CSC Blog

Actually, it’s pronounced “via da layba.”   I’m learning how to be a Colombian, and how to speak like one.  Colombian Spanish is different than Mexican Spanish.   Much to my regret, I don’t speak either one.  Someday…

Juan Carlos and Carlos told me they’re making me an honorary C0lombian because my riding has progressed significantly in the last few days.  Folks, these two guys are the best riders I’ve ever ridden with, and for them to tell me that was quite a compliment.  Every rider I know in the U.S. would be subpar compared to your typical Colombian motorcyclist.  The way they carve corners and carve through heavy traffic on these mountain roads is a thing a beauty.   They are the best riders I’ve ever seen, and the two guys I’m riding with are beyond incredible.  But I digress…more on that later.   The focus of this blog entry is Day 5, which was yesterday for me.

As you know from reading the blog, we stayed in Barichara.  It’s an awesome little town and we stayed in an awesome little hotel.  Getting there was an experience.  We passed through a bunch of small towns up here in the Andes Mountains.  In these small towns, everything is either uphill or downhill.  The roads are either cobblestone or dirt.  And when I say cobblestone, I’m not talking about little rocks.   These are 6 to 12 inch boulders that are basically mashed together to form a street.   The cobblestones (actually, cobbleboulders) throw the bike left and right and up and down, and this is all going on while riding up or down extremely steep hills.   The RX3 is the perfect bike for this.  I couldn’t imagine doing it on anything bigger or heavier.

We stayed at the Artepolis Hotel, and it was an experience.  The guy in the room next to me was an Austrian photographer who came here just to photograph the place.   It’s that stunning.   Here’s the hotel the next morning (it was dark when we arrived the preceding evening, and we had to ride up a rough dirt road to get to the hotel)….

The next morning Juan and Carlos wanted to ride a bit and get some photos.   They took me to the edge of a cliff and we got some great shots…here’s one of Carlos I especially like…

And here are a couple more…

We continued on a paved road to a little town called Guane, and along the way I spotted a couple of Colombian vultures perched in a tree not far from the road.  I always wanted to get a decent shot of a vulture during my Baja travels, but my results have always been mediocre.  I’m carrying my 70-300 Nikon lens on this trip, and I thought I would try for that vulture photo I’ve been wanting for years.   The lighting was perfect and I think I did okay…

After photographing the vultures, I grabbed a couple of shots from the saddle on our way to Guane…

Guane is a beautiful little town with a magnificent church…I was working the little Nikon D3300 and its 18-55 lens as best I could.   That camera is really doing a great job on this trip.  I bought it because I wanted something light and small.   You folks who are planning to ride to Baja with us in March might want to give the D3300 a look if you don’t already have a camera.   It really adds a lot to the adventure if you can capture stuff like this.

In many Colombian towns, the taxi services use tuk-tuks.  Tuk-tuks are little three wheel things that have two wheels in the back and one wheel up front.   I’d seen them in Thailand, but encountering them again in Colombia was something I had not expected.   The ones in Colombia are made by Bajaj, an Indian manufacturer (as in India, not Indian motorcycles).  They’re powered by a little 200cc single, and I was surprised at it’s ability to haul Carlos, Juan, and me up and down the hills in Barichara (we took one to go to dinner in Barichara).   Juan told me he tested one at Bajaj’s request a year or so ago and he was impressed with it.

The tuk-tuks are often customized with really cool paintwork, and so are some of the other commercial vehicles.   Here’s the artwork on one such vehicle in Guane that caught my eye…

After our brief exploration of Guane, we rode back to Barichara.  The guys had been telling me I had to see the cemetery, and they were right.   It seemed weird to visit a cemetery for the artistry, but it was impressive…

After that we were back on the road, headed for Villa de Leyva.   I had mentioned to Juan that I wanted to get photos of the police motorcycles in Colombia, and when he spotted a few motor officers in one of the many small towns we rode through, I checked another photo op off the list.

This first photo shows one of the more common Colombian police bikes, the Suzuki 200 single…

Here’s another bike the Colombian police use…the Suzuki V-Strom 650…

There’s a lot more to tell you about the Colombian police motorcycles, but that will come later.  I’m seeing and learning so much I just can’t get it all into the blog.  I’m thinking maybe another book is in order.  We’ll see.

