33 1/3 N C S + Cuba

Hey amigo, that excuse is old
You can always write your RR updates in a "Word File" (picture links and everything), save them in your computer and then "copy-paste" that way if the wifi fails, you didn't lose anything.... So get on with the writing

How did it go at the Brazilian consulate? Did you manage to charm them into giving a visa in a shorter time?

We finally got home in Caracas today at 2:00PM... You HAVE to do the Malaga-Chitagá road (due north from the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy towards Pamplona) it is just awesome (even in the Land Cruiser)... it is my fifth time around that road and I don't get tired of the views at the high pass.... Sadly (for us, not for the regular road users) it is being paved, so NOW is the time to head there... (But DO go to the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy and spend some time there, even if you have to wait for one day of sunshine) it is well worth it. An there are PLENTY of side dirt trails for exploring the way you like in the area from the SN to Pamplona.

Howdy John,

Thank you for continuing this epic lenght and interesting report. It seems that when you replaced one of your cameras awhile back, the aspect ratio or width or whatever, causes the picture and then because of that, the text of what you post to be a bit wider than my monitor--a 28" widescreen--(but not the extra wide screen variety). What that means for me is that to read your text I have to scroll back and forth horizontally for every sentence which is a PITA. I don't know if that is just me or if other of your subscribers are having the same issue? Anyways, I thought you would want a heads up to maybe consider re-sizing your posted photos.

Keep on writtin' & ridin'!

Sorry about the picture widths, it must be associated with one page if you tell me the post number and page number I will try to go back and set the image to smaller size.


I've been hanging out in Medellin having some fun with old friends, going to do a little loop with a nice friend tomorrow out to San Rafel (sic) area near Guatupe and within the next few days head back down to Cali for an oil and filter change and then back to Bogota sometime around the 24 April when the visa is supposed to be due by. It might just be ready today but I like Colombia too much to just turn back to Bogota and retrieve my passport

I'm thinking some time in Cali with the good net at Alain's place to do some quality updates as I really prefer doing them on a live window where I can easily insert the pictures as they tell the story.

At Mike's new place in Medellin now getting ready to have a hellulva meal including some nice meat:dg

Nice to be back in Colombia once more and even better in Medellin

I went back and checked. The first instance I could find of it was on pg 31, post 457. It then occurs on most posts with pictures from that point on. Which is odd because I don't remember it going back that far in the thread. I'm currently subscribed to 83 threads, and this is one of only a couple of threads where the width of the pictures causes me to have to side scroll to read all of your text.

I went back to that post and deleted two of the biggest pictures that I found so maybe that will help, you can check and see for yourself. I use smugmug and post only XL size photos and they all fit on my 14" screen laptop without scrolling. Will have to have some other feedback from others to see if they are having the same problem as you Nomad. In the past if I posted pictures over the "XL" size on smugmug then it would cause the need to scroll to read the text, I do my best to try and keep an eye on it as it is a pain for me but as of most of the last pages I haven't had to scroll myself so I'm not sure what the problem might be.

Anybody else having problems having to scroll to read all the text
It usually just comes from my fat finders posting a bigger picture in one of the posts. I can repost to a smaller size to fit the normal screen. Let me know the page and post number and I will try to fix it.

I know I hate scrolling too when I read other's reports

Got a lot of photo sorted and uploaded and thinking some more quality updates are coming today...

John still in Medellin at Mike's nice casa on the hill in Envigado

I wasn't having that problem on any of the computers I've been using to read this thread on. Only time I have to scroll is when people put pictures side by side.

No problems here

I've been busy even though I haven't gotten much posted as of late. I did finally get my Google Earth sorted out and uploaded the latest tracks since leaving Bogota for Medellin. Here's the look of something near 15,000+ miles of fun riding in the this section not including the rub lines showing sailing trip(the white tracks are the actual path of the SteelRat) and airline paths back home for my brother's wedding leaving out of Caracas, Venezuela


Thanks for the heads up on the screen size of the photos, if you take note of any oversize photo I've posted and give me the page and post number I will go back and resize as I do try and keep good tabs on it. I don't know what to say Bike Nomad, I hope it starts getting better for your screen size I have the day to post up so that's what I'm intending and then go down to Cali tomorrow morning to do a little oil and filter service at my favorite shop and hang out with Alain and Jorge

Almost time to head back to Bogota for that Brasil Visa

It's been a great time staying with Mike and Family here in Envigado in Medellin, Colombia but its nearly time to get moving again.

