OK, so we're riding Colombia 2 up on a China Bike.

[infoatnmmoto]

Nice!

[calrider]

We continued heading north with the Andes far off to the right of us. The only indications of a mountain range to the east were the occasional river we'd cross flowing west to the Magdalena. Just huge expanses of cattle country and not a lot of towns.



Eventually the mountains came into view far to the east:


And as evening snuck up on us, the mountains got closer…

The blacktop was pretty fine in most places:

And the traffic wasn't bad.

At some point during the day, I began channeling ET. (Amiga often reminds me of my crappy posture!)

But then I managed to pass ET on to this unsuspecting gas jockey:

And it was getting dark and we still had no idea where we were staying that night.

I'd heard all the dire warnings about riding at night and I really wanted to avoid it. So I slowed it right down and stayed hyper-alert for cows, dogs, dark bicycles, people, speed bumps (they're like whoops in motocross tracks here) and potholes.

Stay tuned as Amiga suffers the day of hell...

(BTW, feel free to leave comments, I enjoy the dialogue)

[calrider]

This part of Colombia has a lot of „road towns“ that are not nearly as pretty as the old colonial towns. They just kind of stretch along the highway with dusty streets that fade into the farmland. We checked out a couple of these along the way, looking for a decent place to stay. Nothing really felt that great. Then, as we approached the town of Pailitas, Amiga spotted a small „finca“ (kind of like a farm house). We stopped, she walked up to the gate, and soon she’d won over the young couple that was taking care of the place and we had a place to set up our tent for the night.
They were a little unsure of us at first, but they soon relaxed:


The cows, however, were not shy at all!




Neither was the cat!

They had power, so we used the opportunity to charge up all of our electronics.

Once again, we didn’t actually get to see our campsite until the next morning:


Early in the morning, the guy and I rode into the town market to pick up some stuff for breakfast. We brought it back and the girl whipped up some amazing grub.

[CrazyCarl]

Good stuff holmes. What's on the plate and hows the bike holding up?

CC

[calrider]

Originally Posted by CrazyCarl

Good stuff holmes. What's on the plate and hows the bike holding up?

CC

Hey Carl, we bought the fish at the market. Notice the slices across the fish. With certain types of fish, the fish seller will put a bunch of slices into it about 1/8 of an inch apart. They told me that they do this to fish that have a lot of bones. It slices the bones so that you can just chew and eat the 1/8 inch bits instead of picking longer bits out of your teeth. The other stuff is rice and some sort of corn meal concoction.

The bike held out pretty well. Mechanically very good. However, there are issues with the frame (nuts and bolts) and electrical. Need to be willing to twist wrenches and fiddle with wires every now and then. But mostly superficial stuff. Also, the metal seems to be low quality. Rust showing up on brake disks and around bolt heads after only a month of riding. Saw a couple 2-3 year old models along the way and they looked very rusty. (Albeit they were in Cartagena, right next to the salty ocean)

I'm now thinking of buying a 200cc Lifan as a "buddy bike" in Canada.

[ktmnate]

Now that's an adventure. No real plans just a bike and a country.

[Burtonridr]

Awesome!

[calrider]

Originally Posted by ktmnate

Now that's an adventure. No real plans just a bike and a country.

And an incredible travelling companion!

[mike1952]

I was in Colombia several years ago on a business trip. We flew from Bogota to an oil field in the Magdelena Valley then drove back from there through Honda and on to Bogota. Great trip. The military presence does add comfort after awhile. One of the oil fields near ours would occasionally take some incoming. The pipelines got blown up occasionally too (about once a week on average I heard). Nice friendly open people. I really enjoyed the small fishing village on Palagua Lake(sp).

[calrider]

Originally Posted by Burtonridr

Awesome!

Hey, thanks Burtonridr. I checked out your coffee website. Looks like a sweet business!

Originally Posted by mike1952

I was in Colombia several years ago on a business trip...

Things have gotten a lot safer in the last few years, although there are still areas surprisingly close to Bogota that are not yet completely in the government's hands. Stay tuned for when we end up in one of them...

[DC950]

excellent RR.

[Ed_in_miami]

Keep it coming...

I went down the same road to Honda about 4 years ago when I went to visit my family.
We stayed at a town by the Name of "Mariquita" (ladybug) for a few days, about 45 minutes from Honda, and then headed South towards Neiva.

Absolutely awesome trip... I was driving, but longing for a motorcyle...

I envy you greatly, and hope to get more updates!!

[TexasPrairieRider]

Now this is something the guys in the Great White North should try!

Originally Posted by calrider

.

This was one of the options before buying the China bike:

[doc_ricketts]

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

[SS in Vzla.]

Keep it coming.