Juan found our hotel just outside of Villa de Leyva, we checked in, and then we rode into town.   This is the town square…it’s the largest in all of Colombia.

If you’re really impressed with that last shot, so am I.   I wish I could take credit for it.   It was a photo for sale in one of the Villa de Leyva stores, and I shot a photo of that photo before they told me I couldn’t.

It was a good day.   The next one would be even better.

More riding, another Andean crossing, a bit of rain, and we arrived in Barichara!

Barichara is a artist’s town, and it’s one of the most exclusive places in all of Colombia.  It was another glorious day of mountain riding.  I did not take too many photos on the ride to Barichara, mostly because of the rain, our late arrival, and I was enjoying our dinner too much that evening in Barichara to break out the Nikon.  But I did get a few photos.

My lunch at a restaurant along the Chicamocha River…

One of my “from the saddle” shots of a hydroelectric dam on the Chicamocha River…

A couple of shots chasing Juan Carlos through a massive tunnel in the Andes Mountains..

A fine feathered friend at a fuel stop…

And finally, a shot after the rain ended of the Chicamocha valley…

I’m enjoying the AKT Moto RX3.   It’s different in a few minor ways than the CSC bike, and they are both fantastic motorcycles.    I’ll do a blog after I return home describing the differences.

I’m calling it a night, folks.   More to follow…as always, stay tuned!

Vaca Loca means “crazy cow” in Spanish.  It was a traditional thing in many small Colombian villages years ago.   Juan Carlos explained the story behind it to me, but I forgot most of it.   I tried finding the story behind it in my Colombian guide book and on Google, but I struck out both times.   I think in older times maybe it was something like running with the bulls.   Maybe not.   It evolved into a guy running through the street with fireworks while dressed up like a cow.  Anyway, it’s rare in Colombia because of the danger inherent to fireworks, but it still goes on in some places.  And I got to see it.   And now, so will you…the Vaca Loca in La Playa de Belem!

They tell me la playa means beach in Spanish, and Belem means Bethlehem.  There was no beach, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

La Playa de Belem was our destination on the third day of our Colombian moto adventure, and it was indeed awesome.  We did a cool 260 miles to get to the evening’s destination, and I have to tell you that 260 miles in Colombia is a long day.   What I didn’t realize when we started in the morning is that a good 40 miles of it would be on dirt.  And sand.  And mud.   And I’d even get a chance to play cowboy, except I was mounted on an RX3 instead of a horse…

No kidding, folks, those are cows, and they were on the road.    This was something new to me.  I mean, when you’re on a 250cc motorcycle, how do you make cows get out of the way?   Even if you’re on a big bike, what’s the protocol?  These questions were on my mind, when like always, Juan Carlos took the lead.   Our bovine buddies just kind of moved aside to let him move through the herd.   I wasn’t too sure about that, and then a guy on a little 100cc something-or-other did the same.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  As I got closer, the sea of cows parted, and I was through.  Amazing stuff.

As was the case the day before, it was sweltering, so we stopped to a get juice drink.  They have a lot of juices in Colombia, and I’ve been trying them all.  I haven’t found one I didn’t like yet.

This little gal was fascinated by us.  She let me take her picture…

What I missed getting a photo of were the dinosaurs.  No kidding.  I looked over at a tree and there were three or four iguanas that were huge.   As in 2 1/2 or 3 feet long.   They startled me.   We ain’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.  I jumped up and fumbled around putting the 70-300 lens on the D3300, but by the time I was ready the lizards were gone.    Maybe I’ll see more of them again on this trip.  Who knows?  Things like that are incredible.   I’m enjoying the hell out of this trip.

Ah, a few more “watching the world go by in Colombia” photos…all the gear, all the time…

After dodging and dicing through traffic (and there’s lots of traffic in these Colombian towns, and it’s mostly motorcycles), we finally hit a highway that ran straight.   Yippee!   We accelerated up to about 70 mph and cruised, and then Juan pulled over.   What he pointed out to me was amazing.   Ant hills.  Not the little kind we are used to, but big monsters that are as hard as concrete.   Check this stuff out, folks…

And then, much to my surprise, the animal signs started popping up…

Okay, that one was easy.   Fox.   I get it.  I never saw a sign before warning about a fox crossing, but I can wrap my mind around that one.