Since I got the Google Earth firing on all cylinders again I found the name of Raul's Hacineda on the family's large finca properly called "Sierra Alisos Hotel de Campo" located at 0°24'9.85"S / 78°34'32.59"W a short little drive South from Quito up in the hills, you have to get through a private gate and I'm sure once it is up and running arrangements will be made for easy passage. As I said in the earlier post I got a little twisting trying to find it with a sole waypoint and my half decent GPStravel map for Ecuador but I did at least see the outer security gate but thinking that couldn't have been it went around on the public roads all to no avail before I called into Raul for an escort to the place. My route trying to get to Sierra Alisos:



This place was one of his father's favortie places and he had a large hand in the design and ideas for the property before his health began to fail. Raul has taken on the project with vigor and plans to be up and operating soon. It was very tranquilio spot in the hills with great views and nice cool temperatures. Raul's father's hand was in the design of the stallion stone mosaic work in the patio here:

Not shown so well but you get the idea. This is going to be a really nice place for a little relaxation from a motorbike when its all finished

Here the lodge on the left of the photo and Raul's personal place on the right. His sister and brother-in-law also have a nice place adjacent to the lodge.


I liked the bottle work Raul and his son put in on his place, I've always liked the look of the different wine and beer bottles in mortar:


The weather wasn't holiding very well so after the little tour of the place it was time to head back into Qutio after taking on a little fuel we headed back into the city having to stop and do a double check and make sure my tag was not on that day's list for not being able to travel certain major routes within the city, always nice to have a little help I wouldn't have given second thought to it and would have been doing my best loco gringo with the policia getting out of the trouble, thankfully my tag was good to go and we were off to the apartment in the late afternoon early evening hours.

We got back to the aparment and Karla and her two boys where there and the youngest, Matis IIRC, was passed out hard on the couch when it was decided for the hotsprings idea to come to fruition in the mid evening hours. Hard to wake up a little guy sleeping this hard


It was decided and we loaded up with Raul driving and Karla at shotgun, her two boys, Raul's son, and myself taking up the back of the Nissan crewcab as we headed back out to the scene of my first real crime in Ecuador, the hotsprings of Papallacta where I'd earlier broken out of the gates after making the first big pass on some National Park or something of the like.
We left Quito and I was already a little more than tired and did my best along with the rest of the boys in the back seat to catch as much rest as possible on the long communte out to the hotsprings, I'd said it before and now again but I would have much perferred the ride out there as it seemed to take a near eternity riding the back crapped up like an overgrown chicken in a crate. Eventually we made it out to the springs and damn if the bigger normal springs weren't already closed for the day. We where however able to find a nice bath house with the very hot medicinal-like spring water for a soothing soak. It made the bumpy ride all worth it and made it even easier for the long return trip back to Quito.
The picture can't show so much but this was a nice soak and fun time for the boys in the late evening hours:


I slept hard the rest of that morning on the couch and woke up feeling refreshed.

Feb 15

I'd been in contact with Radioman aka Mark and he and his riding partner James where to be in Qutio today and I wanted to stay around as long as I could to try and meet up with the guys but Raul, Karla, and I had planned a little beach trip for some swimming but as the weather was not wanting to cooperate with us we changed plans to head to Mindo in the mountains as a nice substitute for the ocean but they had some stuff to take care of and the bikes to load before we where off. I took Karla for some McDonalds and she tried to help me find some Right Guard deodorant all to no avail, the antipersperant I had was nasty shit and I really like my RG I did score a nice cheap pair or pointy little nail scissors for performing surgery on my nails in the process of the failed attempt at finding the good stuff. Also looked for some BigRed at the candy shops in a couple of malls without luck but she intorduced me to a new really nice chocalate snack that was worth the visit alone. These are tasty, one of her favorites and I can see why:


We got back to the apartment mostly empty handed save for some new clippers and a couple of bagfuls of candy and had bikes to load up:


Got them loaded up and ready to go in the late afternoon nearer 5pm than not as I'd wanted to make one final stop over to Casa Helbling to see if Mark and James had arrived only to find they had not, oh well I tried. I left them a pair of stickers at the front desk and we took off in heavy afternoon traffic for Mindo, Ecuador in the fast fading light. Lots of this on a loaded bike makes splitting tricky:


We still had fun talking alot at the stops as we made our way Northeast out of the city:


