Moving South to Las Brisas Colombia

Time to leave Medellin.. However! Kevin is still playing with that new camera.  Dude!  "Wait.. if I take a photo on this setting it looks like this.."   Great...ready yet?  "Nope.... if I take a photo on this other setting it looks like this.."  You can see how thrilled I am as I'm trying to go out the door.. ;-)  C'mon, Kev....  Get this man some breakfast and coffee so we can get on the road!

Woo hoo, we're on the road again!

Besides the big trucks that bellow heaps of black or blue exhaust, it's an absolutely gorgeous ride through the little mountain towns of Colombia.

One thing I love about this country is when there are toll boothes, there is a little lane to the right for motorcycles to pass without paying.  In some of the other countries, it's such a pain to stop the bike, take my gloves off, unzip jackets or pockets to get the small change needed.  By the time I'm putting it all back together again, the people behind me are beeping the horns.  So I appreciate a country that allows free moto access!

It's one of those super nice flowy riding days.  Roads are great, not much traffic, and gorgeous!

Kevin spots a view stop.  I have to admit looks pretty good.

Until we started down these rickety rotten stairs!  Honestly, if this stair case was in sue-happy countries like America, they would have this completely closed off if not torn down.

The entire structure would sway with every step.  Stepping over gigantic holes of the pieces that have truly rotted and fallen away.  Which piece of wood will I break through and end up rolling down the cliff into the muddy river below!?  I'm a wussy, Kevin is the brave one.  He's down the bottom watching me nerviously make my way with lots of photos while laughing.

 Dag gone it, he wore the same t-shirt as me today... ;-)

It was absolutely beautiful here and since the wood stairs didn't break down, it was totally worth the trip.

Later in the afternoon we pull into Manizales.  My number one goal is to find a bank, totally out of money. 

Very good looking but busy town!

After we both scored with the magic money that comes out of a machine, neither of us was quite ready to give it up for the day yet.  We've been in Medellin for days and had enough of city life.  Small village or camping sounds good to me for tonight!  That is the beauty of living on the road..

Kevin has got the Lonely Planet book and there are a couple of parks around here with thermal springs.  The book even shows a couple hostels within or around the park, so that's where we head. Not long after this nicely paved road it turned into dirt.  I pulled Kevin over to make sure he wants to do the dirt.  His street tires have no tread to begin with, but he's traveling on a rear tire that is extra bald and needing to be changed at this point.  He's still keen and says let's do it.

We took a photo of this sign after traveling on the rough road for a while.  It is so out of place and surprises us both to see it here. There is food in 500 meters?  If there was, it's not there now! ;-)

Up, up and up we continue to go.  A lot of the road is getting really rough.  Like little rivers running through it, deep crevases from the water with slippery rock and mud.

A chance to pull over and one of my favorite photos I ever took of Kevin.  So beautiful here and so glad to have somebody to share the views with...

As usual, the dirt roads take you to the prettiest places, never fails.

One of the hostels and hot springs coming up from Kevin's LP, Termales de Ruiz.

This hostel was VERY closed.  Nobody has been here in ages, big chains and bolts across the door. It looks and feels really creepy.  This old man comes out from the back with a dog.  He seems nice enough and we tell him we are looking for a place to camp instead (sort of wish we didn't tell him that..)  He takes us out the back to the thermal pools and says we can camp here.

The pools are good looking even though unmaintained.  Lots of thermal hot steam. We've got our tents so we can set up on the wet ground, and even go for a midnight dip.. Cool! Kevin is scaring me with stories of what the creepy old man is going to do to us tonight. ;-/

The more we walked around to check it out, the more questions we had.  Why is this guy here?  Is he a guard or simply a squatter?  He had a little bed set up in the pool mechanics room.  He was strange, but we still thought we'd stay here.  Kevin pulled the machete out of his pannier and said we'd be fine. ;-)

All was well until he said we needed to pay.  How much?  It worked out to be the same as any ol' hostel that had a warm bed and running water!  Kevin was telling him that we are not going to pay that much to camp but the man wouldn't back down.  It made no sense to charge even a little, let alone a lot. So we left, even though it was nearly dark now.

