Colombia Part One

Aaaaa, Colombia....the place so many are afraid to visit, we couldn't wait to see. And it didn't disappoint!
We spent the most time here so far (apart from Mexico, but that was forced on us...), almost 3 weeks. We could easily have doubled that, though.

We took a lot of pictures so had to divide Colombia in 2 big posts. This post covers the first half, from Bogota to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast.



Interesting coincidence, but the Colombian flag has the same colors as the Romanian one :-)


On the way from Panama city to Bogota we saw some beautiful scenery as the plane was flying low. Here's an interesting town (and there's many like that) built on a mountain crest.

Perennial snow...

After all the scary warnings about Colombia, we were expecting a very poor and struggling place. Instead we were shocked to see a beautiful city with civilized and super-friendly people. I mean genuinely friendly! It felt like Europe, with people pleasure cycling everywhere, dogs on leashes (a first so far!) and lots of french cars. The old area is very beautiful and very well preserved.

Our first coffee, from the world's experts!
That's Justin, a cool, happy guy we met several times accidentally on our trip, and we spent a couple of days together in Bogota.

Steps away from our cozy hostel we found Plaza de Bolivar, with a cathedral that put to shame every other one we have seen in this trip so far. Lots of people gathered, and being a Sunday, many roads were closed for pedestrian use only (and bicycles)

Some kind and funny looking llamas, entertaining tourists like us.

A dog chases the million pigeons in front of the Capitolio Nacional

One of the many pets, this one with an attitude. By the way, very few stray dogs.

A well maintained Renault 4 from the 70's

Speaking of well maintained, I couldn't help noticing how immaculate some of the retro trucks were. This one looked like it came from a pickup truck expo.

Another beautiful church, with 60's truck in perfect condition parked in front.

Further towards downtown, CityTV of Toronto opened another office in Bogota...we even watched some of it on the TV, but it doesn't feel the same as the original.

Being Sunday, the Parque de los Periodistas was filled with people selling crap. We had a lot of fun and spend almost 2 hours digging in this giant flea market.

The very efficient bus system has dedicated roads. In the background up on the hill, Cerro de Monserrate.

The world-famous Gold Museum. Spent most of an afternoon here, it was big!

Funny-looking pota Penis

Proudly holding on

The detail was impressive considering the tools they were using.

Doesn't this look like a monster from the Gremlins movie? Or the other way around?

This looked like an alien. It was as big as a small finger.

This was even smaller, like a fingernail!

Depictions of ancient customs, this one shows the tombs on the mountain side.

Carrying the mommy of granny...

All that culture made me hungry. So we had a local specialty, hot chocolate and cheese. Who thought of that? I didn't like it, as you can see from my expression.

Lots of funny looking buses. They were Chevrolets, but I haven't seen them anywhere else.
It started to rain, what to do, what to do...?

I know, let's get a tatoo!
And we did! And it hurt!!

a pre-Hispanic representation of a monkey

Caroline finally gets what she always wanted. Paws.

An old Suzuki sportscar, very italian looking.

The Zona Rosa (party zone) is only a few dollars away from our hostel. Very upscale for the locals, decent for us.

Bars looked very nice, all of them. Hard to choose, but we settled on a glass of wine, here.

Next day I went to get Caroline's brakes fixed, on a street that had about 50 motorcycle shops....Another Kawasaki surprise, they didn't put lube on the caliper sliders, it killed the pads and welded the sliders in place. It took 2 guys, a hammer and 15 minutes to free the damn thing. And it cost the whole of 8 dollars.
This guy was very proud of his contraption.

On the way back, saw this dude ready to go on a trip. Chatted for a while in English, French and Spanish! He was traveling 2-up on a 200cc with home made soft bags made of thick nylon, pretty cool. He said it kept the weight low.

Caroline gets creative. Radu in a cup.

One subject I didn't touch yet is the Colombian laaaaadies.. The majority are hooooot. :-) Seriously.
Pretty, thin and well dressed. Too bad I couldn't take more pictures.
Here, Caroline expresses her own opinion on the subject;-)

Another novelty, walking public phones. She has several cells attached with chains to her belt.

The post office had a retro mail truck, in the form of a Citroen 2CV, so cool!

Lovers lane with a great view of Bogota.

We stayed about 4 days in Bogota, and loved it. Never felt unsafe, but we did felt cold at night.....

After that we started driving north, and on the way we saw this amusement park filled with giant objects, in the middle of nowhere.

First stop was Zipaquira, where we wanted to see a cathedral built inside a salt mine. The town itself was nice too, with a cute central plaza, and well-maintained buildings.

Visiting the cathedral was a bit expensive and took way too long (about 3 hours), but it was interesting.

Here there's an example of their mixing of catholic and indigenous themes.

I licked the altar, it was salt.

An old mine used for tourists.
The salt mine is still active, and has reserves for many hundreds of years. It was formed by the evaporation of a sea that no longer had ocean access,

We continued driving on a loop recommended but our guide book, and eventually arrived at Villa de Leyva, a classic colonial town, that still looks like it did hundreds of years ago. Beautiful white houses and cobblestone streets, like a movie set. In fact, it HAS been used for the movie Zorro.
We enjoyed some fantastic deserts here.

Look at that happy face, it passed the French seal of approval.

Great by night...

...or by day

We continued driving north and the road became more and more scenic, with huge green mountains rising in front of us.

Stopped for lunch, and discovered how good Colombian soups are. We continued to order soups throughout the trip.

Plenty of entertainment provided by the resident pair of parrots.

"Shut Uuuup!"

.."or I'll kick your ass!"

On towards San Gill we took a great 100km scenic detour to see Barichara, another immaculate colonial town, proudly displaying La Cathedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion.

Continuing north the road got better and better with epic mountain ranges and great visibility. Eventually we reached Chicamocha Canyon, where precisely that day, the president was unveiling the longest cablecar in the world, Swiss-made, of course. It went down the valley and up the next mountain.

l still liked the other side better.

It was getting dark so we slept in a nasty matrimonial hotel, and headed next day for another detour, this one a day-long 300km run from Bucaramanga to Pomplona towards the Venezuelan border, crossing the entire Cordillera Oriental over several mountain passes.

It got really cold

The views were spectacular, and kept changing, from luscious green to dry and back to green rolling mountains.
Here, Caroline is a spec on the road.

The descent to Pamplona is also very nice. I love these towns set on hils.

The french postcard, patisseries in a Renault :-)

The same spec

We got pulled over by some friendly military guys, who got very excited about our trip, and chatted with us for a while.

Almost ran off the road a few times while looking at this view.

Bucaramanga at the bottom of the valley

Slept in another cute colonial town, Giron, just outside Bucaramanga. It was Sunday again and the main plaza was filled with people.

Can't believe it looks so good after 400 years!

Latinos loooove meat. Mounds of it. So we had some, but I think we go ripped off, it was our most expensive meal in Colombia,

Next morning as we were leaving the hotel, a journalist approached us and asked for an interview! The result is here, we're famous, damn it!
http://www.vanguardia.com/archivo/19548-de-ottawa-a-giron-en-motocicleta

We then departed, eager to make time so we can get sooner to Cartagena, but, after 4 months on the road, the inevitable happended. Got a flat!

Lots of work with the bicycle pump...

The road started to descend and after San Alberto the comfortable 20 degrees turned into a sweaty sauna. We said goodbye to the twisties and hello to the marshes...We arrived in Cartagena the day after.

Next week, Colombia Part II, Cartagena to Ecuador.