By dark we where fully out of the last bigger city and climbing through the mountains well on our way to Mindo and by the last turnoff down the steep road into Mindo we where all hungry and food was on the minds and that was the first goal. Nearly immediately upon entering town I spied a new style KLR at a little tienda and nearly stopped for a visit but since riding along with Raul and Karla gave a good friendly wave and we ened up at a great pizza joint partly owned by some European expat. Soon enough that same KLR and it's owner a nice Colombian expat fellow named Camillo and his friend stopped in for a visit and an offer of accommadation for the night as his now underconstruction lodge/resort located on outer edge of town. Well at least we had a lead on a spot for the night.
Camillo and his buddy, notice the cargo on back with the nice big bottles


We settled in for beers and ordered up some pizzas and getting warm by the earth oven. The two love-birds at it:


Nice heat in the cool mountain air:



As our order was being made up:


We took in a most awesome game of no real rules of oversize jinga and had a blast at it. It's like swimming with sharks playing with an architect


The good hot pizza and cold beer was perfect for steadying the nerves for playing the game at the higest level




The pizzas only shrunk more as the tower grew taller:


Things nearer the equator must be in near perfect harmony with nearly equal elemental forces at balance for wood block games as we had one hell of a match going onI was more than a little impressed with our stacking skills




Still something had to give put we had a helluva stack going on:


We then set about to recreate the ultimate stone hinge design out of woodblocks topped off with our pizza platters for a simple engineering marvel


You can only guess what could top that all off?? Nothing but some of the finest one off brew in the world, a big en of 33 1/3 es special


My ad for the "Most Interesting Man total del Mundo"

'I don't always drink beer but when I do I make sure it's my favorite unmistakable taste of 33 1/3 es Special extra grande of course'

We had a ball eating and drinking and as I was doing my best to hit on the very attractive younger girl working at the pizza palace trying to at least talk her into making my motorbike look even prettier with a nice photo for proof I succeeded in attracting her mother for a nice evening sensual motorbike ride:huh It did have an alter purpose as she would also serve as personal guide in finding Camillo's new establishment still under some construction on the outskirts of town.
My new companion for a short ride in the dark and not so stormy night:


It is safe to say that at least some of the events of that magical night where easily lost in translation but I was tempted more than once to stop that bike in the middle of that potholed old road on the outskirts of that small little Ecuadorian town of Mindo in the soft white light of the moonlight and make sweet love to my new found pizza queen companion over the warmed up seat of my favorite motorbike.



But it just didn't happen but I'm almost sure it was on both of our minds as it was a "special time" as I think she really liked motorbikes and I'd had more than enough social lubrication in my system to make me more than a little dangerous as a speaker of espanol as a second language We still had a great time running around in the night like hooligans blasting up and down the little roads looking for Camillo's place in the night. We took a fair amount of time and being the bit of a showoff that night with my spanish skills I thought it best to through in some motorbiking skills as well and instead of crossing the by the easy bridge and after quick confirmation from my passenger that it was indeed passable by a truck I dove off into the unexpected fast flowing and much deeper and steeper exit than I ever anticipated and nearly dumped us both into the river before making a beautiful nearly redline full recovery and climb up the steep banked side to the hard ground again now with two pairs of soaks feet but none the worse for wear. I think she was impresed with the bikes powers and my operator skills although by this time we would have been putting on a more public display of sex had we done at this time what we both (at least myself) was lusting for. No sex for me! It was still a fun time with the pizza queen, did I mention the other younger girl was pretty damn hot What a time. I had at least discovered the location of Camillo's place and I think Raul and Karla where glad to not have to send out a search party for the recovery of myself and the PQ lady.
I said my goodbyes and we then both took off for Camillo's little hacienda on the outskirts of Mindo to continue on with the party easily finishing off that before mentioned loads of big ones on the pack of his KLR having a great time late into the night as the two pairs of lovers at the hacienda left the two bachelors to their own wits as we welcomed the morning hours easily listeing to good music, drinking, smoking, and telling stories before finally finding our beds for the rest of the dark hours. Goodtimes with great new friends It was discussed just a bit: "Where are you going next?" I will be heading back into Colombia. "That's good, I need to get new papers for the KLR." Okay we'll leave tomorrow and head North. It was settled easy as that other than making sure the dogs would get fed and the workers had their plans laid out for them. Tomorrow we all ride away as Camillo's other friends, the other couple, where taking off tomorrow on their own plans as well.

