The Mighty Colombia...Part One.....

Arrival in Bogota

After getting over the disappointment of 'not sailing' to Cartagena, we arrived in Bogota, Colombia on 5th June 2018. We'd all managed to book into the same small hotel in the Fontibon area of Bogota, a short taxi ride from the airport and Customs where we had to collect the bikes from. This was a busy part of Colombia and not at all touristy, with people going about their daily lives. Fascinating to people watch and see the change of clientele from day to night.

It took us two days to get our bikes out of Customs due to an employee rushing and despite asking to check paperwork we weren't given the chance till sometime later when the paperwork was returned to us......dam......the Dian had made several mistakes....Chris and I had been given Irish Nationality, the bikes had been put down as Irish......Vince who is Irish....they'd written down his last name as Irish in Gaelic....seriously.....and the insurance hadn't been done for of all of us by the time we had returned from the Dian......confused...….Ron who spoke the best Spanish out of the four of us gave them 'a right telling off'......resulting in the boss buying us dinner for the 'inconvenience' and 'bollocking' the employee responsible . It's too late in the day now so we had to return the following morning to correct all the issues. Finally after several more hours spent engaged with the Dian to correct their mistakes and waiting for the rest of the insurance to come through ...we were ready.....'hooray'.... and then it started raining…. great first ride out, only back to the hotel and it was miserable....'Welcome to Colombia !!!!'

Check out the video below...….

Damp but not dis-heartened, we were happy to have our motorcycles back. This meant we could all start plotting our various routes through Colombia. One more job to do though. Another couple of friends had been stopped in Colombia and fined for not having their motorcycle registration plate on the back of their helmets. As a group we decided to get this done, it was only a few Colombian pesos but if it meant keeping officials off our backs it was worth it. Please note....other motorcyclists....this is not necessary for foreign riders. There was a little motorcycle shop across the road from the hotel....took about 1/2 hour for him to do all four and a 'nice chat' with one of the local Bogota Police Force.

Ha,ha…..I do like a man in uniform 🙄🤣

And that was that, after a 'last supper' together, the next day Chris and I headed out of the city to Zipaquira, Vince changed hotels and stayed in Bogota a while longer in a different area and Ron initially made plans to stay an extra couple of days whilst he sorted some issues out with his bike.

Let the adventures begin...….

Zipaquira and Guatavita

We were so glad to be leaving the city but it was tedious trying to get out to say the least, just so many people and vehicles 'ducking and diving' to get somewhere...….you needed eyes in the.........everywhere !! And just when we thought we'd cleared the jams and got on a free section of road, the traffic stopped yet again....what now ? This time it was because of an accident, a wagon had overturned. There was a garage across from the accident, the bikes had got incredibly hot battling to get out of Bogota and then being stuck in a queue so we pulled in for a drink to let them cool down, watching the 'madness' go by. Thankfully nobody had been injured in the accident but the wagon had shed it's load.

The bikes having finally cooled down were now ready for off again and once we'd cleared the build up of traffic we 'cracked on' to Zipaquira.

We'd managed to get booked into a lovely little 'courtyard' style B & B/ Hotel..... Hotel Cacique Real This was perfectly located in the 'old Town' area of Zipaquira and walking distance to our 'point of interest'. The old town was great for a walk round with lots going on and various bars and restaurants all tucked away inside old style Spanish colonial buildings.

One thing we noticed in our hotel and other establishment in Zipaquira, is that they had tons of 'old stuff'. So if you've got an old tv, record player, typewriter, sewing machine or if you want one, Colombia is the place to be......seems they can't get enough of it 😀

Personally, I love the old suitcases.

Whilst we've been viewing some of the sights of Zipaquira and enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere after Bogota, Ron Bedard from 'The Ends Of The Roads' has re - joined us after completing the adjustments on his bike.

Chris and Ron wandering around Zipaquira took great delight in watching a dog join the local band practice in the main square.

Tomorrow we'll all go and visit the main attraction....The Salt Cathedral.

So.….the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira…..what is that ? Exactly what it says it is, a Cathedral made out of salt but it's underground and you have to enter it through the old mine. The mines have been in existence since at least the 5th century and were originally worked by the Colombiam Muisca people.Over the years the miners already had a subterranean place of worship down there and it wasn't until the 50's that work began on the new version, the one we can all visit now. It's definitely impressive and I highly recommend visiting. There's even cafes and shops down there!!

No need to book a tour, you can just pay at the gate and wander round in your own time.

Time for a night out in Zipaquira and we go 'Mexican' in Colombia 🤣

Next on the agenda is to take a 'ride out' to Guatavita, another Spanish style town that had been recommended to us to visit. We've already made one attempt to go there but failed miserably. Entrusting directions to the sat nav is fast becoming a 'NO' as it took us over a road that turned into a muddy mess as it began to rain....just no fun and obviously our bikes start to slip, quite dangerously in those conditions.

All three of us 'pop off' on this one, using a better route. Weather's still a bit grim but at least it wasn't raining this time.

Guatavita was quite interesting. A Spanish 'white - washed' small town re-built on higher ground in the 60's due to the construction of a reservoir and flooding of the original . The town was incredibly quiet the day we visited, no hoards of tourists here.The original Guatavita was home to the Muisca people who were gold workers.This in time led to the Spanish hearing about the gold when they invaded Colombia and legends have since sprung up from here ..... 'El Dorado's Gold, I'm sure you've all heard of that. The Muisca people would worship 'Chie', their Goddess of Water and gold which had been loaded onto the Chief's wooden raft would be thrown in the nearby lake in her honour. The legend is actually partly true and gold from here can be viewed in The Gold Museum in Bogota.There's also still a bullring here but thankfully to my knowledge is no longer used. It wasn't open and I couldn't see any more information regarding it.

That's it for here. Tomorrow Chris and I are heading for San Gil and Ron is venturing further afield than Guatavita. We'll all catch up somewhere else in South America for sure.

San Gil

Technically we weren't really visiting San Gil, merely stopping on the outskirts to visit a waterfall. Cascadas de Juan Curi. This was about half an hours ride from where we'd booked into. The ride out was warm and pleasant, passing the 'bungy jumping' spot and onwards into the countryside. For outdoor sport enthusiasts, San Gil is very popular in Colombia for white water rafting, kayaking etc, a lot of stuff we'd already done. Today was just about going for a walk and maybe a spot of swimming.

The area the waterfall was in was an eco park. When we arrived there was areas that looked like they were for camping and some little cabinas and a large bar/restaurant eating space, though nobody was about. Past that was a tiny shop and a young lady to pay your token amount to walk along the path. You can also go climbing around the waterfalls here. The short walk certainly didn't disappoint and on arrival to the waterfall Chris was keen to get in.....bit too cold for me.

The following day we're back on the road and heading in the general direction of Cartagena. There's no way we'll get there in a day so initial plans are made to stay in Aguachica. Getting to Aguachica meant riding the 45, a great road for amazing views of the Gran Canon de Santander, part of Parque National Chicamocha. Although the views were fantastic the road was incredibly slow and hundreds of wagons use this main route. Overtaking manoeuvres were awkward to say the least and up and down, up and down...…...still worth it.

So enjoying the views but then Bucaramanga looms, a very large city.....will the sat nav get it right ??….er....no...….'bloomin rubbish'.....one wrong turn here resulted in an extra stressful hour queuing in traffic to get back out....by the time we got out the weather was changing, by the time we got to Aguachica, the heavens had opened. The side roads were a wash out, Aguachica was flooded, literally....keep those bikes moving.The roads improved as we moved on to more of a main route. We were like 'drowned rats' by the time we got to the little hotel.