Colombia Libre!Cartagena 2009

So Here I am,a Scottish guy living in Colombia and loving it!!!
Then I,m thinking I,m having such a great time why would I want to lt others in on it!!!
Well here,s the story Colombia and the Colombians have made me feel more at home than possibly any other time in my life.So I think lets get my two favorite things together Colombia and motorcycles.
I put out a few feelers around these parts and got fair amount of interest in a motorcycle meet'up without really trying.I sent out a few PM,s and got myself some people interested in doing what they can.
Great so far!!
I think we all want this to be a truly international event with folks from Canada to Argentina and all points in between.
The reason for Cartagena is it,s about midway between the continents and is a great place to visit anyway with the Walled city and surrounded by beaches,Santa Martha etc
It,ll be in November,Why! because thats about the time the majority of folks going south to Tierra del Fuego pass by.
Get the sailboats from Panama straight there!!!
Finally for the moment I just talked to Ktm Medellin and will be talking to Bmw Medellin.
I got a very enthusiastic responce from KTM and I expect the same from BMW.
I hope some of you can make it and we can all do our little bit to change the image of a country and a people that deserve better.
Al theturtleshead.
Muy pronto voy a escribir algo en Español.Quiero que todo el mundo viene a esa fiesta no solamente el mundo Ingles.
Pero tienes que perdonar mi pobre intento en Español,soy Escoses por el amor de Dios.

Muleboy and I will be all in. Looking forward to it. We looking at early, middle, or late part or why not party just all of November?

Way to go Al

sounds good Al.
but november is not miss colombia and the place packed full?
claude

Let's get the party started

See you in November...

We´ll be there... if Bananaman buys us plane tickets!

I assure you that we are in! However due to the Hostel and my job teaching, it will be nice to know well in advance. Can we help in any way?

November next year, you guys will just be working yourselves home, with your new Argentinian wives. Your girlfriends are gonna be pissed. You'll be giving talks on Peruvian porn.

OK, Albert - could we get some more details from your weary mind posted?

Most importantly the DATE and let the promotion begin

- Mike

Funny...I was just looking for this post this morning and saw it had dropped down the list. I had expected some info pretty quick myself! Any new news????

I,m waiting for the Christmas,New year stuff to pass by and at the moment I,m in Quito taking care of business.
I,ll be back in town on the 5th of Jan and then I,ll be sending out some mails to people who,ve shown an interest in helping with the international part.
I,ve also got to get in touch with Mauricio at Ruta 40,but I have talked to Ktm and they are very interested.
I,m also going to look into some big time sponsors like Juan Valdez.If you boys have any other suggestions let me know.
Mike I,ll give you a ring in the new year and Lodging we need to get together for a beer on the 6th or so.
Also any international biking organisations in Europe,We need contacts!!!
Al theturtleshead

If you get a KTM shop to sponsor something, I'll take one.

Let me know on the Juan Valdez progress. If you're in Quito, you've probably seen that they've opened several shops here and are probably looking to promote. If you put something together with them from Colombia, I'm sure it will be easier to get the reps for JV here to jump on board.

My wife's from Scotland, I like beer and was planning on trying to do a Ushuia trip next year, SOOOO I'm in.

I'll also take a KTM

I've been wanting, all my life, to be a free-lance adventure writer. I'll send some queries to the motorcycle rags, and maybe they'll let me write something.

Ok Boys I,ll be back in Medellin tomorrow and I really want to start getting my teeeth into this thing!!!
I,d love to hear from anyone who has any experience in organizing something like this,as I don,t have a clue.
So gents!!! hit me with any suggestions you might have!!!
Cheers
Al theturtleshead

I would think that the first thing we need to do is get some accommodations set up to handle everyone and the bikes. Maybe those could be some of our first sponsors also. Of course, to go to them, we need to get an approximate head-count. I guess we could start that here, just hightlight-and-paste with updates as we go further into the thread:

ADV Name (if any) Name(s) Total Attending
theturtleshead xxxxxxxxxx xxx
muleboy xxxxxxxxxx xxx
throttlemeister xxxxxxxxxx xxx
C5! xxxxxxxxxx xxx
kaiserkyhl xxxxxxxxxx xxx
medellinlodging Brad/Mery 2
bobloblaw xxxxxxxxxx xxx

Anyone else committed or can fill in the x's to confirm????

I don't know how biker friendly it would be but it would be nice to near the old walled city. Even better would be to be near La Dolce Vida!

ADV Name (if any), Name(s), Total Attending

muleboy - Mike - 1
medellinlodging - Brad/Mery - 2
throttlemeister
C5!
kaiserkyhl
bobloblaw
theturtleshead

As for the hotels or whatever, it would be nice near the walled city, butwe might just be happy to find ANYTHING that is biker-friendly while providing good accommodattions at a good price. Might want to start perusing the following website which has a ton of the best places, all in English, well organized with english and spanish websites for each location:

http://www.cartagenahoteles.com/hospedaje.php?categoria=Hoteles

I'm ready to party. Mark me down, see you there.

John