Feb 16 the rest of it-
By the time the sun had been up the riding crew for the day was all mustered from their sleep and a nice breakfast had come together with all hands taking part, except maybe mine, IIRC I might have cleaned the dishes or some else small part.


They had all come up with a most intersting rice omellette, something I'd never had before but hit the spot and was a good way to loose a lot of left over rice and a handful of eggs, top with mustard and it was good enough for me.


I'd recovered nicely:


I enjoyed the nice views of Camillo's old family place that he was undertaking the remodel of into a lodge/resort/hostel like place like Raul's was expecting to open sooner than later but still having a lot of work to finish up with before the opening day.
Nice pretty location, a few things to do before we could all head out for the roads to the North:


Nice porch for drinking and smoking outdoors with a little chiminia thinging too


The name of the old place and the name below of the new business, translated out to something like "Pure Life" IIRC got some potential here for sure.


I like these trees, they kinda of make me happy for some reason:huh


Extensive gardens on the property where nice:


New bathroom and shower house under construction on the place, was one of the first orders of business to finish along with many other parts of the final plan left to start and finish, big projects.


The little guys are the best ones Very sweet, can't believe they keep these kinds from us in the states, they must not ship well or something:


We all helped the gardener transplant a sharp prickly palm-like tree to another location, this sucker weighed a bunch and took a little bit of effort and inguienity to get moved to its new spot:


All good, I planted a tree in Ecuador, I'm not all bad


Finally it was time to ride again...

Hey TM. I have read your reports with relish on my Smokie for quite a while now and love it. Soon to be on an extended (a year I hope) trip myself and having experienced the wonders of Cuba many, many years ago I still want to go back. Only now I'd like to drag my bike along. The questions may very well have already been asked and I have scanned as much as I can scan but here they come again anyway. What was the cost of getting over to Cuba, Jamaica and the like? Was it hard for you to get in there? As an American, I mean? ( I'm Canadian and they liked us years ago and still might) I know you took that boat trip and that would be great but are there similar ways to go? I guess leaving from somewhere like Florida is still out of the question, right? I'd like to work my way from there to Cuba and then South America. Any input here would be absolutely wonderful.
Thanks, in advance,
Toad

Hola Toad
Thanks for the kind words amigo. Sound like if you've been before you know it could only be better with a bike and that f800 will really start earning its keep in Cuba for sure

Its not hard entering as they don't stamp your passport and you can easily get your bike temporarily imported usually within a day paying a percentage of the value of the bike and around 30euros tag and inspecting fee including a new drivers license. You also must either have or buy a health insurance policy which cost me 90 euros.

As a Canadian it could only be easier to get yourself and bike into the Special Place but the easiest way I know is the Stahlratte which happens to be there right know: http://stahlratte.org/28.0.html?&L=1 with another of your fine countrymen there hailing out of Halifax as Len MacDonald of Earth Wind Tires fame(ride report on here) is on island as I type. There are some pretty significant costs associated with the trip because it is not a normal destination for motorbikers but what I paid leaving and returning out of Cartagena, Colombia was $900 for the bike's transport roundtrip (kind of high imo as it does nothing other than sitting on deck) and with a daily rate for myself food/lodging minus beer and rum of $40 a day everyday I stayed on the ship, this was cut more by me staying off the ship while at the different ports we stopped at. These costs are set by what you negotiate with the captain of the ship and are not set by any means, more or less. It gets to costing some money as going by sailboat is not exactly fast travel and weather dependent. There are a couple of other Canadians doing some kind of business model study while on a motorbike trip that got dropped off by Lulu on the SteelRat end of last year and just barely got off the island with their bikes by some thankful Mexican freight ship if I recall correctly. If you scroll up in this report you will see a comment by him, Archimedes who can probably help steer you on other options besides the SteelRat and read about his experience on some other blog. I've read some company out of Canada was interested in doing a container shipment of bikes down for a group tour but I haven't heard more of this in some time. The country has it's own shipping line s named Coral IIRC and a person might be able to make a deal with them but again I have no experience that direction. As far as options from the US there are none, but I've heard of captains making the trip but it must be done secretly or they risk losing their ship so that is not much of a good option.

What I believe works the best and helped get Len talked into is the trip the Steelrat makes from Cartagena Colombia to Cuba and then to Cancun, Yucatan where it drops you off which works perfectly for coming back North from a motorbike trip down South and lets you avoid going back through all the CA country borders again. The other factor that might be coming into play is this supposed new ferry from Panama to Colombia that sounds as though it might make transport of motorbikes on private sailing/motor vessels leaving from Panama and Port of Cartagena a thing of the past, time will tell.

