Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Another early-ish start as we've a long day ahead, including the border crossing into Ecuador, so I was up at 6 and packed ready to have breakfast at the allocated time of “six-firty” and ready, sat on the bike with the engine running by “seven-firty” (Kevin's accent the subject of much piss-taking by the group!). Riding again in 2 groups we headed out from the hotel and through town, joining the main road back up into the mountains and heading south. Yet more twisties to get us groovin'. I could hear Aaron laughing behind me over my engine noise, and when we stopped I asked him what was so funny... his reply was that he was laughing because I was scraping my panniers on the bends, I was leaning over that far... I recall hearing them scrape on one turn, so I must have been pretty far over...





The morning ride was just as fantastic as the ride 2 days ago, the scenery the only difference as the mountains changed from the lush green of the north to drier more barren browns of the south. Columbia seems to consist of endless mountains through which the roads must pass, winding up one side and down the other before climbing up and over the next mountain. The Alpine passes have nothing on this place, which must rank as the greatest undiscovered motorcycling country in the world... if you ride a bike, Columbia should definitely be on your “to-do” list...

But all good things have to end, and after a solid 6 hour ride we rolled up at the border just before 1.30pm. We bade our farewells to our hosts, Mauricio and Carlos, who have been absolutely fantastic with us, their constant attention, smiles and great riding making our journey through their country even more special. If you do come here, visit Ruta 40 in Medellin and say “Hi” from me... I'll certainly miss Mauricio's beautiful and immaculate R1150GS Adventure Special Edition (which puts my bike to shame and has almost double the mileage).





After they'd departed we got on with the serious business of trying to clear the border. Getting checked out of Columbia was relatively straightforward, a simple stamp in our passports to get us out, but the customs woman wasn't too happy with our bike import permits we'd been given at the airport in Bogotá, as it didn't match the ones issued at the land borders, but after a quick conversation she relented and we had the bikes checked out. We rode the bikes to the Ecuadorian side of the border where we then went to get ourselves stamped in to the country, a process that took quite a while as there was a long queue, then to the vehicle customs to get permits for the bikes. And that's where it all started to go badly, as the customs guy's computer was dreadfully slow, the process of issuing permits taking well over 20 minutes per bike. With 20 bikes to clear, and the time already 3pm, and with an estimated 50 miles still to go, it was going to be a very long day for some... Fortunately, I was near the front of the queue and so was cleared by 4.30pm, when Kevin decided we needed to get a group to the hotel to secure the rooms. So Kevin, Richard & Karen, Tony, Pertti and I left the others queuing and headed into Ecuador.

As we were now at altitude (reaching 3,300m at one stage) it was colder and with rain threatening we'd donned waterproofs before leaving. Riding once again into the mountains the scenery changed as it so often does as soon as you cross a border, the hills more rounded and the houses more ramshackle once more. The vehicles on the road has also degenerated, from the nearly-new cars and SUVs of Columbia and back to ancient Opel Cadets and battered Chevrolet-branded Corsas. Many had been jacked up at the rear and festooned with spoilers and go-faster stickers and were driven enthusiastically by boy-racers. But as it went dark they didn't seem to want to turn on their lights in order to save power, making overtaking a risky business. And dark it got, as the estimated 50 miles to Otavalo turning out to be closer to 100 miles, a journey that took us almost 3 hours. When we found the hotel (having flagged down a taxi in the centre of town) we were met by an enthusiastic English-speaking host (half Irish, half Italian) from Pennsylvania, who has lived in Ecuador for the past 30 years. Within minutes we were checked in, hard the bikes parked in the secure car park and were enjoying a large cold beer in front of a real fire...

The others rolled in just as we were eating dinner (an excellent liver pate followed by a lamb curry), turning up in 3 groups, with Julia, Andrew and the kippers last to arrive just after 10.30pm, tired after a very long day on the road. But with an abiding memory of Columbia, without doubt our favourite country so far...