There is still one more hostel listed in his book called Las Brisas.  We confirmed we are on the right track and continued up the hill.

Kevin said he's feeling a bit dizzy.. We had a look at the elevation (4032m = 13228ft). He said the dizziness wasn't bad, however it was noticeable.  I didn't feel it at all, but we better get off the bike sooner than later.


I had no idea we'd come up this far!

After some tricky slippery riding in the dark we come across this little shack. According to Kevin's calculations from the little paper map in his LP, this should be Hosteria Las Brisas. It looks more to me like a temporary wooden shed and at the time there were no lights on outside or inside.  So I am trying to make out the words on the wall in the dark. I am laughing so hard and telling Kevin that the sign says this is it!  Kevin is taking a photo through the fog.  My head is turned because there is a lady inside that heard me and she is yelling at me through the wall after she turned the front light on.

I'm like, Oh Sh..!  There's somebody in there!! She is speaking so fast, but I explain to her in my much more simple Spanish that we are looking for a room tonight???  Ha! I said it sort of cocky and expected her to shooo us away.

She then turned on all the lights, opened the door, and what a surprise!  This is a working hostel, the owner was just the only one here and must have gone to bed for the night.  There is nothing up here, no towns, no reason for traffic or to expect anyone this late. She said she was worried at first, and then surprised to see two motorcycles!

The hostel has one tiny room here with 2 bunk beds.  Anything looked good to us.  Such a nice lady, she made us a wonderful dinner too!  We had soup, hot tea, and big plate full of rice veggies and chicken...  SCORE!!!

I have often found in the world when I am struggling to stop for the night trying to figure out where to sleep; just around the time I am about to give up, not only a good place, but a PERFECT place shows up.

We ended up at about 4200 meters (13,770ft) and it was freakin' cold!!  We drank the tea and had our soup as quick as possible since it wouldn't stay warm that long in this air.  Dinner was fantastic and she even had a couple beers in her cabinet!  I had already settled in my brain we would have a chilly night camping on wet earth with a tin of tuna for dinner. How lucky are we!?

This night we squished together into the one bottom bunk wearing every bit of warm clothes, wool socks and beenie hats.  I counted at one stage after stealing from all the other beds, that we accumulated 12 blankets! (including Spiderman and Cinderella ;-)

For months we've been in hot humid weather and didn't expect (or research properly) that it would be like winter tonight! No problem getting warm enough, however we both had massive headaches. Kevin was still feeling a bit dizzy and we could not sleep for anything; which I have since learned is normal when you are not yet acclimatized.

Lucky for me, Kevin has a few movies in his computer, and we literally watched movies and laughed all night long.  Turned out to be quite fun actually!  See ya tomorrow.. ;-)

Medellin, Colombia Part 1

My second day in Medellin was full!  I actually have a lot to accomplish while here.  And since James and Mark have been in town for a while, they know where EVERYTHING is!  First stop was to the KTM Moto Shop to organize a gigantic much needed service.  I need a haircut, banking, normal life stuff.

The boys take me on my errands. While out we went to their favorite lunch stop. A crepe restaurant, I have to say is a new thing for me.  For whatever reason, I think of crepe's as being breakfast food.

We had these awesome crepe's filled with good stuff, mine was a bit like a spinach pizza! (which is not worthing blogging about).  What IS worth blogging about is the awesome desert!  The menu was HUGE!!!  Any sort of flavor ice cream you can dream of is right here! And it's not the cheap nasty chemical colored stuff, it's really good!  James is the number one ice cream connoisseur and I am listening to his suggestions.  However!  Out of the entire menu, I kept coming back to my all time favorite, the brownie with vanilla..  I know, I just had this a few days ago.  But... OMG!!  Twice in one week is beyond unusual for me, this is by far the best one I have ever had!

Actually we are all in love with our desert choices and fighting for photo taking space rights.. ;-)

Medellin is a motorcycle riding mecca.  Big bad news once I arrived here.  Annie, the lady from Scotland on our boat to Colombia had a horrible accident on her way to Medellin with her Harley and a public bus.