I made the trip there totally on a whim and it really was the last place I ever expecting to be taking my motorbike but when the captain asked the 19 of us with bikes crossing the Darien from Panama to Colombia who wanted to go up with them to the Special Place and all the others said "NO" they where going South something snapped inside and I decided to start doing a different type of South American motorbike trip that would mean a whole lot more to me as I was not planning on just humping down the PanAm down to the tip just to say I did. To me it was well worth the time and money even with the little bit of trouble I found myself in, I would do it again in a heartbeat as it was the most interesting place I've ever ridden my motorbike and by far also the safest, hopefully I'm not banned for life You are like a king with your bike and chicks really dig it too

Welcome to the Havana Club if you take your bike with you, just a few members allowed and what a party it is Might just have to make up some special place stickers or something

The day's ride for the four of us starting out on the in and out section down at the bottom left near Mindo @ El Remanso and going on the gold track North and West in the circle towards Imbabura and back to the PanAmerican at Otavalo.


Camillo had a pretty neat setup going that should only get better with time, it was discussed maybe him and Raul's places being a little go between ADVbikers going from one good spot to another on nice little roads instead of running so much time on the PanAmerican, I think it could work nicely
El Ramenso aka PuraVida right before leaving out:





Raul, Karla, and I went back into town right across the street from the pizza place the night before for some good coffee and special brownies while we waited for Camillo to finish up his last bit of business:


Oh the memories


Then we where off after a quick stop to fuel of the bikes with the lesser tanks
Fore:

aft:


And of course the rains that spoiled our beach plans tried to slow us down a little in the jungle too:


We still ended up finding some really nice riding in the mountains of Ecuador and with such a good fuel price to boot who could complain of just a little rain and mud




Our day didn't get started until late, seemed to be an on going theme down in Ecuador with the company but all was good, it was a great half day's riding on good tracks me even trying to get everybody lost once or twice looking for those great little roads in the countryside


In the above picture these kids just took off running like their asses where on fire, I never did figure it out but just caught this girl running down the side of the road as I passed by:

She was hoofing it pretty good at a decent elevation:huh Maybe she liked motorbikes too

We came down into Otavalo well into the evening dark hours and found a decent place to share a meal, I had to splurge and go for the costillos(ribs for you English speakers) to go along with all the trail dust I'd ate + one Bud. Good day!




After a nice dinner with friends it was decided that Raul and Karla would spend a nice night away from the kids at a special place the knew well from before and Camillo and myself would head on up the big road to Ibarra where he had an amigo he thought would give us some tent space or floor space or somewhere nice to sleep for the rest of the night.

I said my goodbyes to Raul and Karla, thanks for being some awesome hosts and I was happy you stopped by that day at Guidos, I had a lot of fun hanging out with you guys and your famlies


Camillo and I headed up the dark PanAm a little ways to get to his pal Steffan's new place he shared with his yet to meet uber hot wife and young son. Nice night riding with little traffic to deal with:


Steffan met us on one of those street legal quads and led us to the nearest tienda for a twelve packs of cold ones to unwind at the house drinking and telling stories.

We got a nice greeting by his big Saint Bernard and a nice friendly Golden after they figured out we where friendlies


We sat around drinking and smoking later into the night and sleep well after another great day riding in Ecuador.

Feb 17
In the morning I got a better look at Steffan and his wife's great new house, I really liked the construction, I'm getting ideas all the time when I travel.

I got their boy's bed as he stayed upstairs with them last night, speed racer style:


The front door was cool by itself:

Love the inset pivot hinge points like that.

