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Another quikie…the barbie outside is firing up and the fish are ready! And talking of quikies, I’m in fabulous, (in)famous Cartagena where the locals sell T-shirts of their local hero, Pablo Escobar, altho’ I’m not sure just what his background was here, probably a financial one!
Yes it’s the last country of sudamerica, Colombia, land of a thousand dreams, and plenty of offers everywhere of something to snort or smoke, they’re a bit disappointed when I tell them my only drugs these days are cerveza and cigarros!

WELL, BUGA ME!!

Bill Shum
2006-08-21 17:28:04

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Another quikie…the barbie outside is firing up and the fish are ready! And talking of quikies, I’m in fabulous, (in)famous Cartagena where the locals sell T-shirts of their local hero, Pablo Escobar, altho’ I’m not sure just what his background was here, probably a financial one!
Yes it’s the last country of sudamerica, Colombia, land of a thousand dreams, and plenty of offers everywhere of something to snort or smoke, they’re a bit disappointed when I tell them my only drugs these days are cerveza and cigarros!

The new bike papers worked a treat, much easier for the frontera people to comprehend and the crossing was smooth. Great roads and a friendly reaction from all and sundry, the people I meet are smiling and welcoming and the frequent police, military and other checkpoints are extremely courteous, handshakes all round, polite look at the papers, cursory check of the panniers, no guns or drugs, chat about the bike and travel in general, offers to buy the ipod…etc etc …and off I go. It was getting a bit tedious north of Medellin with check points every few kilometres but paperwork was all they wanted to see at most of them.

Almost entirely mountainous curvery thru’ beautiful green valleys with raging rivers sometimes hundreds of metres below, sometimes right alongside the road. Big sugar cane fields used for fuel alcohol as well as sugar, many other crops and fruit orchards everywhere.

First night in Pasto, not far into Colombia as I had noticed during the day, when I stopped at a famous market somewhere in Ecuador, the front tyre was showing some canvas…not good, and Pasto was a big enough city for me to find, down in the market, a Pirelli tyre, almost the right size, and got it fitted, that was a story in itself!
On thru’ the mountains, fabulous riding on lots of new asphalto, the Pirelli doing a fantastic job…just as well as the rear is getting smooth and stepping ...