Things I like about Colombia

When I travel about, it is usually the little things that give me the most delight. Seeing the sites is cool, but the small interactions with people and places are the ones that keep me motivated to go out and explore. So far, Colombia has been full of them:
-- Due to the fact that in the past, Colombia hasn't been the world's safest place, there is quite a military presence along the roads. Every 10 km or so there will be a checkpoint of sorts. Usually it is a bunch of guys in camo with really big guns sitting around killing time. We just cruise right past them with nothing more than a wave. However, sometimes they decide to wave us down. Rather than look at our papers, they usually just want to chat about the bikes... especially with Megan. I see this as a rather smart way to figure out if we are FARC (one of the militias in Colombia) or not. Anyone can forge papers, but a short conversation can probably discern if we are smuggling drugs.

Here is one such conversation (translated for your convenience):
[Hand comes out for a shake]: How are you doing?
Me: Great, how are you doing?
Him: Where are you going?
Me: Cacasia
Him: [big smile] you mean Caucasia?
Me: Yes
Then we talked about the bikes for a while. Only after I left did I realize the gaff that I had made. There is a difference between CACAsia and CAUCasia. A big difference.

[a really big hamburger]-- It happens in every country where people will come up and ask you if they can help you find something, but it happens a whole lot here. Just yesterday, we were driving around Supia (a small town in the mountains) looking for a place to stay and not having a whole lot of luck. We passed a smiling guy and we exchanged waves. He must have known we were headed for a dead end because he walked up the hill to meet us at the end of the road. He then asked what we were looking for and proceeded to tell us about the three options for lodging in town.

-- Since Panama I have been itching to change the oil in our bikes but the hot weather has reduced my motivation for this. Finally I said enough is enough and when we rolled into the beach town of Tolu (one day south of Cartegena) we found a place to stay where we could work on the bikes. The hotel had a dirt lot next to an abandoned structure which was perfect. We started to take the ladies apart (changing the oil is a bit involved on our bikes) when the son of the owner of the hotel started helping. He didn't know much about bike maintenance, but when I stripped the oil-pan bolt (they are made of super soft metal) we were glad to have him around.

We jumped into a bicycle taxi and drove from hardware store to hardware store looking for a 24mm socket I could use. This is an abnormal size so no one had one. My last hope was to go to a mechanic and borrow a tool. What we got was a mechanic who made a house call. The three of us piled onto the bicycle taxi, went back to the hotel and worked on removing the bolt. This cost me 10 dollars.

As we continued working on the bikes, what I thought was the abandoned building turned out to be a school and night session was about to start. So there we are (Megan was working on her bike at this point), in the dark, with a 16 year old helper, and a classroom surrounding us. Pretty cool.

[public transportation in Medellin]
--The other night we were wandering about the swank neighborhood of Medellin (and it is swank for sure) looking for an affordable place to eat. We walked by a little pasta restaurant and owner invited us to eat there. He did it in a really authentic and friendly way so we decided to stop for a bite. It turns out the owner (Andreas) is from Mendoza, Argentina has travelled the world, used to work in the wine business, and now lives in Medellin. Within minutes we had the phone number of his cousin who runs a winery in Mendoza and by the end of the meal, we had made plans to meet him at 8:30 am the next morning to go for a hike in the hills above Medellin.

We met him the next morning and for a greater part of the day we meandered through steep hills, walked up a river and saw fantastic views of the city. The area that we went is called the Catedral because this is the area where Pablo Escobar (the infamous Cartel leader) built his own jail. He figured that if he every got arrested and thrown in jail, it might as well be a great place with a view. After Escobar was killed, his jail was turned into a catherdral called the Catedral.

After hiking about and eating an enormous Colombian lunch, we went back to Andreas' place and spent some time in the pool. Later, we met up and stayed out until 3 am dancing- a rare occurrence for me.

-- The first mate on the boat (Roli) that we took from Panama to Colombia spent some time traveling about South America on his motorcycle. While doing that, he had met some folks who live just south of Medellin. Expecting only to stop off, say hi, and show some pictures, we looked up his friends Diana and Jairo who run a furniture workshop and produce cheese and yoghurt.

After asking around a bit, we found the shop and met Diana. She instantly started crying and literally jumping for joy when we told her we knew Roli. Within minutes we were seated in her house eating an enormous meal and speaking spanish like I have never before spoken. For the rest of the day, we ended up just walking around with her and attempting to talk about whatever came up. Jairo (her husband) came back in the evening from a 400 km motorcycle ride and we sat around into the night talking some more.

We spent the night at their place and in the morning took off for a ride around the coffee growing mountains of colombia. We stopped every half hour for some "tinto" (what colombians call coffee) and a little chat, then back on the bikes. Of all the days of riding that we have had, this one is in the top 5. Small winding roads through the mountains, coffee everywhere, good food, and with two amazing people. Some of the nicest you can imagine.
Jairo has driven down to Tiera del Fuego on his bike and has travelled around Colombia extensively (even when it wasn't too safe to travel around Colombia). We were able to ask about roads that we wanted to drive and he could say yay or nay as far as safety is concerned. What I basically learned is that there is safety in numbers in Colombia. Most likely nothing will happen, but try to avoid roads where no one else travels.

Jairo has tried twice to get a visa to come to the states and ride his bike around but is always denied. He owns his own very successful business, his father trained in Michigan on dairy manufacture, and he has enough money to not need to work while he is in the states, but still he is denied. He said he will try again next year.

[getting our bikes through customs-the woman in the middle is the customs agent] So that is the report from Colombia. I just want to say that this country and the people are fantastic. Before coming here, I had this idea that it was an incredibly dangerous place. That we would for sure be mugged or worse. As it turn out, it is just a place where lots of people live and they get on with their lives. Sure there are regions that are at war, but we just don't go there. Besides, the smiling military men would let us know.