Day 23 – Hola South America!, Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011

Bogota, Colomiba to Hotel Cacique N6.01209; W 075.14531

Mileage: 209 miles

Lodging: Hotel Cacique, Autopista Medellin Bogota Km 82, Cocorna – Antioquia

Lisa: Wednesday morning we ate a great breakfast, included, at the hotel and left the parking lot about 8.  It took about 12 minutes to get separated in the construction and morning traffic and we got about 2 CB transmissions before the tall buildings completely cut us off. The last thing I heard Dean say was meet at the hotel.  I asked which hotel – the one we had just left or the one we waypointed in Medellin two hundred some miles away.  No answer.  The high buildings blocked our signal after a minute. So I negotiated back to the hotel – no mean feat in the traffic and with all the closed and one way streets.

I sat for 30 minutes then hooked back up to the hotel wifi and told him I was headed to Medellin since he wasn’t there – no problem. I said I’d check on him at internet spots along the route since 1) he has the SPOT and 2) I don’t have mobile internet access.  And off I went.

I was rushing since I was sure I’d catch him. I made a couple bad turns but got back on track, not stopping for anything, even to take off my heated clothing I thought I’d need in the 40 something morning temps. After several hours and more than half way there, I stopped at a roadside internet café, leaving my bike parked just off the pavement, yellow Ortlieb lit up in the sun. When I finally logged on, imagine my surprise that Dean was 30 minutes south of me.  Hmmm….no worries.  We connected but at this point we were behind schedule and I was sick of city traffic while trying to locate a hotel.

Lisa always draws a crowd. Breakfast at a roadside truck stop.

By the way, Colombia is beautiful, really gorgeous. So far, it’s way up there in my most favorite places. We were about 60 miles outside of Medellin on a wonderful mountain road that made its way through the countryside but had lots of fast moving trucks. Not a problem in the daylight but we wanted to stop before dark. Dean spotted a small place on the side that I wasn’t too keen on, until we went in. It was spotless, fairly spartan, but had a restaurant and they made a place for us to park in the locked yard. Nice. Oh, and $12.  Yup, this works nicely. J Super nice people.

Lisa in the free pass chute for motocicletas. Notice the concrete barriers on each side.

Dean: M/C are expected to stay in the far right lane and most riders weave their way in and out of traffic favoring the right.  Keep in mind 95% are M/C below 500cc’s and scooters.  There are very few M/C our size.  On Colombian toll roads, M/C do not have to pay tolls!  There is a very narrow chute on the far right of each toll gate 30” wide with a cement barrier 6” high. Never a dull moment for us but we always feel like we’re cheating as we avoid the toll booths.