What came next…well, that wasn’t so easy to surround with the old gray matter…

Anteaters.   Wow.   The image quality isn’t so great, but hey, we were zooming along and that one crept up on me.   And how about this next one?

Okay, enough monkeying around.   Back to the journey.

We entered the eastern arm of the Andes Mountains and started to climb.  It was a two-lane road, and we rode it for a good 150 miles.   It’s like the Angeles Crest Highway, but it goes on forever, and there were construction stops every 10 miles or so.   These next few shots were taken at one of the construction stops.   Juan Carlos told me we were very close to the Venezuelan border at this point…

A shot of Juan Carlos…

A Colombian taxi driver…

I’m seeing medium-sized trucks that are 60 years old nearly every day on these roads.  The ’56 Ford seems to be especially popular…

Our next stop was in another Andean town at a cool little restaurant.   This was our waiter…

I had chicken and mushrooms.  It was awesome.  I ate maybe half of it…

Carlos and Juan Carlos both ordered something in Spanish (naturally), and they were excited to get it.   I thought it was beef, or maybe pork.   Nope.  It was pig stomach lining.   Very tasty, according to them.   They offered a taste, but I declined.

A word or two on the riding is in order, I guess, at this point.  It is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.  In the cities and towns, it’s a free for all.   It’s like one of the YouTube videos you see of city intersections with tons of scooters in Asia.   Here, it’s scooters, motorcycles, cars, and trucks.    There are few traffic lights, and Juan told me nobody pays attention to the stop signs or speed limits.   “They are like suggestions,” he said.

I’m a big fan of the twisties, but in Colombia, they take on a new meaning.  The national sport seems to be passing everyone you can everywhere you can.  It’s tense.  Juan Carlos and Carlos are totally used to it.  I’m getting there, but it is unnerving.   It’s also weird just how good every rider seems to be.  I’m riding at my limits (not the bike’s limits, but mine) too often, and while I’m doing this taking a corner way faster than I ever would in the US, some Colombian will pass me on a 125cc Suzuki cruiser or something with his girlfriend on the back, leaned way over, like it was the most natural thing in the world.   They look totally at ease doing it, too.   These folks are natural riders, and they’re good.

We arrived in La Playa de Belem about an hour before sunset, and immediately split for a one of many Colombian national parks.  It was kind of like Bryce.   I grabbed a few shots there, including one of my AKT RX3.

Getting in was interesting.   We had to ride a pretty rough dirt road that had a stream running down it because it had been raining.   The RX3 took it in stride.

So, back to the Bethlehem thing (as I said at the start of this blog, Belem means Bethlehem in Spanish).  La Playa de Belem is a beautiful little town dominated by the town square and a magnificent church (like many little towns in Colombia), and it turns out we arrived at a special time.  The Colombians start celebrating Christmas nine days before Christmas, and this was that day.   The town was buzzing.   We hung out and watched kids singing at an outdoor service, we saw fireworks, we watched the service in the church, and then we got to see the vaca loca.   I recorded it, so I won’t tell you the vaca loca story now, but if this Internet connection holds I’ll upload the video and tell you about it later.

Two more quick photos in La Playa de Belem, and that’s all for now…

There’s lots more coming, folks.   You probably already know this, but I’ll say it anyway:  I’m having fun.

Our second day on the road in Colombia started in Coveñas, and the humidity was oppressive. It was going to get worse as the day went on.  We’re in the tropics, not too far from the equator, and hot and humid is the normal way of things here.   On the plus side, you don’t care if it rains because you’re already drenched.   It actually helps because it’s cooling.

