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Day25–Colombia is Awesome!, Friday, Jan 21. 2011

Sorry, No Photos.  I’ll add them later!

Start & Stop: Caucasia, Colombia to La Pintada, Colombia

Mileage: 230 miles, CO25 from Caucasia, Taraza, Valdivia, Don Matias, Medellin, Caldas, Santa Barbara and ending at La Pintada, Colombia

Lodging: Hotel Real Dinastia, La Pintada, Colombia

Today’s Agricultural theme:  Coffee

Dean: Thursday’s Hotel Malecom said they had WiFi but they didn’t really have a workable internet.  No post for today.

Rode 230 miles today. 1/3 was full-on tight, twisty, switchback, 180° turns, 240° turns climbing and descending; 1/3 was medium sweepers and the balance 1/3 was mostly slow sweepers and straight (like through Medellin).  Traffic thorough all this was heavy.  Many 18-wheelers crawling along with backups of 10-20 vehicles.  We learned how to pass carefully and once one was pass, CB chat relayed a “clear” or “car/truck coming!”

Lisa: Easy day today and really pretty. Seriously people, Colombia is awesome. I think back to some of my other postings and pretty much every day I say that something surprised me about where we were.  It’s true: this trip has been so different than what I imagined. In the back of my mind, I had some (more than some) trepidation about Colombia.  Ridiculous.  It is simply beautiful and full of friendly people.  Thousands of soldiers and lots of police but none of them looked twice at us.  Yup, it appears *they* are actually looking for bad guys, unlike in Honduras and Mexico where they’re looking to steal money from tourists

So we wound our way into coffee country and spectacular doesn’t begin to describe it. The different shade of green, the steep lush mountainsides and the fantastic roads made today a treat.

Dean: The roads are very technical winding through amazing huge valleys, climbing up shear walls on huge mountains and looking across the valley to see where you were 20 minutes ago.

Lisa: We kind of decided to stop earlier than usual for a few reasons: we haven’t had good internet and Dean has something he HAS to get out AND I don’t feel well at all.  Dropping out of the mountains, we came upon the most out of place enclave of 3 hotels. It was really bizarre actually how out of place they were. Actually one was a hotel and 2 were full on resort looking things. I pulled into the parking lot of the ‘hotel’ and on closer inspection, no bueno.  So I rode across the road to the major resort, complete with gate and 2 guards.  What-the-heck.  After a little chat, it was determined they had no rooms for the night so I asked which of the other two hotels was better. (the guard was funny – he would not allow me to use any English words.  He said: speak Spanish!  So I got fairly creative) He pointed behind him, up a long dirt road to Real Hotel Dinastia, a large white plantation looking building surrounded by casitas, huge pool, etc. Oookay, let’s check it out. The road up there was not fun as apparently resorts need copious amounts of gravel in order to satisfy the needs of their groundskeepers … this had better be worth it, I thought as I snaked my way up the hill, parking directly in front of the reception desk.  Taking a look around all I could think was Oh Baby, let this be in my price range.

I’ve told everyone that my Spanish sucks.  It does.  Sometimes it’s almost functional, but not usually.  I am finally ‘hearing’ numbers correctly some of the time so it caught me off guard when she said “vente cinco”.  “What?  $25 each?” For our own rooms, parking AND dinner?  Sign me up!  For a year!  We pretty much couldn’t stop laughing.  There is a half a floor of the huge open air cabana, open to the gorgeous canyon and river view just filled with hammocks. Yup, I can do this.

Dean: The key item we were looking for was good, strong internet.  The fact that this was a resort and the price was unbelievable.  Once we got situated and internet connected it was time to do some personal business.  Then it was laundry time.  I did two sets of rotating riding LDComforts, Tech socks, shirts, Bohn armor shirt and pants all hand laundered in the sink wrung out and draped over the bikes which were still in the sun.

Lisa: yes, it was cheesy looking but you have to know that at this point, we don’t much care. I was soooo happy to come back to my room after dinner and put on fresh pjs. Oh joy! You just wouldn’t believe how the small things make you happy on a trip like this. So life is good again.

8 comments to Day25–Colombia is Awesome!, Friday, Jan 21. 2011

  • Bob K

    I’m glad that Colombia is a lot nicer than we thought. Dean, we are extremely BUSY which have been a blessing. Heading to North Carolina in a few weeks and then to Vancouver a few days after that. Stay safe.

  • Steve Aikens

    Sounds like you’re starting to feel a little better Lisa. Good. Hope tomorrow is far better yet. Stay safe – ride safe. Love the adventure.

  • Brian R.

    You thought that was coffee?

  • chuck hickey

    PJ’s – you’re packing PJ’s? The Old Gal (let me refer back to that prior post to keep me out of dutch) is packing PJ’s? Are you sure they aren’t really LDComfort long johns with butterflies on them?

    so the Beverly Hillbillies have arrived in Columbia –
    can I be the first to ask if you have run into Juan Valdez, yet?
    second – who the heck comes up with the words in the “recaptcha” thingy at the bottom of these posts? “keyowri H” – is that spanish for Juan Valdez?
    So – please do us a favor – por favor. Post some really cool stuff on Friday so that we will have something fun to talk about during this weekend’s White Stag. I think Ray will knock over a big to simulate your equatorial crossing – I’ll be sure to get it on facebook and youtube so you all can follow along via the strong internet connection at your villa in Columbia. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when the drug lords move in tomorrow and “captcha” your bikes and use them for some heinous crime. After all…. Dean’s bike is a salvage bike. Sort of like a throwaway gun aint it?

  • chuck hickey

    that wAs supposed to be Ray knocking over a BIKE not a “big”. I think you knew that

  • puppychow

    Dean had something he HAD to get out and you weren’t feeling well? God! What did you eat?
    Be wary of Montezuma’s revenge :-)

  • puppychow

    There wasn’t supposed to be a smiley in the post above…
    Joking aside, hope you feel better.

  • Tirzah

    Gee, Lisa,

    After a couple decades of hearing little or nothing about Juan Valdez and company and only how we have to fight narco-terrorists I can’t imagine why you’d be expecting Colombia to be like a flashback to a Miami Vice episode minus Crockett and Tubbs. Glad it seems to be back to safe and gorgeous. xo

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