Breakfast by the Pacifc and Lunch by the Carribean

Having got my new tyre, freshly delivered from Bogota (at a reasonable price too), I was glad to be moving on the next day, I seem to get fidgety after a few days in any one place.

I had one more nice dinner at the park/restaurant district. I would imagine on a Friday & Saturday night it must be heaving with all the pretty young things from town. My company for the night was Alice (of Wonderland fame) Pepys (of diary fame) - his notes are all well and good but there is only so much of a diary you can read at one sitting so I broke it up with a bit of nonsense about Tarts (jam variety). Pepys seems to spend his time eating and drinking, visiting the office to find there is no work to be done and then organising more socialising. Sounds vaguely familiar. I am sure he must get stuck in to work later on as he is credited with creating the modern British Navy.

I didn't book an hotel further up country until I had my tyre, when I went to book in to the town of choice, there were no rooms available! First time that has happened on tour. I imagined that it is because it is the weekend and it is a coastal town but I found out later that there is a National holiday on Monday (Bank Holiday to you and me). As such I had to book somewhere 2 hours further north. Google told me that would be 9 hours 30 minutes! Looking at the wibbly wobbly way through the hills I could believe it.

I was out of the hotel by 6.30 am and found my way out of Medellin without getting lost, which was nice. The road was a classic winding road with lots of lumbering lorries to overtake. The scenery was "alpine" in nature and very green. Things were going pretty well as most of the road surface was good. It is the steep sharp turns that seem to suffer and leave gaping holes ready to catch the unsuspecting motorist.

I overtook a lorry, being a little bit naughty on slightly blind bend/hill. There was nothing coming (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this) but there was a police check point just ahead.........Ahhh!

I was waved to the side of the road and one or two cars (previously overtaken) gave a toot! I am not sure if it was cheerful acknowledgement or "that's the one Officer, bang him up for 30 years". After a review of my paperwork which seemed to allow just about every lorry this side of the Andes back past me, he gave them back, told me to slow down a bit and waved me on my way, which was very decent of him.

These are the 20 wheel beasts you have to get past on a regular basis and in the space of about 100 yards between bends.Once out of sight, I lost no time in making up for lost time! Naughty I know, but the bike encouraged me to do it Officer!

After the hills you drop down on to lush, green rolling pasture.You exchange the Alpine chill for the heat & humidity. You also lose the clear waterfalls splashing down the rocks and gain large, lazy, brown rivers.

In the hills you see small family farms, dairy for the most part, with the cows not only giving the milk but then made to carry the milk churns on their backs.

 

 Down here you see large well fenced and manicured fields with plenty of cattle and horses. The horses look of some quality too. The Farmhouses are tucked away but you can see that there are some serious Haciendas. The countryside in Colombia is not that dissimilar to what we have in the UK (on a muggy summers day), allowing for the exotic, waxy leaf plants and the funny looking cattle.

I arrived at my hotel - a bit "Butlitz" but with Palm trees. The receptionist suggested I put my bike under cover. About 10 minutes later the thunder, lightening and torrential rain started. She is much better than Michael Fish and prettier. It also knocked out the internet so I couldn't update the blog at the time..

Over dinner I was thinking whether to stay a few nights as I had ridden for nearly 10 hours and there was a beach, even if it was only 5 yards wide. The Mosquitos introduced themselves at dinner, so I started popping pills. As luck would have it I didn't commit to another night, preferring to sleep on it.

I was woken at about 6 am by a herd of young children and, clearly excited to be at the beach. I thought it was odd as there was no one else here when I went to bed. I got up, left my room and nearly banged my nose on the 50 seat coach that was parked outside my door. They had obviously travelled over night and were settling in for the weekend. I started to pack.


A slightly soppy reason for coming to the coast was to see the Pacific one last time. The next port of call will be Cartagena on the Caribbean so I thought I would give myself bragging rights by paddling in both on the same day!

The drive up to Cartagena was only about 4 hours so I took it easy and enjoyed the run. It was odd to think that just a few miles to my left was Panama. They still "thatch" a lot of property with palm leaves and some still use boats carved from trees. I still can't work out their road building. You can fly along smooth tarmac for miles and then without warning suddenly come across a few miles of gravel/dirt roads. Then for no apparent reason you return to tarmac. This goes on time and time again. They must have driven over the gravel road with their machinery to lay the tarmac further along, why not just start at one end?! There were no towns or anything to suggest these bits of road are more deserving.

I had been told great things about how old and beautiful Cartagena is, so I was pretty surprised to crest a hill and see a regiment of high rise buildings in the distance. Not only that, the traffic was terrible & certainly the worst I have seen in the last 8 months (much worse than the queue for the border). Road junctions without traffic lights, of which there are many, became a free for all with cars, buses, trucks and bikes all trying to occupy the same space. When you came across the inevitable accidents the protagonists just stayed in the middle of the road and hurled abuse at each other. It was so bad the bike was over heating so I had to pull over and let her cool down. I was "glowing" a little myself!

hopelessly lost I stopped next to a guy on a scooter picking is girlfriend up from work. I asked for directions and without hesitating he just told me to follow him. I am not sure whether his girl was too pleased as I bet she just wanted to put her feet up. He whizzed through the traffic and I struggled to get through the gaps he could, at one point whacking a wing mirror on a car - luckily it sprang back in to place.

They kindly delivered me to my hotel and wouldn't accept anything but my thanks for their help although it took about 20 minutes. Another vote for the good nature and kindness of the Colombians.

And so I managed to dip my toes in both the Pacific and Caribbean on the same day.

Can't finish without saying Well Done to Rosie - she has just got straight A's in her A levels!!! I am sure it was all the help Wilks had given her.