Day 6: Honda

Let me see if I can get this right:   I’m a guy from California riding a Chinese motorcycle in Colombia headed to a town called Honda.   Yep, that was yesterday’s ticket.

We left Villa de Leyva early in the morning, climbed higher into the Andes, and wow, was it ever cold.   Juan Carlos stopped so we could grab a few photos..

As I was taking in the scenery, this Colombian SUV rolled into the scene…

We next stopped at the point where Colombia was born.  The last battle of the Colombian war of independence (against Spain) occurred right here at this bridge in Boyaga…

The Colombian rebels defeated the Spanish regulars here, and at that point, Colombia was born.   There are a lot of parallels between how Colombia came into being and our Revolutionary War.

Boyaga is actually pronounced “boy-jogga.”   In Colombian Spanish, a y is pronounced  like a j.  So is a double l (as in ll).   A montallanta (a tire repair place) is called a “monta-jonta.”   Interesting.

Following Juan through these small towns was fascinating and taxing.  We’re up in the Andes, and everything is steep.   Juan is incredible…we climb these steep cobblestone streets, cut across some guy’s front lawn, grab a dirt road, pick up a new street, every once in a while (while still riding) he pulls up alongside a guy on horse or a tractor to confirm directions (Juan’s GPS, as he calls it), and we cut across the Colombian countryside.  It’s amazing.  Here’s a sampling of what it looks like, both in the dirt (and there is a lot of dirt riding) and through the small towns…

We hit a last stretch of twisties (a 50-mile stretch) and then we pulled over for a photo of the Magdalena River valley.  Our destination (the town of Honda) is down there somewhere…

Honda is a another steep town.  This street (that’s our hotel, the Epoque, on the left) is a typical super steep Colombian town road.   The road is a one way road…I tried parking the bike facing down hill, but it was too steep.   I thought I could just leave the bike in first gear and kill the ignition, but the street was so steep it pulled the bike through the compression stroke.  That’s why the bikes are facing uphill.   These are unusual riding conditions for me, but totally normal to the Colombians.

Today we’re headed to Santa Rosa de Cabal.   You can read all about it tomorrow morning, right here on the CSC blog!