From what I understand, she was trying to pass a truck or bus on the left, she said she mis-judged the timing to pass and stopped completely as the oncoming bus was coming toward her.  It either didn't see her or just simply failed to slow and give her room inbetween.  So essentially she got squished between the two.

The Harley she was riding didn't come off with too much damage, but Annie has fairly severe damage to her wrist and ankle.  The ambulance ride from her accident site was 12 hours to Medellin WITHOUT pain medication.  She deserves a medal for surviving that alone!! The good news is that she had her insurance as well as some of the top "motorcycle" surgeons in the world.  As you can imagine with all the motorcycles on the streets here, the doctors operate on riders all day every day. So Annie was put into the assembly line of body repairs and was in good hands.

Albert on the right (also from Scotland, proud owner of one of those KTM's in the back room ;-)), who has an office at the Shamrock Pub where I stay) brought Annie a bottle of wine.  James, Annie, Mark and Conor.  Motociclistas Unite once again!

The next day we go and check out Annies' bike.  She is due to be released from hospital and moving into the Shamrock Pub for at least a couple months of recuperation.  Not a bad spot to be for this! 

This lady blew me away with her super strong good attitude "I'll be back on the road in 6 weeks", and plenty of smiles.

We were hanging around the pub for afternoon beer.. and guess what!  Kevin shows up!  We knew he was on his way. He had sent me an email yesterday saying he had misjudged the route he was taking, and wanted to know where we were, coordinates, etc.  When he arrived after 11 hours in the saddle today, we all gave a big cheer.  I forgot about the last few days and was very happy to see him, especailly after his email, and that he made it here okay.

Annie got some good news too.  The hospital service delivered her a wheelchair.  The only 2 places she has seen since arriving Medellin is the hospital and the Shamrock pub.  She tells me her new plan is to hire a young good looking Colombian to push her around town.. smart lady!! ;-)

We all went to dinner and it was nice.  Since my big escape, Kev and I went for a couple beers alone after.  Bottom line, he was not happy I left him like that in Taganga. Fair enough, and we left it there.

The next day is a BIG motorcycle day!!  Look at my bike!!  Or what is left of it!  The boys at KTM are really checking everything out!

As I was in shock to see my bike like this, a few OMG's kept coming but they all were laughing. And we begin our never ending search to find Kevin tires for his Buell Ulysses that can have at least a bit of tread and be dual-sport.  He knows there is more and more dirt coming up as he explores South America, and Federico who runs the shop here is trying to help him out.

Kevin, Federico, and James

We sort of left Kevin to it and the three of us (me, Mark and James) left to do other things for the rest of the day.

That night at the pub, Kevin shows up again.  That's were all us riders hang out and so it wasn't totally unexpected, but I'm still feeling a bit uncomfortable.  Just for my own sake I was keeping my distance and talking to somebody in the bar.  Kevin comes up to me.  He's looking kind of strange, and he finally asks, "Are you hungry?"  I just look at him like why are you asking that... "Do you want to have dinner?"... Words just would not come out of my mouth.. then he says, "With me?" .....  

I agreed...... sucker I am! ;-)

Just so happens the guy I was talking to in the bar gave us some excellent advice right then.  If you want to go eat, there is a very good restaurant just a couple blocks up.  They are usually full, but see how you go.  If you know Scottish Kev, this restaurant name was made for him!

And they certainly were!!!!

Whenever my Mom would ask me what I wanted for my birthday meal as a kid, it was always barbequed ribs.  I have not had this for dinner in many years.  Somehow it turned in to an awesome date night. After dinner was a couple beers in a cozy pub..

Kevin is still playing with the new camera he bought in Panama.. being artistic I reckon ;-)

And later was live Reggae music and even a bit of dancing to the early morning hours.  Eventually road maps for South America came out while swapping ideas and plans for what's next. 

On the road to Medellin, Colombia

 Escapee...!!