Anyway, back to the morning in Coveñas.   We ate in the hotel, and while we were waiting for breakfast, this dude was selling some kind of yams or roots, and Juan Carlos pointed out the scale he was using.  It’s about as crude a scale as I’ve ever seen, but it’s sound technically, and it sure makes for an interesting photo…

Here’s a typical Colombian breakfast: Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, bread, and a corn or flour tortilla with cheese (that’s called arrepo).   The Colombians are big on cheeses, with different regions producing unique cheeses.  It’s quite good.

The guys pointed out this car as we packed the bikes.   This probably didn’t end well for the passenger, who most likely was not wearing a seat belt.   The riding in Colombia is glorious, but it is stressful.  Juan and Carlos said when they ride anywhere else (other than Colombia), it makes them sleepy because there’s only scenery.  In Colombia, there’s scenery, but you have to watch out for everyone else.  It’s intense.   In a country full of twisties, people pass on blind corners routinely.   I guess the theory is you pray a lot.   People think nothing of passing if the oncoming traffic has room to move over, or if the oncoming traffic is a motorcycle.   It’s weird, but you kind of get used to it.   But it is intense (just like the heat and the humidity).

When we got on the road after breakfast, we only went maybe a mile when Carlos had a flat tire.   Watching the guy repair it was interesting, and so was hanging out watching the world go by in Colombia…

And here are some of those watching the world go by in Colombia photos…

Here’s a photo of our RX3s somewhere on the road, headed to the ferry that would take us to Mompos, a remote town 45 minutes down the Magdalena River…

This church was across the street and just down the road from the ferry loading spot…

I only grabbed a few photos while we were boarding the ferry.  The heat and humidity were getting to me at this point.  It was about 4:00 in the in the afternoon, and it was sweltering…

Once we were underway, it got a little cooler on the river.   You probably saw my video of that ride (it’s in the blog below).

We arrived in Mompos and it was impressive.  It’s the oldest town in Colombia, and to say it is off the beaten path would be an understatement.   We had dinner in a restaurant run by an Austrian, where I had the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life…

After dinner, we chatted with the owner for a bit, and then we walked along the river front…I grabbed a bunch of photos there…

Folks, that’s about it for now.  I’m a day behind in keeping you up to date on this trip, but Internet connectivity is dicey in these remote locations.  As always, more to follow, if not today, then in a day or two (or three).   Stay tuned.

Wow!  I never thought I’d been typing this, but here I am.  I just rode across the northernmost range of the Andes Mountains.  On an RX3.  Wowee!   Here they are:  The Andes!

I took that shot from a cool little spot where we stopped for a typical Colombian breakfast…hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, and arrepa.   More on that later…here’s a shot of the bikes at what has to be one of the coolest mountain biker restaurants I’ve ever enjoyed…

And here’s another shot of my AKT Motos RS3 (the RS3 is the carbureted version of the RX3)…

I liked that restaurant a lot.  They painted it to match my jacket.

We rode about 370 miles yesterday, and about half of it was in the Andes.  370 miles may not seem like a lot, but picture riding Glendora Ridge for 6 or 8 hours.   The Andes are a motorcycling paradise.   The Andes Mountains.   Wow!

I guess you never know what you’re going to see in the Andes.  This old goat was kind of cool…and I had to grab a shot.

We stopped to take a break and some of the local paramilitary/police guys came over to check out the bikes.  The RX3 is a prestige motorcycle in Colombia (just like it is in the USA) and these boys wanted a closer look.   They gladly consented to a photo.    They are most definitely well armed.   You see police and military units everywhere.

These next photos are from the saddle after we descended from the Andes.   Good times, my friends…

These next photos are of young ladies who are gas station attendants.   When they saw our 250cc RX3 motos, they wanted to know what it was like riding such huge motorcycles.  That’s a bit different from what you might hear in the USA, I suppose.

It was a long day, and it ended in a town called Covenas, right on the Caribbean.   We stopped for a few shots with the sea in the background…

We were up early today and we had another long day.  We didn’t ride many miles today (we did well under 200 miles), but a lot of it was on dirt and that really takes it out of you.   One of the best parts was the ferry ride across the Magdalena River (it’s Colombia’s Mississippi).  Here’s a quick video from early today, and then I’m calling it a night.

Keep an eye on the blog, folks.  I won’t be able to post every day, but I’ll do my best.