders hard hat that was floating in a large bucket of clean water as a scoop and then pour the water in to the toilet to flush it. Very basic but I have to give the owner credit for a bit of low cost ingenuity.

As I entered the outskirts of Cartagena I encountered another toll station and as there were not many bikes around at that time I was able to stop and photograph the lane that allows bikes to pass the toll barriers for free. Happiness is toll free biking!



I had some difficulty finding suitable accomodation in Cartagena online that had parking for my bike. I found a couple of places but they all appeared to be hostels and they were at the lower end of the price range. As there were no pictures of the exteriors I suspected that they were located in not very nice areas but as it was getting late I decided that I would just take whatever was available. I got to the place that I had booked and eventually after about an hour the owner showed up only to tell me that the place was full but if I were to follow him then he had another place available nearby.

The first place that I had opted for was indeed in a not very nice neighbourhood so I was glad to escape from there. I followed the owner to the other place and arrived just as it was getting dark. This neighbourhood was only a slightly better place than where I had just been hanging around in but at least the bike and I would behind a locked gates and doors for the night. The place was very basic although clean enough (no insects or bad smells) but what can you expect in a big city for about 7 USD a night? I dedicded to stay behind bars for the rest of the evening and to leave exploring Caragena until daylight the following day.

 

[Acedoc]

Following your travels with interest- the mobile addiction while riding is a real and increasing nuisance throughout the developing world.

 

[madbiker]

Days 136 - 137

Cartagena to Riohacha

Day 138

I was glad that it was eventually time to leave Cartagena and although it was Saurday morning I set off early in order to avoid any traffic only to find that there was some sort of cycle race taking place and the road out of the city was full of cyclists who were wandering all over the road.

Once I had negoitated my way out of the city without mowing down any of the cyclists that were making sudden and unannounced U turns in front of me, I headed for the city of Baranquilla which was about fifty miles further up the coast to the North. The road from Cartagena to Baranquilla was not particularly interesting apart from having to ride over a large but newish suspension bridge that spanned a wide river as I left Cartagena.

An hour or so later I rode through the city of Baranquilla and to be honest although it was a bit cleaner than Cartagena there did not appear to be much that I saw which grabbed my attention and when I encountered the main market area it was just the same traffic and pedestrian chaos as I had encountered in Cartagena.

As I left the city in the direction of Santa Marta the roads got much quieter and at one point the road again ran along the coast for a bit. Here I saw lots of guys fishing and some of them were standing at the side of the road holding massive fish which they were trying to entice passing motorist to stop and buy from them. I stopped for a photo or two.



One of the fishermen came up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy a fish from him but obviously I was unable to do so. However I did give him a few thousand Pesos and asked him to take a photo of me standing beside the bike which he did. As can be seen in the photo, looking scruffy has its advantages as looking like this and riding an unwashed bike prevents any criminal types from thinking that I may have lots of valuables that are worth robbing me for.



Since I started my trip in Central and South America I have been unable to buy a pair of leather bike trousers anywhere and it is way too hot to wear the waterproof riding suit trousers that I bought in Panama when I first arrived here. So I had to buy a pair of heavy duty cargo pants to use as my daily riding trousers but these do not have any knee protection built in to them. However whilst in Bogota I was able to buy a pair of strap on knee protectors for about 20 USD. Now I don’t know how much good that they will do if I do have a spill but I am sure that wearing them will be better than having nothing on my knees.

A short distance from where I had gotten the fisherman to take my photograph I entered the coastal town of Cienaga and the traffic there was insane for such a small town. When I eventually got through the huge traffic queue and reached the outskirts of the town I saw that where the main road splits to go in the direction of either Bogota or Santa Marta the traffic in the direction of Bogota was at a standstill, presumably because of a road accident or some other unforseen road closure such as a landslide.

Once on the now empty road to Santa Marta the road hugged the coastline with lush tree covered hills above me to the other side and in parts the road was elevated which gave me the occassional good view out over the sea. I then spotted a small roadise restaurant where I stopped at for a break.