Good guards waiting right outside well behaved and all:


Camillo showing the scale of the place:


Sometimes a person needs one of these little things Nice decoration:


The view at the back of their new place was great as it back up to a big gorge/valley as the place came up to meet the moutains and it provided a great view and location on the high ground:



Did I mention how beautiful Steffan's wife is, yeah she's a model and rides those jumping horses too


Loved their old bath tub upstairs in the master bath they where still finishing out the final touches here but it was a neat setup:


A damn nice breakfast to start the day was also included:


The steads out front, I planned to let Steffan ride my bike and me on the quad but it had some fuel delivery problems or something so he road two up with Camillo until we got up to the hard roads where I swapped with him and let him try out the big mexican whore.
That last section up the muddy hill was a slug or a section, they made it up easier than I did it looked like:


He was a very experienced enduro racer in Ecuador and had been around motorbikes more than his fair share and owned a Chinese import cycle shop called Moto Club. Right before I let him ride my bike Camillo and Steffan where coming around a blind corner with a little too much speed and a car coming the other way nearly put them into a wild high side as he locked up the breaks, it was an unbelievable recovery that I'm sure they both shite themselves a little. I pulled up beside in amazement that he was able to save it by pure luck I could only say:eek1 The way it goes. I felt Steffan really needed to ride my bike and I would be sure and try to slow Camillo down


He even did a great job splitting the lanes

Thanks Steffan for letting me sleep in your house, the least I could do is let you ride my bike since your no stranger to them
I check out his Husaberg enduro race bike, what a nice feeling rig, this would be some fun in the rough stuff, wild motor placement in these babies:




He said he would be able to help out travelers coming through if he could here: 0°20'47.30"N / 78° 8'9.46"W


We said our goodbyes and took of North for the border but as I had already ridden this stretch I talked Camillo into getting off the big road and after finding a nice route farther West on the Garmin unit and get us off to some good stuff in the countryside tuning off the PanAm just Norh on the road from Salinas here at waypoint 501 headed for El Angel on the gold track with the green being the PanAm that I took heading South.

We where headed back to Colombia on some good roads
More to come I got to go run some errands before I leve tomorrow.

Back on the road I see... I was just logging into Adv to PM you as I'm back off the road (for a while this time) and was going to see if I could crash at your place in OK on my way moving all my junk from Texas to Kansas City.

You have an ETA for OK?

Thankyou for that wealth of info, TM. I'll be salting it away for further study. As for the F8, she's gettin a little long in the tooth and I am afraid there will soon be a new love in my life. And her name is Stelvio NTX.

John you always keep things interesting. Can't wait to eventually make my way south!!!

So just how "special" were those brownies???


Thanks for all the pictures and update.

Hola amigo! Good to see you posted. Hope you get your Brazilian visa tomorrow. Parker has been wearing the tires off the XR! He says he is practicing for his ride to SA when he turns 18! Hope all is well with you my friend and keep the RR coming when possible. It is always entertaining to read!!!

It's taken me quite a while to read all the way through this long RR but I've finally caught up.
You are a special dude John !
Livin' the real ADV life on the road , and trail, and boat , and beach . Eat a can of tuna , sleep in a sewage pump station and then tear on down the road. You are the greatest !!!
I've a lot of lost work time in the mornings lately due to you and your story telling , beer drinking and various white shark sightings .
Man I sure hope I meet up with you somewhere . I think you would be a hell of a lot of fun to hang with .

Keep on floggin' that ol six-fiddy my friend .

Wish I could make it to the party but I'm going to be a little busy over the next few months, drink one for me dude Fun riding with you again in Colombia, I'm looking forward to posting up the pictures

It just happens on its own, you just get on your bike and ride South and good things will happen

They where just really damn good especially with the great coffee. I never did here the entire ingredients but they made me feel good

Thanks Mark, hope all is well back up North, I heard the grass is really starting to grow now. I don't think he can wear that tough little XR out, I love that little bike.

Tell him to keep up the good practice

Thanks for the kind words man! I'm just just a dude with bike. I'm nearly always up for a good party with good people
Sorry about the loss of work production, I might be taking a longer break from the internets so you can gain some of that lost production back

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Little update:
The passport should have been finished on the 24 April and I nearly became a permanent Calino, I was really starting to become a regualar before I finally broke free late yesterday afternoon and took off towards Salento and made it up just outside Armenia before getting dumped on by near monsoon type rains and settled for a nice little hotel with net connection that dosen't even reach my room My current plan is to get back to Bogota to meet a new friend and then get the passport Monday and spend a little more time in the high country of Colombia before crossing back into Venezuela and make some tracks to the East. My living conditions are night really condusive to long internet screen time so the real stories will have to wait. I've had some really nice productive riding out around Cali and down to the coast to Buenaventura and on the old roads which where spectacular

I'm going to check out Salento today after I dress back up in my soak gear. More later. Thanks for all the responses, I've got loads of more stories to get down but it will take some serious screen time for them to come together.

Viva South America, especially Colombia

John right outside Armenia, Colombia and on the move.