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Back at altitude with attitude again but I must be getting acclimatised. Great Bogota. Home to Bolivar’s greatest and lowest moments and still alive with a sense of history, passionate, proud and over populated with beggars.
A little scene setting, this morning I took off the damaged panier, you might remember from the dog crash ep, I took it over the road to a small ferreteria (hardware) and told them I needed to fix it….did they have drill, hinges, rivets etc, within 5 mins the boy, the boss and 2 passing bike riders had accumulated tools, bits and pieces, sent the boy off to buy bits, pushed me, gently, aside, after 3 hours, all panel beaten, new hinge and back on bike…we chatted for a while about the bike, the trip, life, the universe and everything…then I asked how much and they all backed off saying nada nada, I couldn’t even buy them a 6 pack and I’m still wondering how to repay this extraordinary generosity…and it’s everywhere in Colombia, people go out of their way to ask if I need help or directions just walking down the street, amazing…however, not far from my friendly ferreteria a few months ago, one
Fred and Sandy's Appartmentof the teachers caught a cab home from the shopping centre, the cab stops out on the road and 2 guys get in, stick a gun in his guts, work him over and he sits like this for a couple of hours as one takes his card and cleans out his bank account, then he’s dumped out on the autopista….others have been robbed, assaulted and etc, public and private security everywhere, armoured cars pull up and serious guys with pump action shotties, side arms, RPGs probably, dash into even very small stores to take the daily or weekly cash to the bank…all serves to remind that in this over friendly, sophisticated, modern city, really bad things are …how close?..just a shot away?

BOGOTA, BLOGOTA, BLOG TA TA

Bill Shum
2006-08-21 17:19:29

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slipping on the wet stones, pissing down rain, hail even, a torrent of water up to my ankles washing me along, They talk about Melbourne’s 4 season days, here it’s 4 in one hour!

But first, back to where we start this episode…putting the horse before the......Cartagena, sounding like a smoke related disease, but a fabulous old city, surrounded by the massive wall and touristified to within an inch of it’s life.

And the touts were out in force, small crowds now but they are practising for the major influx of touries for Easter week and never give up….T-shirts, jewellery and drugs! I befriended the biggest guy, Gabriel, and altho’ there was a price to be paid, he “found” me a hotel and kept the others at bay. I told him if the bike was still safe by Sunday morning I’d give him $20

I rode out of Cartagena at first light, unfortunately Gabriel was not around and so missed his “commission”… I followed the coast by Barranquilla and Santa Marta, pretty ordinary, swampy coast with pockets of beach resorts amongst the mangrove swamps, it was sea-misty and almost cool before heading inland and eventually up into the mountains again.

More beautiful winding road with more of those mind boggling vistas of huge valleys, raging rivers and strings of truck and car convoys that I could sweep past while trying to avoid the double-overtakings coming towards me. I spotted a 1200GS in a small town and did a quick uey. A Bogotonian on a brand new bike, we chatted awhile and he gave me the address of BMW in Bogota.

Stopped the night in Bucaramanga, nothing to report there! and off early for the last 400kms, all mountainous curves but with the added attraction of major subsidences in the road…often signed but always a thrill as the road surface suddenly drops away half a metre and usually on a curve!

Bogota started right on the 400km mark but that was just the start, it’s ...