Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

At last, we're getting back on the road again... an early-ish start with the bikes rolling out of the hotel garage at 7.30am, then heading over to the dealership to meet up with Bernie and have a big group photo, before riding over to Medellin as one (very) big group... At the dealers, we lined the bikes up outside, at least, those that were there, and took the pictures...





I say those that were there because Kevin, Andrew and Simon were all missing... it seems that despite us all checking out last night (as we've been advised to do before, in order to get away early), we also need to formally check out in the morning, or the hotel has a tizzy fit... oh, and Simon wasn't ready. He'd been to the gym early, then for some inexplicable reason was still in his room at the allotted departure time... When they finally arrived we set off, riding in convoy out of Bogotá, using a “buddy system” to ensure we stayed together. This works as follows... each rider keeps an eye on the guy behind, and should he drop back for any reason (traffic lights, other traffic, etc) then he also drops back, to allow the lost rider to see where he's going. This will then ripple through to the guys at the front, and so we'll all stay together. Only Nick forgot this, and so when we got clear of town we'd lost half the group... and had to wait a while for them to find us... fortunately, we're riding with a number of local riders, including Moriceau (not sure how to spell his name, but he runs Ruta 40, the dealer in Medellin), Carlos (Moriseau's friend who speaks excellent English) and Bernie, so they found us reasonably easily... then we had our 3rd delay before getting clear of Bogotá, when passing through the toll booth... now here in Columbia they have this sussed, realising that motorcycles should be free and not wanting to hold up the other traffic, they have a special “bike lane” at the side of the booths, with a small channel with low walls down which the bikes can ride (but not wide enough for cars). Only the first one had a slightly higher wall on one side than the other, which caused Jim's panniers to drag on the top (his Suzuki having the lowest clearance of all the bikes). So he moved to the left and promptly smashed into a pole, breaking it clean off. The guard at the toll was not happy about this and came storming out, whilst the rest of us were waved through the barrier. Then the police came. Then Bernie sprung into action, not-so-gently pointing out that they were now threatening to extort money from the 1st group of western bikers ever to visit Columbia... at which point things seemed to calm down and we were all on our way again...

Getting 20 bikes, plus our 3 or 4 local riders, to ride together is quite some feat, and it's not surprising that we had to stop to regroup fairly frequently. The 15 miles out of Bogotá had already taken us nearly 2 hours, so it was a big relief when we stopped in a small town for a drink and pee-break. Parking up at the side of the road, on a large camber, Al lost his footing and dropped his bike... big cheer and the inevitable posing for photos... they do crash quite well, these big BMWs...





The town was just like many we've seen in Latin America, with a small plaza with church and lots of cafés, and people milling about. The main difference here, though, was the small group of heavily-armed soldiers in the square, something we'd see all over the countryside, as the army seems to be everywhere, guarding every bridge or settlement in an attempt to make the country safe... certainly felt safe to me...





After a drink and wee, we headed back off again, up into the mountains, on a gloriously twisty road. Riding near the front the pace was brisk, the road excellent and the views stunning. The mountains are bright green, covered with trees and grass, but unlike any other we've seen so far. Here, they resemble the sort of mountains we made as kids from papier-mache, all weird angles and sharp edges. They looked vaguely like green napkins folded badly by trainee waitresses in a cheap 70's restaurant...

Before long we pulled over again to re-group, and to say goodbye to Bernie who was heading back to Bogotá before catching a flight to Medellin later, business demanding his attention once more. A nicer host it's hard to imagine, he promised to sort out my missing seals for me (they were supposed to be in my panniers so I could take them to Medellin and get them fitted) and bade us farewell, before heading off in the opposite direction. Lined up at the side of the mountain road, our bikes made a fair old sight, Moriceau's immaculate 2005 R1150GS Adventure Special Edition making mine look decidedly second hand...





On we went, down through the mountains and along the river-valley, stopping at another town for lunch, which took quite a while there being so many of us to feed all at once. Riding in such a big group has many disadvantages, and this is one, lunch taking about 4 times as long as it would had we been in smaller groups, but with no route-notes to go by, we had to stick together. After lunch we got ready to depart, only for Ozzy Andy to drop his bike in the car park when trying to get on it – with 20 bikes it seems we're going to have more than our fair share of car-park incidents... Once on the move, we upped the pace a little, the locals now getting worried it would be dark before we got to Medellin. The ride took us back up into the mountains, on yet another brilliant piece of tarmac, twisting so much that at one stage Kevin, who I was following, scraped his panniers on the deck...

We passed many more military checkpoints, the guards simply waving at us as we rode by, the others, camouflaged and almost invisible stood at the edge of the forest by the roadside smiling and waving too. Riding quickly on twisting roads means holding onto a low gear (2nd) and the short blast between corners and then the closed throttle on entry means the bike sometimes back-fires, a loud bang emerging from the exhaust... I just prayed that the soldiers could differentiate a fast-ridden motorcycle from gunfire...

With just one more quick stop for a drink, and several to re-group, it wasn't too surprising when it started to go dark... we were still high in the mountains when the sun went down, not only making seeing the soldiers impossible, but also reducing our pace (a little...) and making spotting potholes and other road imperfections more challenging. When we eventually rounded the last corner and caught sight of Medellin in the valley below, it nearly took my breath away. Spread out below us was a carpet of lights, as far as the eye could see, the city a massive sprawl of little yellow dots, way down in the valley below. The road took ages to get us there, down a steep drop with lots of bends, and very little traffic. Finally we arrived outside the hotel, and pulled up onto the marble entrance apron, cramming bikes everywhere so we could unload our luggage directly into the lobby. With the bikes unloaded, we rode them the 2 blocks to the dealer, where we dropped them off and then sank a cold beer from their fridge... it was now nearly 8pm and the end of a long riding day..

Hungry and tired, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, which turned out to be a huge mistake... First, the French Onion soup Christine and Richard ordered tasted like dishwater with a damp stale bread slice and rubber cheese, then they gave Max (a vegetarian) a spaghetti dish with ham in it, not the napolitana he ordered. When Christine's tuna sandwich turned up looking like it had been thrown together by a 2-year old mid tantrum, she through a wobbly and sent it all back, saying she'd not pay for any of it... and then my Spaghetti Bolognese arrived, with the spaghetti still raw... so it was my turn to see red, and I grabbed my plate and stormed into he kitchen, confronting the young pasty-faced chef and telling him exactly what I thought of his cooking... not exactly shouting, but still slightly angry...

By now it was gone 10pm (the food had taken an age to arrive), so I went back to my room in a huff and ate a packet of nuts from the mini-bar before turning in, glad that for once I'd eaten a decent lunch..