RTW on a thumper... Round the World ADVenturization

check your email...

definitely agree with that

its all terracotta, click this link for more info...casaterracota.com

we walked around that place for hours, caven after caven, it seemed like a maze initially, there were no real arrows saying turn here turn there, but somehow you just knew where to go and saw it all

this is a map of the place, once you get back outside it makes sense, (on the far right) all those lines are approx. 100 meters long if that helps with a sense of scale, probably not, but its the best i can do

its 24,000 COP's to get in now, about $14

we stayed an extra day in Zipaquira, Ryans ankle was still bugging him so just a day to chill out around the main square

right by this cathedral...



and up close...



sitting drinking a beer and a willy's WW2 jeep rolls by :huh



the ride out the following morning was again spectacular, starting to run out of superlatives for this country, everyday seems better than the one before for riding







we rode though Honda and over the big bridge in the middle of town



normally there would be guys in wooden canoes fishing but as it was a holiday the locals were disturbing the fish



for the rest of the day it was mountain roads, we had some suggestions from Mike at motolumbia.com in Cali and he picked us out some great roads...from here on its just roads you wish you were riding with a perfect 85 degree temperature with views like these

yesterday we ended up in santa rosa de cabel, the ride out in the morning took us thru more mountains





riding thru Pereira you cross an amazing bridge that seems out of place




Filandia was the next destination, it has a look out tower that boasts THE best view in Colombia, problem was when we were there it was early morning and the dew creates a mist that kind of looked like smog but all the same it is a great view looking towards the town and also towards the snow capped Los Nevados




this is a close up of the same church as we rode out of town later









a short ride from here back to the route 29 and south a km's is the town of Salento where we planned to stay...

we got there and found a small hotel in Salento, from here the place EVERYONE heads to valle de cocora, it boast some of the tallest palm trees in the whole world...now at this point in my head i had kind of built this place up and put it on a pedestal, did you ever do that and when you get there, it just wasn't kind of what you were expecting...so i did a very quick video for dramatic effect

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Once again, great pictures. When you see this one you understand why riding there must be awesome :) It's just impossible to carve a straight road through there...

i guess what started out as a foot path, developed to a trail, maybe for horses or carriages for a few centuries, then a dirt road and then they paved it because the knew the ADV riders were coming, i guess they didn't know we prefer dirt!!!

Wow what a report, Took a while to read all the post, But I am caught up... I am taking note's and it looks like next year will be my big ride, Not this big but 6 months to a year with some Spanish lessons tossed into the ride..
Your living the dream keep riding. The pictures are bad ass...
And I just love your money reports lets me know how to save and spend on the trip,
5o bucks a day I can go a 6 months easy, 35 bucks a day and I might be able to squeeze a year out of the budget ,
Mike

Hi Paul,

Where are you heading next, back to Bogota or south towards Cali.

cheers dave

I hope I know where he is going next

glad you are enjoying it...on this part of the ride which has been 130 days i am at an average of $46 a day and i have only camped once, so if you do some camping then $35 a day is easily feasible...simple rule of thumb quick thru the expensive countries slow thru the cheap ones...

So, it seems most Adv riders don't camp much in CA and SA, but why? Is there available safe camping? I realize it is cheap and I appreciate the desirability of sleeping in a bed in a town where there is food nearby. I assume that is the reason.

I was reviewing world homicide rates yesterday and Central America is right up there with some of the African countries.

I don't enjoy camping on hot humid nights as I do on cool dry ones.

She's not even holding her gun right, not that scary

Good enough to kill you in about 1 second if she wishes. Just sayin.........

Lots of reasons. I'm sure Paul can comment with his own views on this.

I tried camping on early trips to Mexico -Cent. America. In crowded areas camping can be a problem. Parts of Cent. Am. are quite dense, hard to get away from people.

Parts of the Caribe side can be mellow and some good camping can be had at organized areas. But be careful about walking away from your camp site for too long. You are always a target ... even in paradise. I'm not always a fan of Wild Camping ... but many do it no problems. I don't like to leave my stuff unattended ... so in some cases you can become a prisoner of your camp site.

Camping takes extra time, shortens your riding day ... you ALWAYS need to stop riding with daylight left. Setting up in the dark if not much fun. Then, you've got to cook ... and clean up. In the AM same routine: more cooking, cleaning, re-packing. If you're up at first light ... you might get on the road by 8:30 or 9 am. After riding all day some may not have the energy left to do all that is required to camp and cook. A lot of extra work.

In the 1960's Mexico had more camping at tourist beaches ... but not much these days. ALL BIG Hotels. In remote inland areas some camping can be found ... but it's best if you know where you are, who's land your on. Never pick a spot in the dark. :eek1

On later trips I stopped camping. I preferred staying in towns - villages and collected tips from other travelers about places to stay. Worked well for me: More contact with locals meant learning more Spanish ... learning more about the culture.

Camping can be isolating ... I've seen many Euros doing this, staying to themselves, not speaking Spanish, living in the Bush, not bathing much, eating out of cans, carrying their own bread, cheese and stuff, having almost no contact with locals. Works for some.
Being in town forces you to interact.

I prefer eating at local markets /restaurants, having more contact with local folk. Some travelers get exhausted by this and long for isolation. To each their own.
Others follow the Gringo trail and stay at Hotels or Hostels where ALL the patrons are other English speaking travelers. Many of the younger crowd are there to Party and get high ... some are on vacation from College. All good I guess.

I did this myself for a while (30 years ago) as it's always good meeting others on the road to learn what's coming up regards roads, border crossings, police issues, political stuff and good tips on places to stay and sites to see.

If you have the time ... camping can be good. It gets VERY good in Southern Argentina and Southern Chile ... which is sort of like Northern California. But requires carrying a lot of extra gear and allowing shorter riding days and doing the extra work.

more on this later...i kinda sorta found where we were talking about, need to go thru photos before a post....:huh

and don't forget to have a last look at the bubble butt before you hit the ground...