I have to admit, first day on my own in a long time was filled with the feeling of freedom and rock and roll!!!  I rode fast to the music and stopped whenever I wanted to stop.  There are pluses and minuses to riding on your own, and today is a plus day!

Intrigued by these water houses.. from what I can tell, they are set up for fish farming.

Fresh fish anyone??

I traveled along the water until I needed to turn inland a bit.

I've seen a lot of weird animal warning signs.. bears, moose, koalas, but never rats. I assume that is a water rat anyway.

Wiggling through town with all the bikes..

And into the country.

Things got a little rougher here and I had an UNUSUAL experience.  I came up to a couple cars that were stopped in the road and several people around them in the opposite direction.  As I got closer, I noticed the brown rope, so I slowed down and stopped.

The people here were men, but they were dressed like women, very dirty in a rough dread-locky sort of Mad-Max way.  I was warned about these rope people.  Highway robbery!  This is my first and only time it ever happened, so by the time I worked it out, they had surrounded my bike.  Only some of them. The others were still working on the little red car on the other side of the road.

They were speaking to me in Spanish and I just pretended I didn't understand, I spoke to them in English.

During my nervous conversation with them and pretending to be totally confused about what they were asking for, they let their guard down and were holding the rope only half as high as before.  If they were smart, they would have stood in front of my bike, but I quite honestly think they were on drugs anyway.  I'm also thinking they were not so forceful with me because I was a woman and ALONE.  I don't know that for sure, but maybe.

With lady-men on each side of my bike, I knew if I rode through the rope, my tire would be enough to push it down and I gunned it!

I was shaking most the rest of the day. That was really scary.  No way was I going to take photos, and let them see my camera, but they were quite a sight.  I remember the long black dread locks, dresses and skirts, earrings and lipstick, mustaches and very hairy legs. Very surreal, it would have been worthy of a movie scene!

I've been told that sometimes they pull the rope up just as you're passing so you fall off the bike and they rob you then.  Since it never happened before, my guard was down.  Now I'll keep an eye out for them......

I eventually stopped and stayed the night in a small village on the road to Medellin.  Even when I unpacked I noticed I was still shaking a bit from the rope experience hours earlier.  This is when I really missed Kevin. 

The next morning, back on the road alone was nowhere near as nice as the feeling of freedom I had yesterday.  Even though I felt pretty confident I made the right choice yesterday.

Later on, I noticed along the road a lot of the locals bringing their milk in to what I assume is a treatment or distribution barn?

As I got closer to Medellin, it was getting more and more mountainous.

 

And then...finally made it to the big smoke... Medellin!

Gui and David who were on the Independence with us had told me a good place to stay in town, when I spoke to them on email a couple days ago. They literally left the morning I arrived so I got their room.  There are only 2 rooms available here on top of the Shamrock Pub, so I'm quite lucky I got in.

We wiggled the bike through the bar and parked it in the back room.. where it is definitely in good company!  Imagine, out of all the bikes in the world, the owners here are passionate KTM riders too.. check out the wall color. These are my people! ;-)

And check out my motorcycle room!  Pretty cool.. So if you are coming through Medellin on motorcycle, you might want to book this in advance.  

Once I settled in, I emailed James.  I knew he was still riding with Mark, whom we both left in Nicaragua several weeks ago. I thought I knew they had moved on from Medellin already, but wanted to let them know I had arrived.

He didn't respond to my email, but not long after, I hear a very light tapping on my door.  Couldn't believe when I opened, it was James!  What the heck?  I thought you left Medellin already?

Turned out they did leave Medellin, however Mark had another small accident (which is also what happened when I met him in Guatemala!).  So they returned to the city to get Mark's front forks repaired. 

Shortly after that Conor (who was also on the Independence with us), is in town too!! He showed up to meet us here for beer, which I quickly came to learn the Shamrock to be our daily hangout.  Works for me, drink all I like and if it's too much, not too far to go!

So there ya go. I've got friends in town I didn't expect.. I'm really happy to see them and it couldn't be more perfect.  Motociclistas Unite!

Welcome to Medellin! ;-)))