Colombia is in the bag!

I have found that keeping the blog up to date and riding all day is not working so good for me.  Either we stay at a hotel that does have internet but it is so slow I barely can get emails read and answered, or there is no internet or I am so blasted tired I would not make sense if I wrote anything.  Well, today we stopped early because Carl wants to do some preventive maintenance on the bikes and I thought I could get this thing caught up.  So here goes....

Day 29  February 12, 2012,Sunday

Lodging:  Hotel San Francisco in downtown Bogota, Colombia

The bikes are still at the airport and we are not able to get them from the shipper until tomorrow so today we are tourists on foot.  We left the hotel about 8:30 AM, after a breakfast that was included in our room, and returned at 5:30PM.  Well, anyone that knows Carl well knows that he is not a walker.  He has always said that if he was meant to walk he would have been born with 4 big hairy feet.  Well, he walked the legs off of me today, up and down the hills of downtown Bogota.  We had a great day, sunshine, little shower in the afternoon to cool us off and wonderful city to enjoy.  We love Bogota! and I hope to be able to return here someday to really check it out.

 Carl checking out the books, nothing in English.

 Cerro de Guadalupe and Cerro de Monserrate on top of hill in Bogota, there is a cable car that takes you up to it.  They packed about 30 people into the car and up we went.  I tried not to think of what we were doing and just go for it, but I kept thinking "OSHA does not work here in Colombia!"

 On Sundays they close off one of the main streets in downtown Bogota, Avienda 7, to all motorized vehicles.  The locals show up on bicycles, skateboards, skates and walking to enjoy the shops and people enjoying the day.  This man had a bicycle made of bamboo and it caught Carl's eye.

 Plaza de Bolivar 

View of Bogota from on top of the hill that we took the cable car.

We also toured the Military Museum.  It was a very nice museum but everything was in Spanish and well, you know the rest of the story.  Carl enjoyed looking at all of the different firearms, they had an airplane and helicopter there too.

Day 30 February 13, 2012 Bogota, Colombia to La Mesa, Colombia
Exchange rate:  $1 USD to $1768 Colombian Pesos
Miles: 58 (28 of them was getting out of Bogota with a couple detours
           4895 miles from Long Beach, California
Gas: filled up just outside of the airport after picking the bikes up at Girag Air Cargo. 
Meals: breakfast of eggs and ham,fruit and bread came with the room at the Hotel San Francisco
Lodging: Hotel Bogota in La Mesa, Colombia  Nicest hotel in town, swimming pool, all the rooms are upstairs, secure parking $60,000 Colombian pesos.
We arrived at Girag this morning about 8:30.  Took a taxi and he dropped us off at the cargo terminal. We asked about 3 people before we found the correct place to be. One gentleman that was very well dressed and spoke good English took us upstairs to the office and he made phone calls.  Then he showed us where we needed to go, which was the next building over and he called it their warehouse.  Once we were there, they had us go to the customs office which was in another building across the parking lot.  There were 3 floors of huge offices with little cubicles with so many customs officers. There was one lady there that was very helpful, spoke no English but with the few words I know she figured out what I needed and she took me to several people and tried to find someone to help me.  I don’t know what she was asking but I think the man who ended up with us drew the short straw. When he was done with the paperwork, he told us that we needed to go to the passenger airport and buy insurance. 

Back to Girag to get the bikes and load them back up again.  They had a hard time finding a ramp to unload them off of the loading dock.  One was finally located and without difficulty, Carl rode the bikes down.

We went over to the passenger terminal, asked a police officer where to go, he did not know, said to buy at the gas station,  but he let us park in a no parking zone for 5 minutes while I went inside to find out. There was a Customs office just inside the door so I asked them, they did not know what I was talking about, either.  So we decided to go without and use the crying defense if we get in a situation where we need it.  When we went to buy gas, sure enough, they were selling insurance there.  We attempted to buy insurance and they would only sell us 1 year policy and it was going to be $346,000 per bike which came out to over $400 per bike.

We had a difficult time getting out of Bogota even with the GPS.  Finally out of the traffic and the city.  My goodness the countryside is beautiful.  The green is so bright, mountains and nice gradual curves. As we were going up the mountain the temperature dropped.  We stopped to have a cup of coffee and pastry and put our liners in our coats.  It was sprinkling rain off and on and then it started to pour rain, a real frog choker.  We stopped at a gas station to take refuge under the awning along with a couple local motorcyclists.  We decided to just spend the night here in La Mesa as it was already 4:30 and pouring rain. 

I had washed our Aerostitch prior to leaving home and used the good waterproofing.  Well, our pants soaked through.  Not very pleased with the results.  I will go back to using the spray Camp Dry instead of the wash in stuff that is recommended by Aerostitch.

Day 31  February 14, 2012  La Mesa, Colombia to Ciudodela, Colombia

Miles: 267
Gas: $58,000 Colombia Pesos We stopped for gas and the man at the gas station gave us free coffee and lead us to the nicest motel in town. He was the manager for the gas company.
Lodging: Hotel  Megacielo  The motel had very secure parking.  The hotel was upstairs and downstairs were 3 glass offices that were not in use.  They locked the bikes in one of them.
Gal at the hotel locking the glass doors to where the motos are being housed for the night. It always impresses us how helpful and understanding people in Central and South America are about providing secure parking for the motorcycles. Does Super 8 in the US offer you to park in the lobby or by the pool like we have on this trip?
Tomorrow we will ride north until we reach the lattitude of Yaviza, Panama.

Day 32  February 15, 2012 Cuidodela to Caucasian,Colombia

Rode out north to equal how far south we went in the Darien, had a coke and returned to town.  Yippee!  We did it.
Miles: 265 today
Lodging: $73,000 Col Pesos with Air Conditioning and $53,000 with a fan, we took the air conditioning

 We rode mountains and river valley.  The mountains were spectacular. The road was twisty, turny and full of trucks that give you no consideration.