I got my usual plate of meat, bottle of water, and two coffees but it was rather expensive for here at 44,000 Pesos which is about 10 USD. Once fed and watered I set off again and I reached the town of Santa Marta at around noon where I managed to get down on to the road that runs along the sea front so that I could take a few pictures of the place.



I will be returning to Santa Marta when I head back South in a few days time so I didn’t spend a lot of time looking around the city. I then headed North out of Santa Marta in the direction of Riohacha where I had planned to stay for a few nights. As I got closer to Riohacha I noticed that the lush tree covered hills had receeded inland quite a bit and the area had become much more arid, presumably because the town of Riohacha is at the Southeren end of the La Guajira desert region.

Everything was going fine until I reached Riohacha.

I stopped at the side of the road on the outskirts of the town to use my mobile phone to locate my hotel. It was then that I found out that my internet had stopped working. I had downloaded the map of the area so that I could use offline navigation if necessary but as I couldn’t access my hotel booking online to get the name of the hotel I just had to guess as to where it was located within the town. My mistake for not marking my hotel’s location on the downloaded map beforehand! Twat!

Then as I was about to set off to locate my hotel I used the rear brake to make a slow U turn but nothing happened. A quick look at the bike revealled that the nut securing the rear brake pedal on to the frame of the bike had obviously come loose and had unwound itself leaving the rear brake peddal unattached to the bike and just hanging from the footrest!

Luckilly I did not loose any of the other rear brake parts such as the pivot bolt or the return spring, so I stuffed the bits in to my tankbag and rode the short distance to where I thought my hotel was located without a rear brake. I rode around the town for a bit but it was now getting very warm so I pulled in to the side of the street and decided to pause, have a drink of water, and to do a bit of thinking about how to solve my internet issue.

I then removed the Colombian SIM card from my phone and I very carefully scraped the back of it with my knife to create a better contact surface, once it was back in in my phone the internet started working again. Once online it transpired that my hotel was located only a couple of hundered yards away from where I had thought it to be and shortly thereafter I was glad to arrive at the hotel unscathed.

Riding a fully loaded bike in busy traffic where cars and bikes were constantly cutting each other up and changing direction without notice whilst not having a working rear brake was not something that I enjoyed nor is it an experience that I wish to repeat!

My hotel was very nice at 60,000 Pesos a night, which is just over 13 USD, but more importantly it was very clean and it had a secure parking garage for the bike.


I had decided to stay a few nights in Riohacha so the following morning my first job was to re-attach my rear brake peddal to my bike. I managed to obtain a new securing nut at a small local bike shop so I set about making the repair.



I spent the next couple of days doing the usual stuff that I usually manage to get done when I am not riding the bike each day. One of the other things that I liked about my hotel was that it had a small outdoor terrace where I could sit and smoke a cigar in the evening but the hotel did not sell coffee which I thought rather odd since I was in one of the foremost coffee producing countries in the world, however I just make do with a local beer or two.

Whilst I like Riohacha there is nothing much for me to do here and I will be glad that I will soon be setting off to have a look at the La Guajira desert region before heading back down South and spending some time in Santa Marta.

 

[Woodstock]

Love the pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[madbiker]

Day 139

La Guajira Desert to Santa Marta

When I got ready to leave Riohacha at about nine o’clock in the morning it was a little bit cloudy which I was glad of as it was not as hot as it had been the previous morning. I quickly refuelled the bike and then I rode out of the town for a few miles on the main road North before turning on to the road that would eventually take me to the coastal town of Manaure.

This road was being upgraded so every so often there were stretches of new carriageway being laid with the associated gravel road diversions and contraflows, stretches of old pothole filled road masquerading as the surface of the moon, and stretches of newish road with the occassional large pothole in it.

Very quickly I found myself in a landscape filled with small trees, scrub vegitation, and lots of cacti. The main roads through this area are made of tarmac or concrete but all of the smaller roads are just sand so I pulled off the main road and on to a sand road in order to get a decent photograph of the landscape.



