HEADING SOUTH OUT OF COLOMBIA

From Bogota we went North a bit to Medellin. We didn’t have a place lined up (which was unusual for us since we are traveling with Bentley).  We went to a popular place where adventure riders go called the Shamrock Irish Pub, hoping to see if they would help us find a place to stay. When we arrived we were greeted by a man, Glen Short, fellow world traveler, http://www.madaru.net who we had met briefly in Cartagena. We were also greeted by Andrew Lord.  I had been facebook friends with Andrew since we rode to Mexico in 2012 only we had never met. I had no idea that he was there.  It was a great surprise and furthermore, they rented rooms above the bar and had one room left.  All was well. 

We rode South to one of my favorite places on the trip called Salento.  It is in the Coffee region and absolutely beautiful. We stayed at a Hostel, La Serrana in a private room with private bathroom for $45. a night.  It was one of three rooms in a house with a living room with fireplace and a kitchen.  We felt like we had the whole house to ourselves.  The view was incredible and we hated to leave!

We hiked to the Coffee plantation for a tour with fellow world travelers, Gary and Elizabeth Gray  www.capepacific.com

We took a four hour horseback ride to a beautiful waterfall.  Our guide was the sweetest man who loved and cared for his horses. We did a very tough ride through mud and rocks and several rivers that had big boulders to get through.  We scaled the steepest trail I have ever been on that had huge rocks, concrete on the super tight switchbacks and lots of mud. Those horses were incredible.  Didn’t even break a sweat.

Cali, Colombia

As we rode into town a cab driver pulled up next to Scott in very heavy traffic and quickly handed him a note. When we got to the Hostel, this is what it said….

We met a nice couple in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico way back in the beginning of our trip, Maria and Henry. They live in Colombia and go to San Miguel every year for three months.  So when we got to their town, Popayan we met them again.  They had us over for a wonderful dinner and the next day a tour of the city.

The Hostel we stayed at was right in Parque de Caldas, in the main square  of the town.  We had the best room that had big windows that looked out into the park.  The Cathedral was right next to us and on Sunday morning we were blessed with beautiful singing wafting through our open windows.

We left Popayan for one more overnight stop before crossing the border to Ecuador.  I would not even mention the place, however, like everywhere we have been there are so many really nice people and in this town called Pasto, we again, met an awesome couple.  

As we were packing our bikes to leave a nice man stopped to talk to us.  His name is Jaime and he rides a V Strom.  As we were getting ready to leave we noticed that I had a flat back tire with two nails in it. Jaime says; “I have a gas station 300 meters from here”, so off we went. We arrived and were greeted by his lovely wife, Angela.  We had a great visit while the guys fixed my tire and upon leaving they surprised us by buying our gas!  Amazing, kind people.

One more stop we had to make before crossing the border was to visit an incredible Cathedral called Santuario de Las Lajas in Ipiales.

GOOD BYE COLOMBIA.  Thank you for showing us the flavor of your amazing country, the people and the food!