The area appears to be very well populated as in amongst the scrub there were lots of shacks in which the local people obviously lived. I didn’t ride in to the scrub on any of the sand roads as they only seemed to lead to where people were living and for me it felt that it would be rude and or intrusive to do so. The road that I was on eventually got near to the coast and as it did so it was raised above sea level as it ran through large sections of wetlands close to the sea. Again I stopped for a few photos.



As I approached the town of Manaure I saw some salt flats that lay on the outskirts of the town. I saw that there was a coach load of tourists parked up, standing under the shade of a bamboo canopy looking at the pink coloured water in shallow square pools. Obviously the tour guide was explaining to these people where sea salt came from because I can’t imagine what else the tour guide would have to tell them about what they were looking at. I decided against stopping to take a photograph.

However when I got in to the town I did not stop as there was nothing to see or to photograph leaving me to ponder whether or not I should have stopped at the salt flats after all. So, I then just followed the road out of Manaure until it joined the main road North at a very hectic crossroads junction where I had the option to go North, East, or South.

The road North would take me to the industrial port of Bolivar La Guajira, the furthest point North that is accessible by a tarmac road on the entire South American continent. However that was about sixty miles further North and since there is nothing there except the port and further North from there it is just less inhabited desert accessed by only sand roads, and since I detest riding in deep sand then that was out. The road East was just a local road that eventually rejoined the main road going to the South so there was no point in taking that road.

Therefore I headed South in the direction of my destination for that evening, the city of Santa Marta. I rode on the main road South but it was pretty boring as it was very straight and there was not much to see or do along the way apart from dodging lots of goats that regularly wandered on to the road. The road also ran alongside a railway that led from the port of Bolivar La Guajira to an oil refiniery just outside of a town by the name of Albania.

After about half an hour of riding South I came to another main crossroads junction where I could do West, East, or South. Go West back to Riohacha, no thanks so that was out. Go East to the border with Venezuela which was only about ten miles away but since I did not want to go to Venezuela that was also out. So again I continued South in the direction of the town of Albania. Again the road was pretty boring and again I was trying not to play tag with the goats.

Eventually about at around noon stopped in the town of Cuestecitas, near to the town of Albania, for a coffee and to refuel the bike. I got a coffee at the side of the road opposite a petrol station for 2,000 Pesos and the petrol here was the cheapest that I had seen anywhere in Colombia at 13,000 Pesos for a US Gallon, which is about 70 US Cents a litre. The petrol station even had the old fashioned mechanical petrol pumps which I have not seen in use anywhere for years.



I then set off again but this time West in order to rejoin the main road from Riohacha to Santa Marta. The road from Cuestecitas to the main road was a pleasure to ride on as it was quiet yet quite twisty, however due to the number of trees lining the road there was nothing much to be seen that was worth taking a photo of. I then joined the main road South from Riohacha to Santa Marta and I have already described this road in a previous post, however at one point on my way to Santa Marta the road gave me a rare and unobstructed view of the hills that lie along this coastal road further South in the direction of Santa Marta.



Hot and tired I arrived at my accomodation in Santa Marta at around three o’clock in the afternoon. The place that I had chosen to stay at was an upmarket hostel which offered a single room with a shared batheroom for 7,500 Pesos per night which is about 17 USD. The hostel was very nice and it even had a small swimming pool but the main selling point for me was that I could park my bike behind a locked gate for the duration of my stay there.



I tried to make this post as interesting as I could but to be honest it was a very underwhelming day on the bike, so sorry about that. I shall be spending a few weeks in Santa Marta to see Christmas in with some friends but then I shall set of South to Ushuaia.

In a travel blog that I write for my non biking firends (which is pretty much the same stuff that I post here) I have written a couple of posts about my time in Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena and what my impressions of these cities were. I shall also be writing one about Santa Marta,

These posts are not about riding the bike but if anyone wants to see these posted here let me know and I shall post them